Pennsylvania Genealogical County Map
If you do genealogy, then you’ve got to love maps. Maps can help get you oriented, organized and straightened out when the research—and all the little bits of data you’ve collected—gets confusing. Say you find records under the same name, but in different townships. A map can help you to decide whether the records are likely to be for one man or more than one man.
What always trips me up, however, is that maps don’t stay the same over time. Records for one location may be in a different township or county—or even state—years or decades earlier or later. For instance, John2 Hoover’s (Andrew1) property in Greene County was originally part of land claimed by Virginia, so documentation can be found in Monongalia County, now West Virginia. But after Virginia and Pennsylvania settled their claims, part of John’s land was in Westmoreland County then Washington County, where the copied survey can be found, and finally Greene County.
Genealogical Map of the Pennsylvania Counties
What I love about the Genealogical Map of the Pennsylvania Counties from the Pennsylvania Land Office is that it shows the counties over time. You can see when certain parts of the Commonwealth were purchased. It also tells you when each county was created. For instance, the Fayette County area was part of land purchased in 1768. But Fayette County wasn’t created until 1783. It also shows you that Fayette was originally part of Cumberland County (#6), then Westmoreland County (#11).
The full map also includes little vignettes that show the counties for specific years. You can see how the jurisdictional landscape changed through the years. It also includes information on each of the 33 land purchases from 1682 through 1792 that established the boundaries of the state of Pennsylvania.
You should check out this valuable resource at the Pennsylvania State Archives website. And while you’re there, check out their other fantastic map resources!
Cite This Page:
Kris Hocker, "Pennsylvania Genealogical County Map," A Pennsylvania Dutch Genealogy, the genealogy & family research site of Kris Hocker, modified 8 Jul 2018 (https://www.krishocker.com/pennsylvania-genealogical-county-map/ : accessed 2 Nov 2024).
Content copyright © 2018 Kris Hocker. Please do not copy without prior permission, attribution, and link back to this page.
8 Replies to “Pennsylvania Genealogical County Map”
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Kris thank you! Finding information for family research is very hard but I am hoping I can now get a better understanding and maybe find more information now. So glad I found your website. Since you have obviously done a lot of research yourself, I am curious if there are public records that show what was the cause of a person’s death back in 1911 and where they can be found. There seems to have been a great mystery about my great grandfather that died with my father’s last living relative and I have not been able to track down any information on him or his life during that time. Thanks again!
Debra West
You’re welcome, Debra!
Where did your grandfather die? Was it in Pennsylvania?
Pennsylvania started recording deaths state-wide in 1906. If he died there, his death certificate should be available either through Ancestry or the PA State Archives. The state archives has indices online organized alphabetically by year. You’d need to request the certificate from the state. If you have a subscription to Ancestry, you can search for and download the certificate online.
If you have questions, just contact me.
My maternal 2nd great-grandfather Ullom was born in Greene County, PA, so followed the map from Pinterest to here. The counties lines changed constantly in young America until today’s more or less present permanent boundaries. Learned to look in all the surrounding counties for info — never know what you might find — you just might hit the mother-lode! grin!
Kris, thank you. I just ordered the map. The shipping is more than the map! lol
Linda
Is there a way to print the map with all the info on it? I only want it for my personal research. Thanks.
I’m sorry, no. That map is sold through the Pennsylvania State Bookstore for $2.00 if you want a printed version.
Is there a legend that goes with the numbers on the countires?
Thanks
Sue,
if you click the link in the article to the map (or this one), you can see the full map and the county legend. Look to the left side. The legend shows the number of the county on the map and the year it was organized.