Request a Free Lookup
Pennsylvania holds a central place in early American history. From the founding of Philadelphia to waves of Scotch-Irish, German, and Quaker migration, the state’s story is closely tied to the nation’s beginnings. But for family historians, researching Pennsylvania roots can be challenging—especially before the late 1800s, when there was no centralized system for recording births, marriages, and deaths.
That’s where this extensive index, Pennsylvania Biographies and Genealogies, 1600s–1800s, becomes a critical tool. Covering approximately 315,000 individuals, it pulls together names from a wide array of rare, out-of-print, and regionally published books that are often difficult to access today. It’s not just a list of people—it’s a roadmap through some of Pennsylvania’s most detailed historical writings.
Why This Index Matters
Unlike states that developed robust state-wide vital records early on, Pennsylvania left much of its recordkeeping to churches, counties, and individual communities. That means information is scattered across hundreds of sources—family histories, church registers, county biographies, baptismal records, and cemetery transcriptions.
This collection bridges the gap by pointing researchers to where those names appear in published volumes. For genealogists tracing lines in Bucks, York, Lancaster, or any of Pennsylvania’s early counties, the index is a practical starting point.
It doesn’t contain the full text of the entries, but it tells you where to find them—saving countless hours of searching and helping you go straight to the source.
What’s Included
The index draws from more than a dozen books, each rich in historical and genealogical material. Among them:
- Colonial and Revolutionary Families of Pennsylvania, Volumes I–III
- Pennsylvania Genealogies, Chiefly Scotch-Irish and German, 2nd Edition
- Ohio Valley Genealogies
- Some of the First Settlers of the Forks of Delaware (with baptismal data and family relationships)
- Early Friends Families of Upper Bucks
- A Genealogical and Biographical History of Allegheny County
- A Genealogical and Personal History of Bucks County, two volumes
- Biographical and Genealogical Sketches from Pennsylvania (excerpted from Chronicles of Central Pennsylvania)
- A Biographical History of York County, Pennsylvania
- A Biographical History of Lancaster County
- A Biographical History of Greene County, Pennsylvania
- Index to the Encyclopedia of Pennsylvania Biography, two volumes
- Fayette County, Pennsylvania Biographies
- Families of Beaver County, Pennsylvania
Some of these books go back multiple generations and offer full-page biographical sketches, often detailing where a person was born, who they married, their occupation, public service, military involvement, and family lines.
Others are more focused on religious or cultural groups—like the Quakers of Bucks County or the Scotch-Irish settlers of central Pennsylvania. In both cases, they help fill in the blanks left by missing or unavailable church registers.
How to Use It
This is an index, not a searchable online database. Once you find a name, the entry will direct you to the volume and page number where that person appears. You can then access the original book through genealogy libraries, online resources like Internet Archive or FamilySearch, or by visiting regional historical societies.
If you’ve been struggling to find ancestors in early Pennsylvania records, this index is often the key that unlocks a whole new set of leads.
It’s particularly useful for:
- Tracing Revolutionary War ancestors from Pennsylvania
- Locating German or Scotch-Irish immigrants who settled in rural communities
- Identifying Quaker families and their descendants
- Finding connections in counties with early settlement and sparse civil records
- Linking Pennsylvania lines to later Ohio Valley migration
For family historians, the greatest challenge is often knowing where to look. This index helps solve that problem by pointing you directly to sources that may have been sitting quietly on a shelf—until now.
Advertisment