About Family History Research in Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania is a great place to do research because of the wealth of historical material that can be found at the state's many archives, libraries, and other repositories. Some of Pennsylvania's best resources for historical research can be found in Philadelphia and at the state capital in Harrisburg. There are many archives and libraries available in both of these cities that would be helpful to your search. In addition to state level archives, records can also be located at the local level at county courthouses, public libraries, churches, county clerks' offices, cemeteries, and local historical societies. Many records are also now available online at a number of great websites like Ancestry.com and FamilySearch, both of which have searchable databases consisting of billions of records relating to the history of Pennsylvania.
Records for the entire state of Pennsylvania can be found at the Pennsylvania State Archives and Pennsylvania State Library in Harrisburg. These records include property deeds, court records, newspapers, local histories, military records, family wills, tax lists, vital records, biographies, and other types of records. It might also be worthwhile to visit the library at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia during the course of your research. Their holdings include vital records, immigration records, newspapers, city directories, biographies, and many other types of records. All of these places house billions of records relating to Pennsylvania history and genealogy.
There are a number of ways to get copies of vital records (birth, marriage, and death certificates) in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania began statewide registration of vital records in 1906, but some cities began registering these events earlier. The Pennsylvania State Archives has vital records indexes starting in 1906, but doesn't hold copies of the original records. Uncertified copies of vital records can be ordered from the Pennsylvania State Department of Health in Harrisburg. Birth records are open to the general public for births that occurred at least 105 years ago and for marriage and death records that occurred at least 50 years ago. Access to copies of more recent vital records is restricted to immediate family members.
The Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah also holds a large collection of historical records relating to the state of Pennsylvania. This is the largest and most important genealogy collection in the world and is worth a visit to explore the many billions of records that can be found there. Published material consists of books, microfilm, microfiche, and other records for the 67 counties of Pennsylvania. The Family History Library also has smaller family history centers located throughout the world where you can order microfilm and have these records shipped from Utah to the local area where you live. The library has also transcribed and indexed millions of Pennsylvania vital, immigration, census, military, and other records which are available to view or download online at FamilySearch.org.
Records for the entire state of Pennsylvania can be found at the Pennsylvania State Archives and Pennsylvania State Library in Harrisburg. These records include property deeds, court records, newspapers, local histories, military records, family wills, tax lists, vital records, biographies, and other types of records. It might also be worthwhile to visit the library at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia during the course of your research. Their holdings include vital records, immigration records, newspapers, city directories, biographies, and many other types of records. All of these places house billions of records relating to Pennsylvania history and genealogy.
There are a number of ways to get copies of vital records (birth, marriage, and death certificates) in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania began statewide registration of vital records in 1906, but some cities began registering these events earlier. The Pennsylvania State Archives has vital records indexes starting in 1906, but doesn't hold copies of the original records. Uncertified copies of vital records can be ordered from the Pennsylvania State Department of Health in Harrisburg. Birth records are open to the general public for births that occurred at least 105 years ago and for marriage and death records that occurred at least 50 years ago. Access to copies of more recent vital records is restricted to immediate family members.
The Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah also holds a large collection of historical records relating to the state of Pennsylvania. This is the largest and most important genealogy collection in the world and is worth a visit to explore the many billions of records that can be found there. Published material consists of books, microfilm, microfiche, and other records for the 67 counties of Pennsylvania. The Family History Library also has smaller family history centers located throughout the world where you can order microfilm and have these records shipped from Utah to the local area where you live. The library has also transcribed and indexed millions of Pennsylvania vital, immigration, census, military, and other records which are available to view or download online at FamilySearch.org.
Immigration to Pennsylvania
For almost 400 years, Pennsylvania has been one of the primary ports of arrival for immigrants seeking a new life in America. During the 1600s, many immigrants came from the Netherlands, Sweden, Great Britain, and Germany. The 1700s witnessed a continued influx of people from the British Isles and Germany, and from the mid-1800s to early 1900s, Germans, Irish, Italians and Eastern European Jews came to Pennsylvania. After World War II, people came from even farther afield from countries located in the Middle East, Caribbean, Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
Records relating to your ancestors' immigration to the USA can be found at a number of repositories in Pennsylvania including the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and Pennsylvania State Archives in Harrisburg. The Historical Society of Pennsylvania has a large collection of ships' passengers lists on microfilm, and NARA has naturalization records for many areas of Pennsylvania and elsewhere. Websites like Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org also have large databases of Pennsylvania immigration and naturalization records that are available to search online.
