814-865-1014
Arts & Humanities Library
How you begin depends on what information you already have, and what you are looking for. If you are new to the process, start with one of the guides below. A useful guide will describe the types of records available for genealogical research, help you decipher unfamiliar terms, and provide information about groups that may be of assistance
Pennsylvania Area Key: A Guide to the Genealogical Records of the State of Pennsylvania (find in the CAT)
American Genealogical Index (find in the CAT)
Continues, American Genealogical-Biographical Index to American Genealogical Biographical and Local History Materials (find in the CAT) A name index to information in published genealogy sources.
Pennsylvania Archives (find in the CAT)
Volumes are Available Online,
Contains information compiled from published records originally appearing in two sources, "Colonial Records" and "Pennsylvania Archives". Among the records are early marriage licenses, lists of Revolutionary War soldiers, Foreigners arriving in Pennsylvania, etc... For a more complete description of the collection see the Guide to the Published Archives of Pennsylvania (find in the CAT)
Encyclopedia of Pennsylvania Biography, 28vols (find in the CAT)
The first 14 volumes are ONLINE (published prior to 1923)
Genealogies of Pennsylvania Families: From the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography (find in the CAT)
Many volumes of the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography are online.
Index to American Genealogies and to Genealogical Materials in all Works...
(find in the CAT)
Inventory of the County Archives of Pennsylvania, 65 vols. (find in the CAT)
Keystone Treasures: A Guide to Museums and Historical Organizations in Pennsylvania (find in the CAT)
Use to identify local organizations
County histories of the late 19th and early 20th Century often include data on early inhabitants. Many include lists of tax rolls, church registers, local officials, occupational indexes and the like.
Many individual county histories are now available online.
The PA's Past: Digital Bookshelf provides full-text access to over 600 historical works on Pennsylvania history. A list of additional Pennsylvania county and regional histories online is at: http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/pa/pahist.htm. Two of the best bets are:
Google Book Search — Has the contents of millions of books. Most works published before 1923 are freely available. More recent works may have restrictions on access.
Hathi Trust Digital Library — a digital catalog and repository created by research libraries. Includes full-text sources not in Google Books.
A number of county histories have been microfilmed and are widely available in libraries. The Pennsylvania histories are in the series Pennsylvania County and Regional Histories (find in the CAT) To identify additional county histories in the library search The CAT, our online catalog. Conduct a keyword search on the name of the county and the word history. For example, Centre and History, or Allegheny and History.
You can use the free version of OCLC's WorldCAT to locate histories held in libraries worldwide. Not every library is on WorldCAT, but it can help you find many resources not owned by Penn State.
The library has microfilm versions of the original manuscript returns for the Federal Population Censuses for Pennsylvania, 1800-1930. The information contained varies for each census as described in the U.S. Census online pamphlet, Availability of Census Records about Individuals.
The library also has other Census manuscripts, including:
Census of Agriculture (Pennsylvania, 1850-1880 on microfilm)
1850, 1880 and 1927 are online from the Pennsylvania Agricultural History Project
Census of Manufacturers (Pennsylvania , 1820, 1850-1880 on microfilm)
For more information on Penn State's holdings see the News and Microform Library's Census Resources page.
Much of the 1890 Census was destroyed by fire. A partial substitute for Centre County is the 1890 Directory of the Population of Centre County which lists people and businesses in the area.
The 1880-1920 Censuses on microfilm are indexed using a system known as Soundex. The Soundex index arranges last names based on the way a name sounds rather than the way it is spelled. Surnames that sound the same, but are spelled differently, like SMITH and SMYTH, have the same Soundex code and are filed together. The Soundex coding system was developed so that you can find a surname even though it may have been recorded under various spellings. Knowing a surname's Soundex code is an important first step in locating your ancestor. The National Archives web site has a guide to deciphering the Soundex Machine. The easiest way to convert your name to the Soundex code is to use an online convertor. There is one available via RootsWeb, Soundex Convertor.
Census Online maintains an extensive list of links to sites that offer Census records.
The USGenWeb project uses volunteers to transcribe Census records. Some Pennsylvania counties have been entered, with more to come. It is free to search and view the Census records at this site.
Ancestry.com
Offers online searching of Census materials and other materials. Some records can be viewed for free, but many, including the Census materials, require the payment of a membership fee for access. The Schlow Centre Region Library has a version of Ancestry.com available on terminals within the library.
Historic Pittsburgh Census Project
Allows users to search the U.S. Census Schedules for the city of Pittsburgh from the years 1850, 1860, 1870, and 1880 and for Allegheny City from the years 1850, 1860, and 1870.
National Archives and Records Administration: Genealogy Page
This site contains much useful information about federal records, including the U.S. Census, and how they can be used for genealogy.
