HARRISBURG – The Pennsylvania State Archives is giving researchers and genealogists a wealth of new resources by posting more land records on its Web site.
More than 300,000 images (31 gigabytes) of scanned records that document the early settlement of Pennsylvania have been added to the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission’s Web site.
“The new land records will give researchers the chance to follow the history of land ownership in the commonwealth up to 1995,” said PHMC Executive Director Barbara Franco. “This is an on-going effort to make original records available on the Internet for those interested in how land was originally acquired.”
Acquiring land in the commonwealth usually involved an application (a request for a warrant), a warrant (a certificate authorizing a survey), a survey (a sketch of the boundaries of the land) and, finally, a patent (an official deed). Ranging in size from modest city lots in Philadelphia to the 64,500-acre Springetsbury Manor in York County, the records of the land office document the initial transfer of land in the commonwealth.
Recent additions include warrant registers (1733-1957), patent indexes (1684-1957) and the Philadelphia Old Rights Index (1682-1740).
The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission is the official history agency of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania.