Welcome to Ancestor Tracks!

Our goal is to help you track your early ancestors who moved through Pennsylvania through their land tracts!   Ancestor Tracks is dedicated to publishing maps and land ownership information allowing genealogy researchers to more precisely pinpoint the locations where our ancestors lived. Land ownership maps are one of the most valuable, yet underused, tools available to researchers.   We now offer two product lines which complement each other: (1) state-wide Warrant, Patent, and Tract Name Registers which document the first transfers of land from the Penns or the state to private owners (see below); and (2) county atlases of the Pennsylvania Township Warrantee Maps on file at the Pennsylvania Archives in Harrisburg showing the exact metes-and-bounds tracts of early pioneers who purchased land from colonial or the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania authorities. As a service, we are also publishing online land ownership maps from the nineteenth century which can be used in conjunction with census records.

More specific information is available for newsletter editors, speakers and educators, professional genealogists, genealogical librarians , historical societies, and linking to our website. If you would like additional information, here is a PowerPoint Presentation (12.7 MB) giving further information about Ancestor Tracks.

STATE-WIDE REFERENCE RESOURCES

We have 4 major resources for locating the earliest private purchasers of land across Pennsylvania are the Warrant Registers, indexes to the Patent Registers, Tract Name Indexes from 1682-1959+, and the New Purchase Applications Register:

The first CD, First Landowners of Pennsylvania: Colonial and State Warrant Registers in the Pennsylvania Archives in Harrisburg, contains all 70 of the Warrant Registers showing the first transfer of land tracts to private owners.   These are the people who applied for land from either the Propietors or the state. These records start in 1682 and continue through most of the first legally-recognized owners of land originally owned by the Penns, and later the state, to private individuals.   Every county register, containing thousands of pages, is on this CD. The dates of land transfers continue throughout the 1700s and 1800s and into the mid-1900s.   NOTE: These registers document the first owners of land for approximately 70% of Pennsylvania and cover each county.   The registers should not be confused with the deed registers located in the counties which show all subsequent land transfers.

The second CD in this series, First Landowners of Pennsylvania: Indexes to the Colonial and State Patent Registers in the PA Archives, Harrisburg, 1684-ca 1995, contains the indexes to all people who actually were granted final title from colony or state authorities. In very many cases, they are not the same individuals who actually applied for the land (termed warrantees).

The third CD, First Landowners of Pennsylvania: Indexes to Tract Names of Patented Land in the PA Archives, Harrisburg, ca 1684-1811, is the place to look when only the original name of the tract is known but not who the very first owners were.

Finally, the fourth CD: the New Purchase Applications Register. This ledger contains the names of the warrantees and patentees and the descriptions of tract locations for about 4,000 tracts which settlers purchased after vast territory was opened to settlement by the Treaty of Fort Stanwix of 1768.

COUNTY ATLASES

Now Available: DAUPHIN COUNTY ATLAS:!

Ancestor Tracks is proud to announce the publication of Early Landowners of Pennsylvania: Atlas of Township Warrantee Maps of Dauphin County, PA (512 pages) and its companion CD of Dauphin Co. Township Warrantee Maps showing the original tracts superimposed over current roads, towns, subdivisions, etc. We have also identified hundreds of additional early landowners as neighbors shown on the surveys in footnotes.

We have also posted the 1875 Landowner Atlas of Dauphin County for use with the 1860, 1870 and 1880 census records.


We have now published atlases and accompanying CDs containing all of the warrantee maps drafted by the PA Land Office for the following counties:


Berks County
Dauphin County
Fayette County
Greene County
Lancaster County
Washington County
Westmoreland County

Ancestor Tracks is committed to becoming a one-stop resource for researchers of early Pennsylvania landowners. In addition to publishing our own books, we are posting images of 19th century maps and atlases located in the Library of Congress for as many counties as we are able. (If you use any of these images, please attribute them to Ancestor Tracks. You may not use these images for commercial images.) We are also adding links to other sources of Pennsylvania land records, and we eventually hope to provide such links and/or landowner maps for every county in the state.

For free resources, as well as to learn about products we publish, select a county of interest by clicking on the map below. If you hover over a county, you will see what we have to offer (see color key below map for classification of resource):

Red counties denote books and/or CDs by Ancestor Tracks.

Red shaded counties denote resources and/or free maps we have posted.

Yellow counties: While we eventually intend to transcribe all Township Warrantee Maps on file at the Pennsylvania Archives in Harrisburg, researchers may want to order those maps from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in the meantime--click on the yellow counties to see which townships are available and their price. PLEASE note that these prices are subject to change and that you are ordering from the PA government, not from us. In addition to the price list for Township Warrantee Maps, we have also shown links to other landowner maps known to us. Hover over each county to see what is available.

Green counties represent other land tract resources known to Ancestor Tracks but not affiliated with us.

Questions and free lookups in our books? Contact us at customer_service@ancestortracks.com. Also, please contact us if you know of any land tract resources, particularly early land ownership maps, which are available for any counties not colored on this map.

FREE TOOLS FOR PA RESEARCHERS

(1) Click here for online 19th Century maps of PA, an outstanding source for land ownership in the 1800s.

(2) We have posted an excellent map published by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania showing the evolution of the counties starting in 1682 with the 3 original counties (Bucks, Chester and Philadelphia) to the creation of Lackawanna County in 1878. This map includes the Indian purchases. This map will appear to be illegible but it can be enlarged by clicking on it, and it may be printed or saved to your computer by right-clicking and selecting "Save Image As..."

(3) Bob Moyer has posted three sets of beautiful, colored, high-quality 19th-century maps which show landowners (these are very large files and take some time to download during which time your monitor may flash). Many thanks, Bob!

Ohio River Maps from Pittsburgh to Cincinnati, 1877 (67 maps), including some counties of PA (Beaver, Allegheny), WV ( Wayne, Cabell, Mason, Jackson, Wood, Pleasants, Tyler, Wetzel, Marshall, Ohio, Brooke, Hancock), OH (Hamilton, Clermont, Brown, Adams, Scioto, Lawrence, Gallia, Meigs, Athens, Washington, Monroe, Belmont, Jefferson, Columbiana), and KY (Boyd, Greenup, Lewis, Mason, Bracken, Pendleton, Campbell & Kenton Counties). Larger towns are also shown on separate maps.

Pittsburgh and Allegheny City Maps for 1872 (40 maps) including Temperanceville, Birmingham, Saint Clair, Monongahela, Chartiers, Union, Sharpsburg, Ormsby, Millvale, Allentown, Mt. Washington and Etna

Philadelphia City Maps - 7 maps dated 1840-1897

(4) Also, here is an outstanding resource for locating the changing county lines throughout the U.S. which has been posted by Animap. This software is a wonderful tool for all researchers and the full version contains tools that allow you to place markers on maps and watch as the county boundaries change in every state. (Click on the years at the bottom of the map to see the boundaries year-by-year.)

(5) Another great resource, completely free, is the "Full-Text Collection" of over 1,000 books which have been scanned in their entirety and placed online by Historic Pittsburgh, a joint effort of the University of Pittsburgh and the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania.

(6) Access the entire Published Pennsylvania Archives series for free (all 10 series containing a total of 132 volumes) at Footnote. If you're looking for a Pennsylvania ancestor's name, place, date, or keyword, use the search box at the bottom of Footnote's Pennsylvania Archives browse menu. The subscription part of Footnote contains thousands of images of original Revolutionary and Civil War pension files through a partnership with the National Archives in Washington, D.C., but to access the complete Published Pennsylvania Archives series (which is based on the original records), there is NO subscription fee.