Pennsylvania genealogy records

Births and deaths from 1906

On January 1, 1906, the Commonwealth began officially recording births and deaths. The Department of Health's Division of Vital Records holds certificates from 1906 to the present. Act 110, signed in December 2011, opened death records to the public after 50 years and birth records after 105 years.

Public certificates move to the Pennsylvania State Archives. As of its current help page, the Archives holds original birth certificates for 1906 to 1917 and death certificates for 1906 to 1972. Through a partnership with Ancestry, Pennsylvania residents can view birth certificates from 1906 to 1914 and death certificates from 1906 to 1969 at no cost, using a free Ancestry Pennsylvania account. That free access covers only State Archives records, not the rest of the site. The Department of Health's own page gives slightly different ranges for its indexes, so check both if a year is near the edge.

If you need a certified copy, only the Division of Vital Records issues them, even for public records. Self-searching its files is not allowed; staff do all searches. Mark the application as being for genealogical research. Non-certified copies of public records can be requested from the State Archives.

Births and deaths before 1906

Before 1906, Pennsylvania did not require birth and death records except in a few short periods. From 1852 to 1854, each county's Register of Wills had to keep records and indexes of births, deaths, and marriages. The State Archives has copies from 49 of the 64 counties that existed then, though the returns are incomplete. There are no returns for Blair, Clarion, Clinton, Crawford, Erie, Fayette, Forest, Fulton, Jefferson, Lebanon, Philadelphia, Pike, Potter, Sullivan, or Wyoming counties.

From 1893 to 1906, the Clerk of the Orphans' Court in each county recorded births and deaths, but many people never reported them. For earlier years, the Archives points researchers to county records and to unofficial sources: newspapers, church registers, family Bibles, and gravestone inscriptions.

Marriages

Since September 30, 1885, marriage licenses have been issued by the Clerk of the Orphans' Court, or a county marriage license clerk, at each county courthouse. The original records are still held by the counties. The State Archives has digitized microfilm of marriage records for some counties, but its staff cannot search them for you.

For marriages before 1885, look to the 1852 to 1854 county returns where they survive, church registers, and newspaper notices.

Census and tax records

The 1790 federal census survives for Pennsylvania, so you can start there. The State Archives holds the federal population census for Pennsylvania for every census from 1790 to 1930 except 1890, which was destroyed in a fire in 1921. Archives staff do not search census records.

County tax rolls are an underused resource. Most are at county courthouses or historical societies, and some have been digitized at the Archives. They are arranged by township, then by the first letter of the surname, and are not indexed. They seldom state relationships, but year by year they show when someone arrived in a county, how long they stayed, and when they left or died.

Land records

Land sold by the Commonwealth to individual purchasers is documented in the Land Office records, Record Group 17, at the State Archives. To use them you need the full name of the purchaser, applicant, warrantee, or patentee, the county, and an approximate date. They rarely give age, birthplace, or family details, but they place a settler in a specific place at a specific time.

Later sales between individuals are recorded as deeds in the county Recorder of Deeds office. A 1706 act required every deed to be acknowledged before a justice of the peace or the recorder within six months.

Wills, courts, and county boundaries

Deeds, wills, estate papers, and tax records are found at the county courthouse. Some court records from most counties have also been digitized and can be viewed at the Archives.

Pennsylvania counties were carved out of one another over two centuries, so check where the courthouse was at the time. The Archives publishes a list of every county with its creation date and parent counties. For example, Allegheny County was formed on September 24, 1788, from Westmoreland and Washington, and Northumberland in 1772 from five older counties.

Military records and newspapers

The State Archives holds military records from the French and Indian War through the Vietnam Conflict, and there is an online name index to its Revolutionary War pension records.

For obituaries and death notices, the State Library of Pennsylvania has an extensive collection of Pennsylvania newspapers. The State Archives itself holds very few old newspapers.