Prior to 1885 most births deaths, or marriages in Pennsylvania were not officially recorded by state or local governments. Local newspapers took on the role of documenting these events. In some cases specialized indexes are available (see the section on Vital Records, and the description of the Pennsylvania Room below). In most other cases you will need to find a newspaper for the region you are interested in and browse.
Use NewsCAT to discover newspapers available in the Penn State libraries. The collection is particularly strong in historic Pennsylvania newspapers.
The Centre County Library and Historical Museum's Pennsylvania Room in Bellefonte, has a collection of newspaper obituaries as part of the Spangler Genealogical Papers, as well as Obituary Notebooks and Indexes for the Center Daily Times, the Centre Democrat and other local publications. Years of coverage vary. See the Web site for the Pennsylvania Room, or call the Museum at: (814) 355-1516.
Pennsylvania Newspaper Project A good resource for discovering newspapers available in the state.
Pennsylvania Newspapers and Selected Out of State Newspapers (find in the CAT)
Pennsylvania Newspapers: A Bibliography and Union List (find in the CAT)
Deaths in Central Pennsylvania : an Index to the obituaries appearing in the Democratic watchman, v. 1. July 12, 1889-Dec. 22, 1905.--v. 2. Jan. 5, 1906-Dec. 24, 1920 (find in the CAT)
Centre Daily Times Obituaries Index, 1937-1995 and 2011. Material from the obituaries section of the Centre Daily Times
Pennsylvania Scrap Book Necrology (Obituaries from circa 1891-1904, mostly of PA Civil War veterans)
Online Pennsylvania Death Records, Indexes, and Obituaries. Links to sources by county.
Many newspapers are now online, far too many to list. Places to start.
The library has a guide to Historical Newspaper Databases available from Penn State
International Coalition on Newspapers: Newspaper Digitization Projects Links to online newspapers by country and by state.
Google News Archive Provides a mix of free and pay-for-view news sources
NewspaperArchive.com offers selected full-text newspapers online. Searching is free, but there is a charge for viewing the text online.
Use the free version of WorldCAT to search for newspapers owned by libraries worldwide. Not every library participates in WorldCAT, but it can help identify places to start. The Library of Congress' Newspaper Directory also has information on historical newspapers. To discover newspapers not online consult:
History and Bibliography of American Newspapers, 1690-1820 (find in the CAT)
American Newspapers, 1821-1936 (find in the CAT)
Call # Z6945.A53, Arts & Humanities, Pattee, 2nd Floor - Ready Reference
Newspapers in Microform (find in the CAT)
Central Pennsylvania Marriages, 1700-1896 (find in the CAT)
Early Pennsylvania Births, 1675-1875 (find in the CAT)
Archives of Pennsylvania (find in the CAT)
Available Online at Footnote.com
Information from published records originally appearing in two sources, "Colonial Records" and " Pennsylvania Archives". Among the records included are marriage licenses, lists of Revolutionary War soldiers, Foreigners arriving in Pennsylvania, etc... For a more complete description of the collection see the Guide to the Published Archives of Pennsylvania..., shelved next to the volumes.
Pennsylvania Vital Records: From the Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine and the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography (find in the CAT).
Many volumes of the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography are freely available online.
Social Security Death Index A massive database of recorded death dates. Almost all entries are after the creation of a computerized master file in 1962.
Most original records are housed in the county where the event occurred. To obtain copies of Birth, Death, and Marriage records for Centre County contact the:
Centre County Register of Wills and Clerk of the Orphans' Court
Willowbank County Office Building
414 Holmes Street
Suite #2
Bellefonte PA 16823
Phone: (814)-355-6724
Fax: (814)-355-8685
rabierly@co.centre.pa.us
The Centre County Library's Pennsylvania Room in Bellefonte has the following original county records:
In addition the The Pennsylvania State Archives has microfilm of selected county records. A description of the county records available from the Pennsylvania State Archives is on their web site. Some marriage records from the Department of Internal Affairs' Record of Marriages, 1885-1891, are available for viewing online.
The Pennsylvania Department of Health. Division of Vital Records has birth and death records from 1906. Marriage and divorce records are not available from the Division of Vital Records. They are usually obtained from the courthouse in the county where the marriage license was issued or divorce decree was granted. The Department's web page contains information on vital records available from the state and how to obtain them.
Passenger lists can tell you when an ancestor arrived in this country. Often they also include information about the person's port of origin (where they came from), and their final destination (where they intend to settle). They may also include information on ethnicity, marital status, relatives, and occupation. The bibliographies listed below will help you identify if a passenger list was created for the time period and region you are interested in.
The publications below contain information of interest to genealogists. They often contain descriptions of ongoing projects and are a good way to discover otherwise hidden resources. Browsing current issues is a good way to get a sense of what is currently being done by other researchers.
