[Genealib] AncestorTracks: Major Source for Pinpointing Early PA Landowners

[Sharon]

Ancestor Tracks ( <http://www.ancestortracks.com/> www.AncestorTracks.com)
specializes in producing reference resources for tracking early PA
landowners through their land tracts.   Land ownership maps are one of the
most valuable, yet underused, tools available to researchers.   We now offer
two product lines which complement each other: (1) state-wide Warrant,
Patent, and Tract Name Registers which document the first transfers of land
from the Penns or the state to private owners (see below); and (2) county
atlases of the Pennsylvania Township Warrantee Maps on file at the
Pennsylvania Archives in Harrisburg showing the exact metes-and-bounds
tracts of early pioneers who purchased land from colonial or the
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania authorities.  While some of our reference
resources are CDs, all of the files on those CDs are in common formats (such
as .pdf or .jpg) and may be copied to the hard drive of individual
computers.  We also offer site licenses to libraries and societies.  As you
know, the “Keystone State” may be the most important state in supplying
settlers for westward migration.  Countless families who started out in
Pennsylvania moved west into Ohio and beyond, while thousands more floated
down the Ohio River into Kentucky and beyond.

NEW STATE-WIDE PRODUCT!   We are proud to announce publication of three CDs
which contain the indexes to the Warrant Registers, Patent Registers, and
Tract Name Registers from 1682-1959+. 

The first CD, First Landowners of Pennsylvania: Colonial and State Warrant
<http://ancestortracks.com/warrant_registers_CD.htm>  Registers in the
Pennsylvania Archives in Harrisburg, contains all 70 of the Warrant
Registers showing the first transfer of land tracts to private owners.
These are the people who applied for land from either the Propietors or the
state. These records start in 1682 and continue through most of the first
legally-recognized owners of land originally owned by the Penns, and later
the state, to private individuals.   Every county register, containing
thousands of pages, is on this CD. The dates of land transfers continue
throughout the 1700s and 1800s and into the mid-1900s.   NOTE: These
registers document the first owners of land for approximately 70% of
Pennsylvania and cover each county.   The registers should not be confused
with the deed registers located in the counties which show all subsequent
land transfers.  No maps are contained in these registers.

The second CD in this series, First Landowners of Pennsylvania: Indexes to
the Colonial and <http://ancestortracks.com/patent_registers_CD.html>  State
Patent Registers in the PA Archives, Harrisburg, 1684-ca 1995, contains the
indexes to all people who actually were granted final title from colony or
state authorities. In very many cases, they are not the same individuals who
actually applied for the land (termed warrantees).

Finally, the third CD, First Landowners of Pennsylvania: Indexes to Tract
Names of <http://ancestortracks.com/FirstLandownersTractNameIndexes.html>
Patented Land in the PA Archives, Harrisburg, ca 1684-1811, is the place to
look when only the original name of the tract is known but not who the very
first owners were. 

IINTRODUCING THE LATEST COUNTY ATLAS!   Early
<http://ancestortracks.com/berks_blurb.html>  Landowners of Pennsylvania:
Atlas of Township Warrantee Maps of Berks County, PA   (575 pages).  These
maps show precise metes-and-bounds outlines of each original tract and all
surrounding tracts in individual townships, giving the names of the
warrantee and patentee; dates of the warrant, survey, and patent; and the
survey and patent book pages where transaction was recorded.  Dates of the
transactions range from the 1700s into the 1900s.  Each chapter starts with
the Township Warrantee Map reduced to a 8 ½ X 11” and includes tables of
transcriptions of all information from each tract, along with atlas
coordinates where the tract may be found (see an example of a page from the
Fayette County book at http://ancestortracks.com/Dunbar_pg1.htm).  An
everyname index is included.  In addition to the warrantee atlas for Berks
County, we have also published atlases of Fayette, Greene and Washington
Counties.

ALSO AVAILABLE--Berks <http://ancestortracks.com/berks_map_CD_blurb.html>
County Township Warrantee Maps on CD, the companion CD to the atlas. This CD
contains the full-sized images of the maps shown in the atlas which can be
enlarged almost infinitely. In addition to being able to see every detail of
each individual tract (including the "white oak" and "stone pile"
notations), you can cut and paste individual tracts to illustrate your
family history or web site.   Similar companion CDs are available for the
other atlases we have published.

Ancestor Tracks is also committed to providing links to other sources of
Pennsylvania land records, and we eventually hope to provide such links for
every county in the state. Click on the colored counties on the map at our
website (www.ancestortracks.com <http://www.ancestortracks.com/> ) for
currently available known resources for early PA land owners.   We are
posting 19th century maps online which coordinate with census records.

Armed with these Warrant and Patent Registers, plus the atlases we are
publishing, researchers now can: 

o        Pin families down to exact locations prior to the 1790 census 

o        Verify their ancestors by identifying settler groups who lived and
moved near each other.        

o        Identify migration trails of their families as they moved through
Pennsylvania 

o        Determine the correct location of family wills, church records,
deeds and orphans court records by knowing exactly where their families
lived 

o        Plan a trip to the land of their ancestors so they can walk where
they walked and feel their roots 

 

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