Pennsylvania Research, Lancaster, Berks, Dauphin, York and Cumberland tidbits.

Rambling around, arousing more questions than answers, I located some neat places for researchers to look at when researching.

1. Knowing the history of the region in this state and most states is critical due to the way they developed early.

2.  Becoming confused by records that stated Lancaster Co., Berks Co., Dauphin Co. having reread the history of the area it suddenly became clear.  Sure clear like  muddy waters.

3.  The area was Lancaster and as portions splintered off to develop new areas. Some people wrote the new name some used the old name.  It took me days to figure out this confusion.

Thinking, it made sense after bit.  News traveled by word of mouth, very early newspapers and letters or documents.  So a document could be drawn up saying Lancaster Co. but really have happened in the new designated name of Berks County.  The same happened for Dauphin County who also splintered away from Lancaster County. Of course Cumberland County was of same situation and Perry County splintered from it. York County also falls into this same situation. That county later splitting into Adams and York Counties. The splits go on in each state as it was developed.

Looking for records you have a few choices, and I suspect before I am finished there will be many more.

 I suggest you start with usgenweb.org and then move to the Pennsylvania Archives.

State Archives - Home

PA State Archives - RG-17 - Warrantee Township Maps - Interface Page 1
 Under this site you can access maps of the region.

Land Records - Home

PA State Archives - RG-17 - Warrant Register Images - Main Interface: All Counties
http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/bah/dam/rg/di/r17-88WarrantRegisters/r17-88AllCountiesInterface.htm

Very Important information on this page above about irregularities.
 Many other records here and available for each county.

Then try the http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/institutions/py8/titles/
more data here for Dauphin Co. PA. But it covers all areas.


Sign into Family Search. Look for Records, Genealogies, Catalog, Books and WIKI
They also have the massive Family Tree, Memories and Search ( feature I use often) and Indexing which I did do for 1940 census.
Pennsylvania, Probate Records, 1683-1994 Image Pennsylvania, Probate Records, 1683-1994; pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1942-28757-7132-21 — FamilySearch.org

Free Genealogy Search Engine Genealogy In Time ,
Million Short A new search engine. It covers more obscure web pages.

Want a paid site try joining the Genealogical Society of  Pennsylvania.
https://genpa.org/civicrm/contribute/transact?reset=1&id=1

$45.  a year  look on line and see if they may have the information your looking for.

First Families, Home, News & Events, Publications, Resources and Partners Program.
They break the state into 6 parts for research.


Ancestry.com, do not forget rootsweb.com which is affiliated with Ancestry but free to use.
Thanks to GenealogyInTime for providing this link to the Top 100 Most Popular Genealogy Websites for 2012


Top 100 Most Popular Genealogy Websites (page 3)