Many immigrants became naturalized U.S. citizens at courts throughout Pennsylvania. Records relating to your ancestors' citizenship can thus often be found at county courthouses when they're not available for download online, or on microfilm at places like the Family History Library, NARA, Pennsylvania State Archives, Pennsylvania State Library, or Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Locating these records can sometimes prove difficult and time-consuming. However, immigration records are some of the most widely used in Pennsylvania family history research and can provide you with a wealth of detail about your ancestor's life story and origins.
If your ultimate goal is to trace your ancestry beyond Pennsylvania to your family's place of origin overseas, it is important to first locate the many different types of records that your immigrant ancestors left behind in Pennsylvania. Records like ships' passenger lists, declarations of intention, naturalization petitions, census records, military records, vital records, obituaries, and cemetery records can often provide you with information about your ancestor's birthplace, names of relatives, and other important information. This will help you narrow down your search parameters when your ancestry search continues overseas. It is generally not possible to locate family records in places like Russia, Germany, Poland, or Italy without first conducting extensive research in the USA.
Records relating to your ancestors' immigration to the USA can be found at a number of repositories in Pennsylvania including the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and Pennsylvania State Archives in Harrisburg. The Historical Society of Pennsylvania has a large collection of ships' passengers lists on microfilm, and NARA has naturalization records for many areas of Pennsylvania and elsewhere. Websites like Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org also have large databases of Pennsylvania immigration and naturalization records that are available to search online.
Many immigrants became naturalized U.S. citizens at courts throughout Pennsylvania. Records relating to your ancestors' citizenship can thus often be found at county courthouses when they're not available for download online, or on microfilm at places like the Family History Library, NARA, Pennsylvania State Archives, Pennsylvania State Library, or Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Locating these records can sometimes prove difficult and time-consuming. However, immigration records are some of the most widely used in Pennsylvania family history research and can provide you with a wealth of detail about your ancestor's life story and origins.
If your ultimate goal is to trace your ancestry beyond Pennsylvania to your family's place of origin overseas, it is important to first locate the many different types of records that your immigrant ancestors left behind in Pennsylvania. Records like ships' passenger lists, declarations of intention, naturalization petitions, census records, military records, vital records, obituaries, and cemetery records can often provide you with information about your ancestor's birthplace, names of relatives, and other important information. This will help you narrow down your search parameters when your ancestry search continues overseas. It is generally not possible to locate family records in places like Russia, Germany, Poland, or Italy without first conducting extensive research in the USA.
Getting Started with Your Research
Many people wonder where they should begin with their family history research in Pennsylvania. If you are new to genealogical research, the first thing you'll need to do is to start building a family tree with the information you already have at your disposal. There are some great genealogy software programs available that will help you get started with this process. Family Tree Maker, Legacy Family Tree, Family Historian, and RootsMagic all make great programs that can help you organize your research.
Get started by first creating a pedigree chart for yourself and family group sheets for your parents, grandparents, and other close family members. You can download free copies of these forms at FamilySearch and Ancestry.com. You can also create these records using a genealogy software program. Family group sheets allow you to record information like family members' birth dates, marriage dates, death dates, burial places, spouses' names, and other information that will be helpful to you as your research progresses. Interview living relatives and take notes about the major events of their lives. Add this information to your family files so that you will have a strong foundation of information as you move forward with your project.
During the initial stages of your research, you can accomplish a great deal using online resources. It is highly recommended that you get subscriptions to websites like Ancestry.com and Fold3.com to help with your ongoing research. Information can also be found online at FamilySearch. Many types of records including censuses, World War I draft registration cards, naturalization records, and Social Security Index are available online and will help you put in place the building blocks for the first part of your family tree. Using a combination of online resources along with more traditional archival research at places like the Pennsylvania State Library and NARA will allow you to create a thoroughly documented family history.
