Perry County, Pennsylvania Genealogy

United States Pennsylvania Perry County

Historical Facts

 * Parent Counties: Formed from Cumberland County 22 March 1820.
 * County Seat: New Bloomfield
 * Neighboring Counties: residents may also have records in Snyder (north) • Cumberland (south) •  Juniata (northwest)  • Northumberland (northeast)  •  Dauphin (east)  •  Franklin (southwest)


 * Named for Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, hero of Battle of Lake Erie in the War of 1812.
 * One of reasons the county was created because residents did not want to travel over the mountains to get to Carlisle which was the seat of Cumberland County.

Cemeteries
Cemetery records often reveal birth, marriage, death, relationship, military, and religious information.

Family History Library Catalog:

"Registration of graves and cemeteries in the eastern area of the county of Juniata : consisting of the townships of Delaware, Fayette, Fermanagh, Greenwood, Monroe, Susquehanna and Walker and the borough of Thompsontown with some cemeteries of Snyder and Perry counties..." It is on one microfilm and has only pieces of Perry, but it could be useful.

30 Perry County, Pennsylvania cemetery records : complete tombstone inscriptions is a 348 page book that includes an index.

"no. 3 (Aug 1978) - Bloomfield burials in 1890" is an article written by Isaac Simmers.

"no. 2 (April 1977) - Burial grounds" is another article but contains information on the Van Camp burial ground; Burial gound report; Limestone Presbyterian Churchyard; German tombstones in Zion (Toboyne) Chuchyard at Blain.

"no. 4 (1979) - Perry Valley burial grounds" another article but is an from the "Newport News" on May 27, 1897 listing names of persons buried in the area without tombstones or whose tombstones have been destroyed.

Ancestry's Red Book:

"Large collections of cemetery records are located at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania, the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, and at many local libraries and historical societies. The Pennsylvania State Library maintains the state’s Daughters of the American Revolution cemetery collection (see page 7). Records for several Philadelphia funeral directors are in the Collections of the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania (housed at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania). The Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania microfilmed cemetery records throughout the commonwealth and is currently indexing cemetery records in their collections. Various compilations of cemetery inscriptions have been published, such as those for the western counties by Closson Press and Mechling Books."

On Cyndi's List there are some websites dealing with cemeteries.

http://www.daddezio.com/cemetery/junction/CJ-PA-NDX.html is useful as it gives the locations of the cemeteries in Pennsylvania that one can then go and search if needed.

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=csr&amp;CScnty=2290 has the name of the cemetery, how many intered and some photos. You can search the site by names and will reveal multiple states.

Church Records
Calvinism and Presbyterianism were the first in Perry County because Scotch-Irish settled the area first. In the early 1800s, as the Scotch-Irish moved out, more Germans moved in creating more Lutheran and German Reformed churches.



Ancestry's Red Book is the digitized version that has links to multiple societies and churches for more information on what is contained or how to contact them to get information.

County-wide Database - Multi-denominational

 * 1708-1985 - Pennsylvania, Church and Town Records, 1708-1985 at Historical Society of Pennsylvania – $, free to members of the society; Also available at Ancestry.com – $; 7,542,774 entries. This database is incomplete for all counties.

Lutheran
St. Michael's Lutheran Church was in Pfoutz Valley and was organized between 1770 and 1773. The Lebanon Lutheran Church was also an early church in the area in 1790 sharing a church with the Loysville Reformed Church. Mt. Zion Lutheran Church organized in about 1809, met in the old Union Church with St. Peter's Reformed Church.


 * 1846-1847 – Marriages performed by John William Heim, Perry County, Pennsylvania - original at the Wentz Library of the Lutheran Theological Seminary, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania;
 * 1901-1947 - Church records[Newport Evangelical Charge] – Newport Charge included the following churches: Calvary at Newport, Ebenezer at Milford now Wila, Mt. Zion at Elliottsburg, Stony Point in Southwest Madison Township, St. Mary's in Liverpool and Messiah or Hunter's Valley in Spring Township;
 * Classified index to Churches between the mountains : a history of the Lutheran congregations in Perry County, Pennsylvania by Rev. D. H. Focht – A book that is more about history, but it may lead to where one needs to look;

Methodist

 * 1893-1930 - Church records, 1893-1930 [Newport Methodist] which covers Newport, Millerstown, and Donnally Mills. In 1906 Newport was its own charge;

Presbyterian
The Centre Presbyterian Church was one of the first churches in the area being organized in 1766. Dick's Gap Church and Blain Presbyterian Church or the Upper Church of Blain were both organized in 1767.


 * Pastor's register of baptisms, communicants, burials - Transcribed from a register in possession of Mrs. F. A. Blair, Blairs Mills, Pa;

Reformed
Loysville Reformed Church shared their church with the Lebanon Lutheran Church. St. Peter's Reformed Church was organized in about 1809 and met with Mt. Zion Lutheran Church in the Old Union Church.