The sources below will help you locate articles on particular topics or individuals within genealogical publications.
City Directories can verify that an ancestor resided in a particular location at a particular time. Besides listing people many early directories provide occupations and addresses. Directories can also be useful for tracking down institutions such as churches, schools, benevolent and city offices that may have records of interest.
In addition to the microform collections above, the library has some city directories and registers in paper. The easiest way to search for these is to use The CAT, the library's online catalog. Do a keyword search on the name of the city and directories, e.g. Altoona and directories. If you retrieve too many matches, try limiting your search by a range of years. This will eliminate more current directories.
Church records can be extremely valuable for documenting family events such as baptisms, marriages, and deaths that may have gone unrecorded in other sources. This is especially true for earlier time periods before the state assumed the role of issuing marriage licenses and birth and death certificates. Unfortunately, church records can be difficult to obtain. Often they reside in scattered denominational archives. Many denominations have merged with larger organization or changed since their founding. The first step, then is determining which denomination your ancestors were involved in, and then discovering where they may have their archival records. A useful web site describing the history of religious groups in Centre County can be found at the Rootsweb site.
The sources below can be used to obtain information about an ancestor's military service. The amount of information varies. Some merely provide verification of enlistment, others give length of duty, and rank information, while the 1890 census provides address information for Civil War Veterans surveyed.
For a full description of the types of military records available see the Pennsylvania State Archives Web Page.
Centre County Revolutionary War Declarations, 1820-1835 (Online database) The Centre County Historic Records Imaging Project is reproducing images of Revolutionary War Declarations from 1820-1835
Pennsylvania in the War of the War of the Revolution: Associated Battalions and Militia, 1775-1783, MICRO 4, News and Microforms Library, Ground Floor West Pattee
Archives of Pennsylvania -- Call # 974.8P3a, Dewey Stacks, Pattee Level 2. Contains in 138 volumes published records from two sources, "Colonial Records" and Pennsylvania Archives. Among the records included are lists of Revolutionary War and War of 1812 soldiers. For a more complete description of the collection see the Guide to the Published Archives of Pennsylvania..., Call #974.8P3Index, Dewey Stacks, Pattee Level 2, also F146.P432, Pattee Stacks Level 1.
A Bibliography of Military Name Lists from pre-1675 to 1900: A Guide to Genealogical Research, Call # Z5313.U5H67 1990, Pattee Stacks Level 2
Record of Pennsylvania Volunteers in the Spanish-American War, 1898, Call # 973.894P3r, Library Annex. Request at Service Desk
Eleventh Census of the United States, 1890. Pennsylvania: Schedules Enumerating Union Veterans and Widows of Union Veterans of the Civil War, Call # Microfilm D22a, News and Microforms Library, Ground Floor West Pattee. Note: most of the 1890 population Census schedules were destroyed by fire.
Pennsylvania Scrap Book Necrology, (Obituaries from circa 1891-1904, mostly of PA Civil War veterans)
History of Pennsylvania volunteers, 1861-5. Call # E527.B32, Rare Books and Special Collections Library, 1st Floor Paterno; also ONLINE. Supplement to the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. Call # E464.U62 1994, Pattee Stacks Level 1. Contains information left out of the original Official Records (see "War of the Rebellion" below)
War of 1812 Pension Application files
The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. Call # E464.U6 1985, Pattee Stacks Level 1A; also available ONLINE. Also on CD-ROM, E464.C51997b, Music and Media Center, 2nd Floor West Pattee Library. Also see the Supplement to the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies described above
The Pennsylvania Historical Museum and Commission is creating an online archive called ARIAS (Archives Records Information Access System). The system contains records from the Revolutionary War Military Abstract Card File, World War I Service Medal Application Cards, Spanish American War Veterans' Card File of United States Volunteers, Civil War Veterans' Card File, and the Mexican Border Campaign Veterans' Card File
Land Ownership Maps. Pennsylvania. Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division (find in the CAT
A microfiche collection of land ownership maps by county, originally published between 1810-1900. For more land ownership records (many online) see the Pennsylvania State Archives Land Records
Pennsylvania Place Names (find in the CAT)
1861 Digital Atlas of Centre County The earliest known map of Centre County. the original is housed in Special Collections, University Park.
Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps. Detailed maps from the late 19th and early twentieth century showing town buildings, property boundaries, street names, etc... Not all our maps our online. A near complete collection of Pennsylvania Sanborn maps can be accessed in the Maps Library.
Glossary of Genealogy Terms
Contains brief definitions of terms often used in genealogical research
Ancestry.com
Offers online searching of various genealogical databases. Some records can be viewed for free, but many, including the Census materials, require the payment of a membership fee for access.