A professional genealogist could also be helpful to your research in Pennsylvania. With the expertise and knowledge of an expert, you can have someone visit local archives and libraries on your behalf throughout the state of Pennsylvania. This is especially helpful if you don't live in the area and don't have ready access to court, land, and many other types of records that can often only be found after a visit to a county courthouse, public library, historical society, or town clerk's office. If you would like a professional genealogist to assist you with your ongoing research in Pennsylvania and elsewhere, please click here.
It is important when carrying out your research that you are thorough in documenting your family tree. Don't overlook the importance of finding your ancestor's siblings, cousins, and other close relatives. Brick walls are often encountered in genealogical research. To get beyond an apparent impasse it is often worthwhile to approach your research holistically. Many researchers who are new to genealogy often just want to get back as far as possible along a direct paternal or maternal family line. However, it is often the death certificates, obituaries, or other records of your direct ancestor's siblings or other close relatives that will provide you with the breakthroughs you are looking for.
Get started by first creating a pedigree chart for yourself and family group sheets for your parents, grandparents, and other close family members. You can download free copies of these forms at FamilySearch and Ancestry.com. You can also create these records using a genealogy software program. Family group sheets allow you to record information like family members' birth dates, marriage dates, death dates, burial places, spouses' names, and other information that will be helpful to you as your research progresses. Interview living relatives and take notes about the major events of their lives. Add this information to your family files so that you will have a strong foundation of information as you move forward with your project.
During the initial stages of your research, you can accomplish a great deal using online resources. It is highly recommended that you get subscriptions to websites like Ancestry.com and Fold3.com to help with your ongoing research. Information can also be found online at FamilySearch. Many types of records including censuses, World War I draft registration cards, naturalization records, and Social Security Index are available online and will help you put in place the building blocks for the first part of your family tree. Using a combination of online resources along with more traditional archival research at places like the Pennsylvania State Library and NARA will allow you to create a thoroughly documented family history.
A professional genealogist could also be helpful to your research in Pennsylvania. With the expertise and knowledge of an expert, you can have someone visit local archives and libraries on your behalf throughout the state of Pennsylvania. This is especially helpful if you don't live in the area and don't have ready access to court, land, and many other types of records that can often only be found after a visit to a county courthouse, public library, historical society, or town clerk's office. If you would like a professional genealogist to assist you with your ongoing research in Pennsylvania and elsewhere, please click here.
It is important when carrying out your research that you are thorough in documenting your family tree. Don't overlook the importance of finding your ancestor's siblings, cousins, and other close relatives. Brick walls are often encountered in genealogical research. To get beyond an apparent impasse it is often worthwhile to approach your research holistically. Many researchers who are new to genealogy often just want to get back as far as possible along a direct paternal or maternal family line. However, it is often the death certificates, obituaries, or other records of your direct ancestor's siblings or other close relatives that will provide you with the breakthroughs you are looking for.
Pennsylvania County Records
Many Pennsylvania family records can be found online and at large state level archives and libraries in Philadelphia and Harrisburg. Many millions of records aren't yet available online, though, and many of these are awaiting your discovery at the local level at county courthouses, historical societies, churches, town clerks' offices, cemeteries, and elsewhere in Pennsylvania. To find these and other records, click on the links below to find more information about the specific counties where your ancestors lived in Pennsylvania. You'll find information on these pages that will lead you to the specific documentation you're searching for.
It is important to keep in mind when doing research that the names and boundaries of certain counties in Pennsylvania have changed over the past few hundred years. Your ancestors may have lived on a certain farm in one county and when borders were redrawn records relating to your family history might have been located in another area entirely. When searching for land, court, tax, and other records it is also a good idea to search for these records in adjacent counties. Following is a complete list of Pennsylvania's 67 counties along with their formation dates, county seats, and names of parent counties.
