The Historic Geo Information System

The exact identification of places is an indispensable aid in family research. Unfortunately, too many researchers attach too little importance to this. Project GOV was initiated to make place administration easier and to make high-quality data available to everyone.

Over the years, GOV has developed into a tool for genealogists, historians and other researchers that allows uniform access to a wide range of location-related data, especially to information that is important for the work of family researchers.:

• Geographical location of the place (coordinates or display on a map)
• Various key numbers (zip code, municipality code, etc.)
• Foreign or historic names
• Historical affiliation (administrative, ecclesiastical, etc.) based on current affiliations

Churches, church districts, towns, counties, regions, etc. can be found in the GOV. Internally, an entry is generally referred to as a GOV object.

Extent

The GOV contains around 1.3 million entries (residential areas, administrative units, churches, etc.) mostly in Europe, North America and Australia (as at November 2024).