Adams County Landowner Map Published by G. M. Hopkins, 1858

Our goal at Ancestor Tracks is to publish maps and land ownership information allowing genealogy researchers to place more precisely the locations where our ancestors lived. The state of Pennsylvania began platting the exact metes-and-bounds tracts of the earliest landowners, township-by-township, starting in 1907, but the Land Office only completed about 1/3 of the state before the project ended. Unfortunately, Pennsylvania did not plat the tracts of the earliest landowners of Adams County.

Rev. Neal Hively, who has platted the original tracts of adjoining York County, says he will also plat the "three southeast townships in Adams County: Germany, Mt. Joy and Mt. Pleasant sometime in the foreseeable future," so check his site for updates. Also, the "Manor of Maske" which was a 43,500-acre original manor owned by the Penns, was distributed to 333 original settlers. The Manor or Maske--Its History and Individual Properties, by Charles H. Glatfelter and Arthur Weaner (1992, paperback, 74 pages) and the manor's Connected Draft Survey Map (36" X 48") are available from the Adams County Historical Society, PO Box 4325, Gettysburg, PA 17325 (Email: info@achs-pa.org; Telephone: (717) 334-4723; Fax: (717) 334-0722)
Also check out the Emmitsburg (MD) Area Historical Society for their extensive work regarding land tracts which abut the Adams Co., PA/Frederick Co., MD border.

In lieu of being able to bring you Township Warrantee Maps of the earliest settlers, we are posting, the Map of Adams Co., Pennsylvania from surveys by G.M. Hopkins which was published in 1858. This map is located in the Library of Congress Geography and Map Division Washington, D.C. We hope that it will be a useful tool for locating your Adams County families when coupled with the 1860 census. 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 York (created in 1749) or Adams County (created in 1800 from York) Registers contained on our CD, First Landowners of PA: Colonial and State Warrant Registers in the PA Archives, Harrisburg, 1682-ca 1940.


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Title Page
Census Table
Table of Distances

Township Maps

 

Berwick
Butler
Conewago
Cumberland
Franklin
Germany
Hamilton
Hamiltonban
Highland (created 1863)
Huntingdon
Latimore
Liberty
Menallen
Mt. Joy
Mt. Pleasant
Oxford
Reading
Straban
Tyrone
Union


Boroughs, Towns and Villages Abbottstown
Arendtsville
Bendersville
East Berlin
Fairfield
Gettysburg
Hampton
Heidlersburg
Hunterstown
McSherrystown
Middletown
Mummasburg
New Chester
New Oxford
Petersburg

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