Northampton County was settled in 1720 and county was created in 1752 from taking land from then Bucks County. Be aware Bucks County boundaries have changed.
Early maintained records on film, in the 1700's are: Deeds 1752, Mortgages 1752, Orphan's Court 1752, Survey and Warrants 1734. Also on film are: Tax's 1761,Will's 1752, Election Returns 1756, and many kinds of Militia and Provincial Officers 1729 for them.
According to the Pennsylvania Line by Iscrupe there is data you can retrieve from the Library of Congress. I have used it once for a landowner map. Northampton Co. #779 for 1860 is for this county.
You write to to the L of C for a quote and send back the form with the fees to the L of C and then you wait several weeks to receive your map.
They the L of C has also topographical maps to help study the lay of the land as to whether kin went up a valley or down a river, stream to reach the next area. I love using maps.
I use a map to carry with me and it has the various names in various colors to designate where I find the lines. Then you can mark the way they possibly took to reach their new destination.
George Schweitzer, showed us on a big wall map how he tracked his line to Missouri doing this many years ago and it was a lasting impression. Better still if you have a blank spot you can check where along that trail they may have lost someone or some one decided to stay and not go forward. Yes, sometimes they even turned around and went back to where they came.
There are many great resources for this county. They produced 5 books on the History of this county:
1856, 1877, 1879, 1920, 1926, and 1953. There are Family histories, Bible, Directories, Delayed birth, Cemetery, Atlas, DAR, and other Military records for the finding. I like that they have filmed the Provincial Officers for 1729, 1785-6. The later a time for transition for this county. Remember early you may need to look at records in England prior to the creation of the United States.
Seven known types of religions have been recorded. There are libraries to research in besides the Historical Society's. Moravian Archives Library in Bethlehem is one.
It would be awesome if those researching in this area would share any new sources they have found to help other researchers. It would also be great if you have a favorite url to use if that was shared for people to learn of also.
Also advocating you use the rootsweb lists for places and names to help in your research. The PaGenweb.org site ie usgenweb.org converted has a place to post queries people should use.
Having gotten replies from queries that are more than 15 years old I can tell you they work.
Remember the boundaries change as more people moved in creating more counties so where to look is going to have a big consequence in your research if your looking in one area and not the other.
Remembering that it was bound on the north by New York, the NW by the Indian Lands, Berks to the SW and W, Bucks County to the South, and a wee portion of Philadelphia on the SW corner at the time of it's creation.
Information is personally learned from research and the usgenweb.org, pagenweb.org, various books on hand. The Pennsylvania Line by Iscrupe, Pennsylvania Genealogical Research by George Schweitzer, The Source, Written Sources by Ancestry and various other books on my shelves. Also by speakers whom have spoke on this area in talks.
http://www.northamptonctymuseum.org/index.html
http://www.rootsweb.com/~njdlvgc/
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