Track your PA Ancestors:
1-Stop Portal for Pennsylavnia Historical Research

Ancestor Tracks is committed to becoming a one-stop resource for researchers of Pennsylvania landowners from the earliest settlers to the late 1800s.   Maps that show names of residents are one of the most valuable, yet underused, tools available to researchers. We are dedicated to publishing these maps (including thousands of free images as well as our own publications) and land ownership information allowing genealogy researchers to more precisely pinpoint the locations where our ancestors lived.  We now offer two product lines which complement each other, as well as links to countless other sources:
  • State-wide Warrant, Patent, and Tract Name Registers which document the first transfers of land from the Penns or the state government to private owners.  We offer them now as pdf downloads or on a flash drive or CD. ($)
  • Select County atlases of the Pennsylvania Township Warrantee Maps on file at the Pennsylvania Archives in Harrisburg showing the exact metes-and-bounds tracts of early pioneers who purchased land from colonial or the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania authorities.  Both the county atlases and their individual chapters are available as pdf downloads.  The newest editions of atlases are not available in print, only as downloads. ($)
  • In addition to publishing our own books, we are posting free images of 19th century maps and atlases that we personally digitized at the Library of Congress for nearly every county in PA. These images can be used in conjunction with census records and published county histories, to which we have also posted links. Note: While the physical maps are in the public domain, the images we have taken of the maps belong to us and are not to be used commercially. For those researchers wishing to use them for personal use (including illustrating a family history you are working on), we give permission to use them as long as they are attributed to Ancestor Tracks.   In addition, for the 1/3 of Pennsylvania for which the Land Office created Township Warrantee Maps, we have added links to those maps. 

      ⇒⇒Be sure to read this article I wrote explaining the crucial uses of maps in all forms to stitch together all of the documented facts of a typical family into a coherent tapestry.  This is the core reason that I created Ancestor Tracks and this website–to help you pinpoint your ancestors to a specific place and time so you can find more details of their lives.⇐⇐
  • We have also posted links on each county page to 19th-century online books that can be searched, printed, and downloaded to your computer.  You can use the county history books in conjunction with the 1850-1880 censuses, as well as the 19th-century maps, to put your ancestor in context.  I’ve written an illustrated “how-to” article on how to search and download free books scanned and digitized and posted for free at Archive.org, HathiTrust, GoogleBrooks, FamilySearch Digital Library, and Ancestry.  
To understand how the state-wide resources and the county atlases complement each other, watch the 15-minute video we recorded before the 2020 revisions allowed us to offer our books as downloads. It will give you a good understanding of how the state ledgers (warrant, patent, tract names) interact with the Township Warrantee Maps and other information in our atlases.  To learn about the Pennsylvania Land Acquisition process that England set up to distribute colonial land (which basically continues today), as well as the boundary disputes (between Pennsylvania and Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia, and Pennsylvania and Connecticut), Revolutionary War Donation and Depreciation land, and land opened through treaties with Indians, see our Land Acquisition page. 

How We Can Help You

County Atlases

Atlases based on the Pennsylvania Land Office Township Warrantee Maps, as well as individual chapter downloads, for the following counties:
Berks County
Dauphin County
Fayette County
Greene County
Lancaster County
Northampton County
Washington County
Westmoreland County

Click here

Statewide Resources

See our Land Acquisition Page for tutorials and links to essential land records, most of which are free.

We Also offer 4 major downloadable resources for locating the earliest private purchasers of land across Pennsylvania: Warrant Registers for the entire state (set of 67 county Warrant Registers plus 3 pre-1733 ledgers), Patent Registers Indexes for the state (complete set), Tract Name Indexes from 1682-1959+, and the New Purchase Applications Register.
The official Warrant, Patent, and Tract Name Register Indexes are also available as a set.

NEW! The Keystone: Essential Guide to PA Historical County Records

NEW! "In a Nutshell" Guides
Practical 4- to 6-page guides to using resources specific to PA research

Click here

Free Land Resources for PA Researchers​

Click this link for a state map with clickable counties leading to a compilation of free web resources, including thousands of images of 19-century landowner maps and atlases we have personally taken at the Library of Congress. These images can be downloaded and saved to your computer or printed. We give permission to use these images, for personal use only, with attribution to Ancestor Tracks.

Click here

Introducing the 2nd Edition of Our Newest Book!

The Keystone: Essential Guide to

Pennsylvania Historical County Records

578 pages covering resources for each of the 67 counties

(See what’s inside by clicking on the cover)