Pennsylvania Land Records
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The Land Records Office, formerly the Bureau of Land Records, came into operation in 1682, keeping records about state boundaries, land granted by William Penn and the Commonwealth, and land still owned by Pennsylvania. Of greatest value are the warrants, surveys, and patents, including warrantee maps, all available by mail for a modest fee from their current repository in the state archives.
The southwest corner of Pennsylvania was contested with Virginia, and many records for this area are to be found at the Virginia State Archives (Richmond) and at the University of West Virginia (Morgantown).
Settlers from Pennsylvania came to the Upper Delaware and Wyoming valleys claimed by that colony from about 1753 to 1782. The records of the Delaware Company have not survived.
Tax-free land in the western part of the state, called the “Donation Lands,” was offered to Revolutionary War soldiers of the Pennsylvania Line of the Continental Army. Also in this section of Pennsylvania were “Depreciation Lands,” sold at reduced prices to Revolutionary War veterans or available to them instead of payment if they redeemed their Depreciation Certificates. The claims to these lands were published with maps in volumes 3 and 7 of Pennsylvania Archives, 3d series.
Most research in Pennsylvania land records will begin in the deeds and mortgages found with the recorder of deeds (who in smaller counties is also the register of wills). Here will also be found the seller and buyer (grantor and grantee) indexes, most often arranged by the somewhat cumbersome Russell system. In Pennsylvania, deeds and mortgages are more often than not indexed separately. Chattel mortgages are also found with the recorder of deeds. Most county deeds recorded to about 1850 and corresponding indexes are available on microfilm at the Pennsylvania State Archives and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Some unrecorded deeds may be found in courthouses, and many have found their way from private hands into archives, historical societies, and libraries. Keep in mind that in Pennsylvania, as elsewhere, a deed may have been recorded long after its execution and acknowledgement. In the southwestern part of the state, for example, some original deeds surfaced for recording when titles were being cleared for petroleum rights around the beginning of the twentieth century-some deeds dated over 100 years earlier. In earlier times many clerks were careful to copy German signatures into the deed books. This practice is of particular value as in the text of the deed the name was usually anglicized.
- Pennsylvania Land Books at Amazon.com
- Early Pennsylvania Land Records: The contents of this database, comes from the minutes of the Board of Property, for the then Province of Pennsylvania.
- Land Records from All States
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