Pennsylvania Genealogy Search

Pennsylvania family history reaches back to the 1680s Quaker and German settlements, and the Pennsylvania State Archives in Harrisburg holds the colonial and state records: land warrants and patents from 1682, tax lists, militia and Revolutionary War records and the county records of 67 counties on microfilm. Statewide vital registration began in 1906, and Pennsylvania's death certificates from 1906 to 1975 and birth certificates from 1906 to 1917 are online, free to Pennsylvania residents through the state library's Ancestry access.

Pennsylvania took no state censuses, but the septennial censuses of taxables taken every seven years from 1779 to 1863 survive for some counties, and the county tax lists cover the rest.

Official sources on this page were checked on September 25, 2026.

Pennsylvania statewide genealogy links

• Pennsylvania State Archives Links to Additional Research SitesGenealogical Sites
• Birth and Death Records Prior to 1906
• Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
• Land Records at the Pennsylvania State Archives

Pennsylvania began statewide birth and death registration in 1906, with Philadelphia keeping records from 1860, Pittsburgh from 1870 and county registers from 1893 to 1905, and the Pennsylvania Department of Health's Division of Vital Records in New Castle holds the certificates. Birth certificates become public after 105 years and death certificates after 50, and the State Archives holds the public ones with indexes online. Marriage licenses have been issued by each county's orphans' court or register of wills since 1885, with earlier marriages in church and county records, and divorce records sit with the prothonotary of the county.

• Pennsylvania State ArchivesPublic birth and death certificates, land records, tax lists and county records
• Pennsylvania Division of Vital RecordsBirth and death certificates from 1906
• Pennsylvania Vital Records guideHow to order certificates and what is public

The State Archives holds the land warrants, surveys and patents from 1682 with online images, the county tax lists and septennial censuses, Pennsylvania's Revolutionary War militia and Civil War records including the Civil War muster rolls and the Pennsylvania National Guard, the Eastern State and Western Penitentiary registers, county naturalization indexes and the Pennsylvania Digital Archives online. The State Library in Harrisburg holds newspapers and the genealogy collection, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia holds the largest manuscript collection in the state, and the National Archives at Philadelphia holds Pennsylvania's federal court, naturalization and Philadelphia passenger arrival records.

• Pennsylvania Digital ArchivesFree digitized Pennsylvania state records
• National Archives at PhiladelphiaFederal court, naturalization and passenger records for Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania recorders of deeds hold land records from each county's founding, registers of wills hold wills and estates, orphans' courts hold guardianships and, since 1885, marriage licenses, and prothonotaries hold civil, divorce and naturalization files. Most recorders and registers post online indexes through the counties' shared systems. Philadelphia's City Archives holds the city's records, and the State Archives has microfilmed older records of most counties. Philadelphia, Bucks and Chester county records reach back to 1682.

• Pennsylvania County Public RecordsRecorders of deeds, registers of wills and prothonotaries for all 67 counties
• Pennsylvania Court RecordsUJS portal dockets and orphans' court records

• National Archives, genealogyCensus, military, immigration and land records
• Library of Congress, genealogy guidesResearch guides for family history