Cyndi's List of Genealogy Sites on the Internet
Probably the largest collection of links relating to genealogy. A good place to start to see what is available online
RootsWeb
A free site devoted to helping genealogists. Includes online guides to research, volunteer created lists and databases, discussion boards for questions, and links to related sites
Centre County Historic Records Imaging Project
This site allows you to search by name and view scanned images from the following files: Naturalization Records 1802-1929, Revolutionary War Declarations 1820-1835, Slave Records 1803-1820
Pennsylvania Genealogical/Historical Societies
A list of societies by county that assist genealogists
Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania
The Society is especially strong in Philadelphia resources. The society conducts records searches for a fee.
Historic Pittsburgh
A digital history collection, including maps, county histories, and Census materials for Pittsburgh and Allegheny County
The Pennsylvania Federation of Museums and Historical Organizations
Maintains a directory of County Historical Societies of Pennsylvania
National Archives and Records Administration: Genealogy Page
This site contains much useful information about federal records and how they can be used for genealogy
Pennsylvania County Histories Online
Pennsylvania Digital Archives
The Pennsylvania Historical Museum and Commission is creating an online database of records including records from the Revolutionary War Military Abstract Card File, World War I Service Medal Application Cards, Spanish American War Veterans' Card File of United States Volunteers, Civil War Veterans' Card File, and the Mexican Border Campaign Veterans' Card File.
Access Pennsylvania Digital Repository
A statewide digitization service on behalf of the Office of Commonwealth Libraries using the CONTENTdm software product licensed through OCLC. The service permits the storage and retrieval of digitized collections created by libraries and other entities located throughout Pennsylvania
Family Search
The web site of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah is the world's largest repository of genealogy records. Materials from the Utah collection can be requested on loan from the closest Family History Center. The Family Search web site has a directory of the Family History Centers.
National Archives Genealogy Page
Social Security Death Index
This searchable index is available from many site including Rootsweb.com, Genealogy.com (part of Family Finder), or Ancestry.com
USGenWeb Project
A volunteer project to make useful material available online for every county in the U.S. Two major projects are inputting Census records, and transcribing tombstones.
Centre County Genealogical Society
Holds monthly meetings, and publishes numerous guides to aid genealogists. Their web site provides information about becoming a member. You can also write them at: PO Box 1135, State College, PA 16804-1135
Centre County Library & Historical Museum
The Pennsylvania Room of the Centre County Library and Museum focuses on Centre County and Pennsylvania history and genealogy. It has a specialized collection of over 3000 volumes devoted exclusively to these topics, as well as original Centre County records, newspapers, vertical files containing items of historical and genealogical interest, and various historical and genealogical periodicals. You can visit the Library & Museum at:
203 N. Allegheny Street
Bellefonte, PA 16823
(814) 355-1516
Centre County Government
The web site contains information on how to contact Centre County government agencies including the Recorder of Wills and the Clerk of the Orphan's Court. Some records are being added to the web site through the Historic Records Imaging Project.
Family History Centers (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints)
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints maintains a number of Family History Centers. The Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah is the world's largest repository of genealogy records. Materials from the Utah collection can be requested on loan from the closest Family History Center. The Family Search web site has a directory of the Family History Centers. The nearest Center to the library is at 842 Whitehall Road, State College. The Center's mailing address is: 1761 Circleville Rd., State College, PA 16803. Telephone: 814-237-9048. The general public is welcome to use the Center. Reference assistance is available from library volunteers.
National Archives Mid Atlantic Region, Philadelphia
900 Market Street
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19107-4292
Phone: 215 597-3000
E-mail: philadelphia.archives@nara.gov
Fax: 215-597-2303
Maintains archival records from Federal agencies and courts in Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia
Pennsylvania State Archives
Contain official state records and other archival documents. The Archive library is open to the public Tuesday-Friday, 9:00 am to 4:00 pm; and Saturday 9:00 to 12:00 pm and 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm, excluding State holidays. For general information about the collection and services see their web page for Genealogists. For a more detailed guide to the Pennsylvania State Archives consult: A Guide to Genealogical Resources at the Pennsylvania State Archives, Call # F148.D7, Pattee Stacks Level 1
State Library of Pennsylvania (Harrisburg, PA)
Maintains a online guide to genealogical research, and has copies of the U.S. Census materials for Pennsylvania.
It is not always necessary to visit the library in person in order to determine if we have what you are looking for. You can search for materials in the library's collections from anywhere in the world. Simply go to the library's home page (http://www.libraries.psu.edu), and select databases, then The CAT. The CAT is the library's online card catalog. The CAT does not contain the full-text of library materials, but it does allow you to search for what we own by author, title, or subjects.
