Fortunately for Venango County researchers, the Pennsylvania Land Office did complete excellent Township Warrantee Maps of Venango County, and they are for sale at their office. If you know the township you are looking for, click here for prices and ordering information. Ancestor Tracks intends to produce a book containing all of the information available on these maps in 2008, but you may wish to order individual maps in the meantime.

Our goal at Ancestor Tracks is to publish maps and land ownership information allowing researchers to place more precisely the locations where our ancestors lived. We are therefore posting images from two maps of Venango County, one published in 1857 and one published in 1865. These maps are located in the Library of Congress Geography and Map Division, Washington, D.C. We hope that they will be useful tools for locating your Venango County families when coupled with the 1860 and 1870 censuses. Once you click on an image and it is on your screen, it can usually be enlarged by clicking on the image, and it may be saved to your computer by right-clicking and selecting "Save Image As..." Venango County was created from Allegheny and Lycoming Counties in 1800, and Lycoming was created from Northumberland in 1795. Allegheny was created from Westmoreland County in 1788. Thus, all of these counties should be checked for deeds and wills, etc. If your ancestor was actually a first landowner, purchasing his or her property from the colony or state of Pennsylvania, further information about these tracts may be gleaned from the Westmoreland, Allegheny, Lycoming, Venango or Northumberland County Registers contained on our CD, First Landowners of PA: Colonial and State Warrant Registers in the PA Archives, Harrisburg, 1682-ca 1940. Also see this site for a description of the Pennsylvania land acquisition process.