It is important to keep in mind when doing research that the names and boundaries of certain counties in Pennsylvania have changed over the past few hundred years. Your ancestors may have lived on a certain farm in one county and when borders were redrawn records relating to your family history might have been located in another area entirely. When searching for land, court, tax, and other records it is also a good idea to search for these records in adjacent counties. Following is a complete list of Pennsylvania's 67 counties along with their formation dates, county seats, and names of parent counties.
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County
Adams County Allegheny County Armstrong County Beaver County Bedford County Berks County Blair County Bradford County Bucks County Butler County Cambria County Cameron County Carbon County Centre County Chester County Clarion County Clearfield County Clinton County Columbia County Crawford County Cumberland County Dauphin County Delaware County Elk County Erie County Fayette County Forest County Franklin County Fulton County Greene County Huntingdon County Indiana County Jefferson County Juniata County Lackawanna County Lancaster County Lawrence County Lebanon County Lehigh County Luzerne County Lycoming County McKean County Mercer County Mifflin County Monroe County Montgomery County Montour County Northampton County Northumberland County Perry County Philadelphia County Pike County Potter County Schuylkill County Snyder County Somerset County Sullivan County Susquehanna County Tioga County Union County Venango County Warren County Washington County Wayne County Westmoreland County Wyoming County York County |
Formation Date
1800 1788 1800 1800 1771 1752 1846 1810 1682 1800 1804 1860 1843 1800 1682 1839 1804 1839 1813 1800 1750 1785 1789 1843 1800 1783 1848 1784 1850 1796 1787 1803 1804 1831 1878 1729 1849 1813 1812 1786 1795 1804 1800 1789 1836 1784 1850 1752 1772 1820 1682 1814 1804 1811 1855 1795 1847 1810 1804 1813 1800 1800 1781 1798 1773 1842 1749 |
County Seat
Gettysburg Pittsburgh Kittanning Beaver Bedford Reading Hollidaysburg Towanda Doylestown Butler Ebensburg Emporium Jim Thorpe Bellefonte West Chester Clarion Clearfield Lock Haven Bloomsburg Meadville Carlisle Harrisburg Media Ridgway Erie Uniontown Tionesta Chambersburg McConnellsburg Waynesburg Huntingdon Indiana Brookville Mifflintown Scranton Lancaster New Castle Lebanon Allentown Wilkes-Barre Williamsport Smethport Mercer Lewistown Stroudsburg Norristown Danville Easton Sunbury New Bloomfield Philadelphia Milford Coudersport Pottsville Middleburg Somerset Laporte Montrose Wellsboro Lewisburg Franklin Warren Washington Honesdale Greensburg Tunkhannock York |
Parent County
York County Washington, Westmoreland Allegheny, Lycoming, Westmoreland Allegheny, Washington Cumberland County Chester, Lancaster, Philadelphia Huntingdon, Bedford Luzerne, Lycoming Original county Allegheny County Somerset, Huntingdon Clinton, Elk, McKean, Potter Monroe, Northampton Lycoming, Mifflin, Northumberland, Huntingdon Original county Venango, Armstrong Lycoming, Huntingdon Lycoming, Centre Northumberland, Luzerne Allegheny County Lancaster County Lancaster County Chester County Jefferson, McKean, Clearfield Allegheny County Westmoreland County Jefferson County Cumberland County Bedford County Washington County Bedford County Lycoming, Westmoreland Lycoming County Mifflin County Luzerne County Chester County Beaver, Mercer Dauphin, Lancaster Northampton County Northumberland County Northumberland County Lycoming County Allegheny County Cumberland, Northumberland Pike, Northampton Philadelphia County Columbia County Bucks County Lancaster, Berks, Bedford, Cumberland, Northampton Cumberland County Original county Wayne County Lycoming County Berks, Northampton Union County Bedford County Lycoming County Luzerne County Lycoming County Northumberland County Allegheny, Lycoming Allegheny, Lycoming Westmoreland County Northampton County Bedford County Luzerne County Lancaster County |
USA State Resources
Follow the links below to find many other helpful resources available in the U.S. states where your ancestors lived in the past.
Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming
Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming