This extensive index of colonial Pennsylvania records references about 190,000 individuals and includes newspaper abstracts, naturalization and land records, court documents, and family histories. Its significance lies in compensating for the lack of a centralized system for collecting vital information in Pennsylvania and its counties before the late 1800s. Unique features include abstracts of Benjamin Franklin’s Pennsylvania Gazette and the renowned “Colonial Records” series, vital for anyone researching early American history.
Additional Resources:
- Virginia Court Records in Southwestern Pennsylvania, Records of the District of West Augusta and Ohio and Yohogania Counties, Virginia, 1775-1780
- Index to Pennsylvania’s Colonial Records Series
- Early Pennsylvania Land Records: Minutes of the Board of Property of the Province of Pennsylvania
- Colonial and Revolutionary Families of Pennsylvania, Volumes I, II, and III
- Names of Foreigners Who Took the Oath of Allegiance to the Province and State of Pennsylvania, 1727-1775
- Persons Naturalized in the Province of Pennsylvania, 1740-1773
- Names of Persons who Took the Oath of Allegiance to the State of Pennsylvania Between the Years 1777 and 1789
- Abstracts from Ben Franklin’s ‘Pennsylvania Gazette,’ 1728-1748
- Genealogical Abstracts from ‘The American Weekly Mercury,’ 1719-1746