Early Pennsylvania Land Maps

Arlene H. Eakle's has a genealogy blog that usually has interesting and useful research information. This week's post is excellent - it's about her research experiences in Lanceaster PA searching for a n ancestral homestead. She also links to a web site - www.ancestortracks.com - that hosts early Pennsylvania land maps.

Some of the maps show the original Warrantee Tract Maps, and some show other early (mainly 1850 to 1880 time frame) residents. The main page at Ancestor Tracks provides a state map with the counties colored to denote the type of resources available at Ancestor Tracks.

Dark Red: Clicking on Washington County, I found links to purchase the early land owner books from Ancestor Tracks.

Red Shaded: I clicked on Lawrence County and was rewarded with a Warrantee Tract Map of the first owners. The maps are by township.

Red Shaded: I clicked on Westmoreland County and found an 1857 map of residents.

Yellow: I clicked on Mercer County and found a list of Warrantee Tract township maps that could be ordered from the Pennsylvania State Archives.

Green: I clicked on York County and found a list of books of early land owners available for sale by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

There were also White counties with no information on the Ancestor Tracks web site.

These maps are invaluable, in whatever form. Unfortunately, maps for all counties are not available. Many of them may be available on the USGenWeb sites for the individual counties.