The interpretation of historical facts proceeds through the construction of narratives that place the historical events within some time period and socio-economic-cultural context. Historians proceed from the examination of sources to understand origins, perspectives and biases, to create coherent and meaningful narratives. While linear narratives have been at the core of historical research, interactive digital narratives have been mostly addressing public history initiatives (the so-called digital history), centered upon some place or topic, collecting source materials and original narratives arranged in cartographic or chronological displays. This paper stems from the working hypothesis that historical research can benefit from the construction of interactive digital (non-fictional) narratives. We propose a methodology and a digital system that support historical research, by complementing narratives with conceptual maps. Conceptual maps are built by historians in parallel with narratives and serve the purpose to connect narrative (and thus interpretations) that address connected entities of the world. The system visualizes narratives and conceptual maps, highlighting connections and clusters around themes and topics, providing synoptic views on the conveyed knowledge and revealing the system competence. The system is an ongoing experience: we report on its usage with an ethnographic observation of the historians’ work application.