[Genealib] Early Landowner Atlas of Westmoreland Co., PA; also Free, Downloadable 19th C. Landowner maps

Fri Nov 2 13:54:43 EDT 2007

Ancestor Tracks is pleased to announce the sixth of the Early Landowners of
PA reference series, Early Landowners of Pennsylvania: Atlas of Township
Patent Maps of Westmoreland Co., PA and its companion CD, Early Land Owners
of PA: Scans of Township Patent Maps of Westmoreland County, PA.  This atlas
and CD of detailed tract plats locate the tract, warrantee, patentee and
survey information of each first landowner in Westmoreland County, for the
first time providing all needed information in one publication for this
major migration-route county.   This volume joins our other similar titles
for Berks, Fayette, Greene, and Washington Counties.  As a service, we have
also posted many free, high-resolution, downloadable 19th century landowner
maps for numerous Pennsylvania counties for use with the 1850, 1860, and
1870 censuses.  More specifics follow:

Early Landowners of PA: Atlas of Township Patent Maps of Westmoreland Co.,
PA (8.5" X 11", softbound, 485 pages)

Although the State Land Office did not plat the original surveys onto
Township Warrantee Maps for Westmoreland County as they did for about
one-third of the townships in the state, the Westmoreland County Tax Map
Maintenance Department completed a similar project about 10 years ago,
mapping the patents of the original tracts into a series of township maps.
Since only patentees are shown on these maps, we at Ancestor Tracks looked
up each of the approximately 4,000 original tracts within Westmoreland Co.
in the Warrant Register, the New Purchase Register, and the Patent Register
indexes in Harrisburg to create a totally new resource for the Pennsylvania
genealogist.  This atlas provides the names of the warrantee (or New
Purchase applicant) and patentee for every tract within present Westmoreland
County; the name and size of the tract; dates of the warrant and patent for
each tract; plus the survey book and page number where those documents were
recorded.  Inconsistencies in existing information were corrected and
invaluable data was added.   Numbered locator boxes superimposed over the
Township Patent Maps in the atlas refer to the 353 Detailed Tract Maps found
on the companion CD (see below).  Researchers will be able to pinpoint the
location of their ancestor's tract, as well as to identify which repository
in Greensburg or Harrisburg holds the original documents.  Most of these
land transactions precede the deeds located in the county courthouse since
they document the transfer of ownership from the state or colony to the
first landowners, although references to many deeds and surveys in
Greensburg are also included. 

As with the other Ancestor Tracks atlases and CDs, the first private
landowners of Westmoreland County are documented in detail.  This
documentation can often reveal family relationships or clues to possible
relationships since relatives usually congregated near one another, acted as
witnesses and sponsors for each other, attended church together, and appear
together in tax and census lists. Also, since people usually moved in
groups, tracking sets of families and neighbors as a whole can frequently
suggest routes of migration. Finally, later owners of these tracts can be
traced back to the exact location of their plat by following their
transactions through deeds and will books. In some cases, names on the
Patent Maps are the only record that certain people actually existed.

Early Land Owners of PA: Scans of Township Patent Maps of Westmoreland
County, PA (CD; contains only map images, not the text of the book)

The companion CD is a very special addition companion to the atlas. It
includes the Township Patent maps which show each tract within the township
as a whole by number.  Furthermore, it also includes 353 Detailed Tract Maps
which show the individual plats of the earliest owners of land in
Westmoreland County superimposed over current road maps, making it easy to
locate original tracts as they are currently situated within the County.
These Detailed Tract Maps were produced by the GIS Tax Mapping Division in
the Westmoreland County Courthouse in Greensburgo.  Go to
http://ancestrotracks.com <http://ancestrotracks.com/>  and click on the
county map to see exactly how this works.  

The price for the atlas is $45.00 and the CD is $20.00 plus shipping and
handling; both can be purchased at the same time for $60.00 plus s &h.  We
are happy to accept Purchase Orders.  All atlases and CDs are available from
http://ancestortracks.com <http://ancestortracks.com/>  or through the Order
Form on our site.

The following is a list of the free, downloadable images we have posted for
Pennsylvania.  Once the images are loaded, they can be enlarged by clicking
on them, and they may be saved by right-clicking and selecting "Save Image
As..."

            Adams                          1858
<http://ancestortracks.com/Adams_Co_Map,1858.html>
http://ancestortracks.com/Adams_Co_Map,1858.html 

            Armstrong                     1861
<http://ancestortracks.com/Armstrong_Co_Map,1861.html>
http://ancestortracks.com/Armstrong_Co_Map,1861.html

            Beaver/Lawrence          1860
<http://ancestortracks.com/Beaver_County_Map1860.html>
http://ancestortracks.com/Beaver_County_Map1860.html

            Bedford                         1861
<http://ancestortracks.com/Bedford_Co_Map,1861.html>
http://ancestortracks.com/Bedford_Co_Map,1861.html

            Berks                            1860
<http://ancestortracks.com/Berks_Co_blurb.html>
http://ancestortracks.com/Berks_Co_blurb.html

            Bucks                           1850 & 1857
<http://ancestortracks.com/Phil_Mont_Bucks_Del_maps.html>
http://ancestortracks.com/Phil_Mont_Bucks_Del_maps.html

            Butler                            1858
<http://ancestortracks.com/Butler_Co_Map,1858.html>
http://ancestortracks.com/Butler_Co_Map,1858.html

            Crawford                      ??
<http://ancestortracks.com/Crawford_Co_Atlas.html>
http://ancestortracks.com/Crawford_Co_Atlas.html

            Forest                           1881
<http://ancestortracks.com/ForestCo1881.html>
http://ancestortracks.com/ForestCo1881.html

            Lawrence/Beaver         1860                 (see Beaver above)

            Montgomery                 1857
<http://ancestortracks.com/Phil_Mont_Bucks_Del_maps.html>
http://ancestortracks.com/Phil_Mont_Bucks_Del_maps.html

            Northampton                1860
<http://ancestortracks.com/Northampton_Co_Map,1860.html>
http://ancestortracks.com/Northampton_Co_Map,1860.html

            Northumberland           1858
<http://ancestortracks.com/Northumberland_Map1858,TWMapsPriceList.htm>
http://ancestortracks.com/Northumberland_Map1858,TWMapsPriceList.htm

            Venango                       1857
<http://ancestortracks.com/VenangoCo_resources.html>
http://ancestortracks.com/VenangoCo_resources.html

            Westmoreland              1857
<http://ancestortracks.com/WestmorelandCoMap,1857.html>
http://ancestortracks.com/WestmorelandCoMap,1857.html (scroll down the page)

We have also posted images from the following atlases:

            Clarion                          1877
<http://ancestortracks.com/Clarion_Co_Atlas,Caldwell,1877.html>
http://ancestortracks.com/Clarion_Co_Atlas,Caldwell,1877.html  (Caldwell's
Atlas)

            Delaware                       1880
<http://ancestortracks.com/Delaware_Co_Warrantee_Atlas.html>
http://ancestortracks.com/Delaware_Co_Warrantee_Atlas.html  (Smith)

            Somerset                      1930's
<http://ancestortracks.com/Somerset_Co_Warrantees.html>
http://ancestortracks.com/Somerset_Co_Warrantees.html  (Somerset County
Atlas of Surveys and Warrants Collected andPlotted as a WPA Project)

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.acomp.usf.edu/pipermail/genealib/attachments/20071102/1639816c/attachment.html