While the primary mission of the Pennsylvania State Archives is to preserve historic documents in their original format, digital scans have been made of select records to facilitate online research.
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Ancestry Pennsylvania
The Pennsylvania State Archives has a partnership with Ancestry.com to digitize family history records in the State Archives and make them available online. The records are available free of charge to Pennsylvania residents through Ancestry Pennsylvania.
Collections include:
- Pennsylvania, Births, 1852–1854
- Pennsylvania, Birth Records, 1906–1915
- Pennsylvania, Civil War Border Claims, 1868–1879
- Pennsylvania, Death Certificates, 1906–1971
- Pennsylvania, Deaths, 1852–1854
- Pennsylvania, Land Warrants, 1733–1987
- Pennsylvania, Land Warrants and Applications, 1733–1952
- Pennsylvania, Marriages, 1852–1854
- Pennsylvania, Oyer and Terminer Court Papers, 1757–1787
- Pennsylvania, Records of Marriages, 1885–1889
- Pennsylvania, Septennial Census, 1779–1863
- Pennsylvania, Spanish War Compensation, 1898–1934
- Pennsylvania, Naturalization, 1794–1908
- Pennsylvania, Tax and Exoneration, 1768–1801
- Pennsylvania, U.S., Civil War Muster Rolls, 1860–1869
- Pennsylvania, U.S., County Marriage Records, 1845–1963
- Pennsylvania, U.S., Prison, Reformatory, and Workhouse Records, 1829–1971
- Pennsylvania, U.S., Veterans Card Files, 1775–1916
- Pennsylvania, U.S., Veteran Compensation Application Files, WWII, 1950–1966
- Pennsylvania, U.S., Veteran Compensation Application Files, WWII, 1950–1966
- Pennsylvania, U.S., World War I Veterans Service and Compensation Files, 1917–1919, 1934–1948
- Pennsylvania, Veterans Burial Cards, 1777–2012
- Pennsylvania, War of 1812 Pensions, 1866–1879
- Pennsylvania, WPA Church Archives, 1937–1940
Audio recordings
The State Archives holds several series of audio recordings, including oral history interviews and the radio programs of Pete Wambach.
Coal mining
You can view online databases of coal mining accident registers for both the anthracite and bituminous districts.
Farm Census, 1927
The Department of Agriculture's Farm Census for the year 1927 is available for viewing online.
Land records
Land records include images of registers, indexes, and surveys from the Records of the Commonwealth Land Office (Record Group 17). They provide a wealth of information for genealogists and property historians.
Available series include:
- Canal Commissioners' Board Canal Map Books, 1810–1880
- Connected Draft Maps
- Copied Surveys, 1681–1912
- County Maps and Atlases from the 1850s–1870s
- Depreciation Land Register, undated
- Donation Land series, [ca. 1781–1839]
- East Side Applications (Register), 1765–1769
- Last Purchase Warrant Register, 1784
- Luzerne County Certified Townships Register, undated
- Melish-Whiteside Maps, 1816-1821
- New Purchase Register, 1768
- Old Rights Index for Bucks and Chester Counties, 1682-1740
- Original Purchase Register, 1682-1762
- Patent Indexes, 1684-1957
- Patent Tract Name Index, [undated]
- Philadelphia Old Rights (Index), 1682–1745
- Warrant Registers, 1733–1957
- Warrantee Township Maps
- West Side Applications (Register), 1766–1769
Maps
See our Maps page for links to various maps in the State Archives’ collections, as well as select others on external websites.
Military records
Search our military records for updated lists of soldiers who served during the War of 1812 to Pennsylvania Volunteers who served during the Civil War.
Photographs
Guide to Photographs at the Pennsylvania State Archives
The Guide to Photographs at the Pennsylvania State Archives, written by Linda Ries, contains descriptive information for the estimated 350,000 photographs contained in the State Archives' collections. Many additional images have been added since its publication in 1993.
To purchase a copy of the book, visit Shop PA Heritage. For more information on current photograph holdings, contact us at 717-787-8953 or ra-statearchives@pa.gov.
- Title Page, Table of Contents, and Introduction
- Record Group Listings
- Manuscript Group Lists – Groups 1–219
- Manuscript Group Lists – Groups 240–425
- Other Collections of Note
- Addenda and Glossary
- Index
Other resources
Several series of archival photographs have been digitized in their entirety. To date, one of these series is available for viewing online: Aerial Photographs and Index of the 1940 Aerial Survey of Pennsylvania, 1937–1942, produced by the State Planning Board under the Department of Commerce (Record Group 31).
You can view digitized historical glass plate negatives documenting daily life of staff and residents of Polk State School in Venango County, Pennsylvania. In the early 20th century Polk Village included resident cottages and dormitories, industrial school classrooms, auditorium, gymnasium, hospital, bakery and kitchen, power plant, farm and orchard. Images show grounds and facilities, interior and exterior views of buildings, staff and residents, school activities, celebrations, games, athletic teams, plays and performances. The State Archives thanks the Polk Center for their cooperation in making these images available and, wherever possible, has retained the captions assigned by the Center.
Slavery and the Underground Railroad
View our Slavery and Underground Railroad Resources, such as the Guide to African American Resources at the Pennsylvania State Archives by Ruth E. Hodge.
Vital statistics (part of Ancestry Pennsylvania)
The Department of Internal Affairs' Record of Marriages, 1885-1891, is available for viewing online.
World War I posters
You can view a collection of digitized World War I era posters of varying size, color, and medium pertaining to the U.S. and Pennsylvania from the Archives' Manuscript Group 200, Poster Collection.
Manufactured for many different businesses, institutions, and government agencies, the artwork is by famous, obscure and unknown commercial illustrators. Those printed by various federal agencies were intended to generate patriotic fervor in Americans.
