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 that we personally took in the Library of Congress. Our goal is to post landowner maps, or links to other websites with landowner maps, for every county in the state.

Original Land Owners

The free Warrantee Atlas of Lawrence County, Pennsylvania that we are posting, published in 1908, is located in the Library of Congress and may have been the first of its kind undertaken by the state to plat all of the earliest surveys on township maps. This area was part of the Depreciation Land  which was given to Revolutionary War soldiers, so the mere fact that a person received land in this county dictates further research in Revolutionary War records.   Any Revolutionary War pension or service record will probably be on file in state archives rather than federal records since the land was given by the state of Pennsylvania. Note that land records may be the only piece of evidence that your ancestor served in the Revolutionary War!  

For example, see the maps of Neshannock and North Beaver Townships below where the surveyor actually recorded the rank of the soldier, and, in some cases, the widow of the soldier. If the warrantee transferred it to a different patentee, that person’s name is also shown. NOTE: A very similar, but not identical, set of maps, has been published on Rootsweb’s Lawrence County Pennsylvania Depreciation, Donation, Settlers Lands. Check both versions.

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.

Lawrence Co. was created in 1849 from parts of Beaver and Mercer Counties. Beaver had been created in 1800 from Allegheny and Washington Counties; Mercer was created from Allegheny County in 1800. Thus, all of these counties should be checked for warrants, 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 Lawrence, Beaver, Mercer, Allegheny or Washington County Warrant Registers.