Upon arrival in the colony in , William Penn established a firm policy of religious tolerance and a Frame of Government for Pennsylvania that led to many of the records genealogists find so useful today.
The following resources at NEHGS can help orient the family historian to the vast genealogy resources of Pennsylvania. W66 D78 S32 F74 The website MapofUS shows the formation of counties as they split off from parental units. For additional information, Wikipedia presents a helpful table of facts about Pennsylvania counties with embedded maps showing county locations. Ancestry has recently published death certificates for Pennsylvania from Online vital records for Pennsylvania include a mix of church and civil data and are available at both the Family History Library births from , marriages from , county marriages from and Ancestry births, marriages, deaths—check the card catalog for statewide and individual county holdings.
City of Philadelphia: Register of Wills - Marriage Record Information
The preceding links are only examples of the holdings of both FamilySearch. Online records for the city of Philadelphia are particularly robust. P48 volume This collection spans the mid-seventeenth to the mid-nineteenth century and covers all counties in the state.
P41 2d ser. F47 R4 volumes 1 and 2. Later records include Congregational and Roman Catholic. A sampling of the NEHGS offerings for selected denominations may be found by following the links above.
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- Pennsylvania Vital Records - Births, Deaths & Marriages;
Thanks to William Penn, land records in Pennsylvania are generally excellent. However, they are complex and sometimes challenging to navigate.
Philadelphia County Marriage License, PA
As described on the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission website , the process of conveying land involves five types of records:. Probate records -- wills, letters of administration, and inventories—are among the most valuable sources for the family historian. Unique resources at the NEHGS library include will abstracts for many counties as well as will indices for additional counties across the state.
Prior to the first federal census, many counties kept lists of property owners for purposes of taxation. Property included real estate as well as livestock. Another useful source of information is the Pennsylvania septennial census conducted every seven years beginning in for tax and representation purposes. These censuses help the family historian fill in the gaps between the decennial federal censuses and are available at Ancestry.
The City of Philadelphia, on the Delaware River, has been a major port of entry into the country since the s. Several excellent online and published lists for the port exist:.
Pennsylvania Birth Certificate Order Form
Collection of 30, Pennsylvania Immigrants from by I. R ; also available at FamilySearch. G3 S8 ; also available at Archive. T48 ; also available at Ancestry.
Pennsylvania Vital Records Indexes
E5 P47 ; also available at Ancestry. In addition to the Swedish, Dutch, and English settlers mentioned in the introduction, other important groups emigrated to and settled in Pennsylvania: Germans many from the Palatinate , Scots-Irish, and of course, Quaker. While some individuals stayed in the Philadelphia region, others used old Indian trails and new roads, such as the Great Valley or Wagon Road from Philadelphia , through Lancaster, Gettysburg, to Western Maryland and into Virginia.
For a more in-depth view of migration routes within Pennsylvania, consult the wonderfully detailed and heavily illustrated with maps, Indian Paths of Pennsylvania by Paul Wallace. Swedish: New Sweden on the Delaware : by C. Founded in , Philadelphia was one of the original three counties established by William Penn, along with Bucks and Chester.
The city of. Map illustration from The Independence Square Neighborhood. Philadelphia originally encompassed an area from the Delaware River on the east to the Schuylkill River on the west; on the north bounded by Vine Street, with a southern boundary of Cedar aka South Street. In the city incorporated to include all of the townships and boroughs surrounding the original city plan, and took on the familiar shape of the square miles we see on maps today. Registration of births in Philadelphia City and County began on 1 July and continued through when Pennsylvania began recording vital statistics.
Duplicate records continued to be recorded in Philadelphia until 30 June when the task of vital statistics recording was taken over entirely by the state of Pennsylvania. The Philadelphia City Births Index, July — , is also available on the FamilySearch website, however, the images of birth records are not available. Philadelphia researchers should know that the Philadelphia Marriage Indexes from October through December are available online at FamilySearch. Marriage records are available for the following dates at the following repositories:. Duplicate records were kept in Philadelphia until 30 June when this responsibility shifted entirely to the state of Pennsylvania.
Philadelphia researchers should know that original images of the Philadelphia Death Records are available online from through 30 June at FamilySearch. The Philadelphia Department of Records records all property transactions in the city, and maintains historical deeds and property transactions at the Philadelphia City Archives. The will and administration index books are housed in room Philadelphia will indexes and abstracts covering various years are available at a few repositories in Philadelphia, and also through LDS Family History Library Catalog for rental at Family History Centers.
However, the Philadelphia Register of Wills is the only repository in possession of original Philadelphia Administration files — these files are not available anywhere else, through any other institution. If researchers have specific questions about procedure to obtain probate records, they can contact the Philadelphia Register of Wills office at or Free Library of Philadelphia Map Collection.