Lost in Pennsylvania?

Try the Published Pennsylvania Archives

Newbie researchers with Pennsylvania roots may not know that colonial and state documents dated 1664 through 1935 were transcribed and published in 138 bound books with huge fold-out maps known as the published Pennsylvania Archives, not to be confused with the building known as the Pennsylvania State Archives.

A few old libraries have all 138 volumes, but fortunately they have been scanned and are found searchable.

• Fold3.com

• Ancestry.com

• FamilySearch.org (with some missing titles)

  https://www.familysearch.org/en/search/catalog/221762

• HathiTrust.org RECOMMENDED!

As you can see from the listing, the volumes (books) are not published in chronological order, except within their series. As different record collections from say the 1600s were transcribed, the info could end up in the 1st, 2nd, 4th, or 8th series.

• First Series (1664–1790 in 12 volumes)

• Second Series (1641–1825 in 19 volumes)

• Third Series (1730–1898 in 30 volumes)

• Fourth Series (1681–1902 in 12 volumes)

• Fifth Series (1743–1785 in 8 volumes)

• Sixth Series (1734–1847 in 16 volumes)

• Seventh Series (in 5 volumes)

• Eighth Series (1682–1776 in 8 volumes)

• Ninth Series (1790–1838 in 10 volumes)

You’ll want to use a study aid such as Lost in Pennsylvania? Try the Published Pennsylvania Archives¹ (booklet) Christine Crawford-Oppenheimer, M.L.S. who explains "This study will discuss what types of documents the various series of PA [Pennsylvania archives] contain, the best order to work through them to obtain the most results quickly, and routes to follow to locate a set of PA.”

Here’s an entry I discovered about my ancestor (Johannes) Conrad Weiser using HathiTrust’s search engine and image database:

When I got to page 41 itself, there is reference to his death the previous summer, as well as a footnote describing Conrad’s employment with these words “had acted a prominent part between the Indians, and the Government by who his loss will be severely felt.”

Full Disclosure: I am a lifetime member of the Weiser Family Association and am aware of many facets of Conrad’s life experiences. A newbie researcher might consider this second-hand info, and indeed this is a derivative work and therefore subject to human error. The initiative as a matter of preserving the assortment of loose papers, letters, and manuscripts, many of which have since been misplaced or have deteriorated over time. The venerable DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution) lineage organization is known to accept ancestral references in the published Pennsylvania Archives failing access to the originals.

For further reading

• WikiPedia. Pennsylvania Archives, (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania_Archives : viewed 2 Apr 2025). This entry lists the titles of each volume in a series, with a link leading to the scanned pages that are every-word searchable and the “read this book aloud” option. However, it does not provide suggestions for citations.

Happy family tree climbing!
Myrt
DearMYRTLE,
Your (not so) retired friend in genealogy.

1. Crawford-Oppenheimer, Christine. Lost in Pennsylvania? Try the Published Pennsylvania Archives. (Poughkeepsie, New York: Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania. 1999, p3. Reprinted from the Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine 40, no. 2 (Fall/Winter 1997): 101-10. Available in booklet format from the publisher. https://genealogical-society-of-pennsylvania.square.site/product/lost-in-pennsylvania-try-the-published-pennsylvania-archives-christine-crawford-oppenheimer/81 : viewed 4 April 2025).