Colonial Pennsylvania Genealogy Research

Communities and Revolutionary Era Records, 1681-1790

By: Denyse Allen

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

If your ancestors lived in Pennsylvania between 1681 and 1790, the records of their lives are scattered across dozens of repositories, courthouses, archives, and digital collections. Finding them means knowing where to look, and that's exactly what this book provides.

Colonial Pennsylvania Genealogy Research: Communities and Revolutionary Era Records, 1681-1790 is a directory of surviving records from Pennsylvania's colonial and revolutionary era. County by county, repository by repository, it documents what records exist, where they're held, and how to access them — whether in person or online.

This book covers church records, tax lists, land warrants, military records, probate files, and more, with attention to the Pennsylvania-specific quirks that trip up researchers, from shifting county boundaries to records that migrated between repositories over the centuries.

This is not a tutorial on search techniques. It's the reference guide you keep next to your desk, the one that answers "where do I even start?" for any Pennsylvania community in this period. Your next step after reading each section is to contact the repository and begin your research.

The third volume in the Pennsylvania genealogy research series by Denyse Allen, following Pennsylvania Vital Records Research (2022) and Archives in Pennsylvania for Genealogy Research (2023). Published for America's 250th anniversary year.