United Brethren

 * 1856-1917 - Church records [Perry Circuit of the United Brethren in Christ] covers Classes attached to Perry Circuit are listed in the catalog entry;

Land and Property
Land records in Perry County began in 1820. These records are filed with the Register and Recorder office in New Bloomfield, Pennsylvania.

Land and property records can place an ancestor in a particular location, provide economic information, and reveal family relationships. Land records include: deeds, abstracts, indexes, mortgages, leases, grants, sheriff sales, land patents, and maps. Property records include liens as well as livestock brands and estray records.

The following are examples of available resources:

Online Land Records


 * 1820–present Images are available online using the Landex system. There is a fee to view the images.

Land Records on Microfilm


 * 1820-1950 Deed Book, 1820-1866; Indexes, 1820-1950

Additional Resources

Note that the "Maps" section below also includes maps related to land ownership.

See Pennsylvania Land and Property for more information about using land records, especially about original land warrants, surveys, and patents filed at the state land office.

Additional resources can sometimes be found using search phrases such as Perry County Pennsylvania Land in online catalogs such as:


 * Historical Society of Pennsylvania
 * WorldCat (For instructions see WorldCat Online Catalog.)
 * (For instructions see FHL Catalog Place-name Search.)

Maps
Ancestor Tracks has posted free downloadable images from the 1877 Atlas of Perry, Juniata &amp; Mifflin Counties under the Direction of Beach Nichols, published by Pomeroy, Whitman &amp; Co. This wall map located in the Library of Congress shows major landowners and geographic sites at the date of publishing. While the physical maps are in the public domain, the images we have taken of the maps belong to us and are not to be used commercially. We hereby give permission to use them strictly for personal use; please attribute to Ancestor Tracks.

Probate Records
Online Probate Records Original probate records for some Pennsylvania counties are available free online as digital images at FamilySearch.org. The dates vary significantly for each county and not all counties are listed. Some counties may only have probate indexes. This Pennsylvania collection of images may be browsed through the links listed below: Complete Collection:
 * 1683-1994 – at FamilySearch.org

Perry County Only:
 * 1820–1911 – Perry County Probate Records

Courthouse

 * Perry County Courthouse
 * P.O. Box 37
 * 2 East Main Street
 * New Bloomfield, PA 17068
 * Telephone: (717) 582-2131


 * Copies of documents including birth, marriages, deaths, divorces, land, and probate records can be obtained by using: Pennsylvania Public Record. Click on the link for the record you wish to request.

Societies
Historical Society of Perry County PA P.O. Box 81 Newport PA 17074-0081 717-567-9011 e-mail: hsofpc@gmail.com facebook

County-wide Database

 * 1700-1821 - Pennsylvania Marriage Records Ancestry.com – ($) This database is incomplete for all counties.
 * Pre-1810 – Pennsylvania Marriages Ancestry.com – ($) This database is incomplete for all counties. Includes 35,000 marriage records from vol. VIII of of the second series of the Pennsylvania Archives.

Birth

 * 1852-1854 – Pennsylvania Births Ancestry.com – $ Index with images.

Marriage

 * 1725-1976 - - free index. Not complete for all years.

Divorce
Divorce records are handled by the office of the Prothonotary. While no on-line indexes or records are available, records may be obtained by visiting or writing to the Prothonotary at:

Prothonotary and Clerk of Court Office P.O. Box# 325 New Bloomfield, PA 17068 Phone: 717-582-2131

Death

 * 1852-1854 – Pennsylvania Deaths Ancestry.com – $ Index with images.

Web Sites

 * USGenWeb project. May have maps, name indexes, history or other information for this county. Select the state, then the county.
 * http://www.tcrpc-pa.org/assets/adeptiv/upload/attach/2011%20PC%20CDB.pdf, is a free pamphlete with information about the boroughs and townships in there current times, but does give office locations and contact information.
 * http://www.tcrpc-pa.org/assets/adeptiv/upload/attach/2011%20PC%20CDB.pdf, is a free pamphlete with information about the boroughs and townships in there current times, but does give office locations and contact information.

Populated Places
Perry county has two types of municipalities, boroughs and twonships. It has 9 boroughs: Blain, Duncannon, Landisburg, Liverpool, Marysville, Millerstown, Bloomfield, New Buffalo, and Newport; and 21 townships: Buffalo Township, Carroll Township, Centre Township, Greenwood Township, Howe Township, Jackson Township, Juniata Township, Liverpool Township, Miller Township, Northeast Madison Township, Oliver Township, Penn Township, Rye Township, Saville Township, Southwest Madison Township, Spring Township, Toboyne Township, Tuscarora Township, Tyrone Township, Watts Township, and Wheatfield Township. Bloomfield, though sometimes named New Bloomfield, is the county seat.