Understanding Civic Boundary Changes: An Introduction to the Local Geohistory Project

Understanding how civic boundaries have changed over time is vital for GIS professionals maintaining current boundary layers, and for demographers, economists, genealogists, and historians interpreting historical records. Between Pennsylvania's 67 counties, 2,560 municipalities, and 500 school districts, locating accurate information about these changes can be difficult even when records are well organized and easily accessible. This talk will explain the most common methods used to change civic boundaries in the past, and where documentation can be found in local, state, and federal repositories. How the Local Geohistory Project has endeavored to create and disseminate a free geographic index of civic boundary changes, which remains a work in progress, will also be explored.Exception to the Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 4.0 International license: the icons on Slides 8, 9, and 10 are subject to the Iconfinder Basic License (https://support.iconfinder.com/en/articles/18231-license-basic)