Centre County, Pennsylvania Genealogy

United States Pennsylvania Centre County

Historical Facts

 * Parent Counties: Formed from Lycoming, Mifflin, Northumberland and Huntingdon Counties 13 February 1843.
 * County Seat: Bellefonte
 * Neighboring Counties: residents may also have records in Clinton (north) • Union (east) • Blair (southwest) • Mifflin (southeast) • Clearfield (west)  •  Huntingdon (south)

Named for being in the middle of the state. There is a story that the legislature could not determine whether to put the State College in Pittsburgh or Philadelphia, so they drew an X through the state and put the school where the X crossed.

==== Boundary Changes ====


 * 27 January 1750: Centre County was originally part of Cumberland County when the county was created.
 * 9 March 1771: When Bedford County was carved out of Cumberland County, the western 2/3 of what is today's Centre County was part of Bedford County and the eastern 1/3 remained part of Cumberland County. A very small portion of the eastern-most point was in Berks County.
 * 21 March 1772: When Northumberland County was created, the western 1/3 of today's Centre County remained in Bedford County, while the eastern 2/3 of today's Centre County was included in Northumberland County.
 * 19 September 1789: When Mifflin County was formed, much of today's Centre County became part of Mifflin County; the eastern-most point (about 20% of the county) remained in Northumberland County.
 * 13 April 1795: When Lycoming County was created, a small portion of today's eastern Centre County. was absorbed into Lycoming County, the rest of eastern Centre County remained in Northumberland County, a small southeastern portion of future Centre County was part of Huntingdon County,  and the bulk of the county remained in Mifflin County.
 * 21 January 1839: Clinton County set off.

Resources
The county's probate and court records begin with the founding of the county, the land records in 1801. Except for a brief period of time when birth, marriage and death records were kept in the 1850's (approximately 1852-1855), there were no civil vital records kept by the county until marriages began again in 1885 and births and deaths in 1893. The keeping of birth and death records was discontinued after 1905 when the state of Pennsylvania began keeping those records.

Biographies
Centre County Biographies

Cemeteries
The Centre County Genealogical Society has taken on the monumental task of identifying all burial places in Centre County. Their ongoing efforts can be found at:

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~pacentre/graves.htm

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

Centre County PAGenWeb is finding and making available church records of Centre County. They are beginning with four topics to try to understand the religious inclinations of Centre countians:


 * 1877 History of Religious Affiliation
 * 1906 Census of Religious Adherence
 * 1990 Census of Religious Adherence
 * Current Listing of Religious Organizations

Quaker

 * 1800s-1900s - Pennsylvania Quaker Records at Ancestry.com - $; book transcription.

History
The Centre County Historical Society has an online address: http://www.centrecountyhistory.org/

Land and Property
Land records in Centre County began in 1843. These records are filed with the Centre County Recorder of Deeds office in Bellefonte, 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:

Maps


 * Warrant Map of Centre County. State College, Pennsylvania : Centre County Genealogical Society, 2011.

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

Additional Resources

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 Centre 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 1861 Topographical Map of Centre Co. Pennsylvania from Actual Surveys under the Direction of H. F. Walling, published by S.D. Tilden. 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.

Military

 * Centre County Civil War Soldiers

Newspapers
Newspapers of Centre County


 * Pennsylvania Newspapers
 * Chronicling America US Newspaper Directory
 * The Centre Daily Times began in 1898 as the Weekly Times and later as the State College Times . In 1934 it became a daily newspaper and is called The Centre County Daily.
 * The Daily Collegian The Daily Collegian is the newspaper for PennState University. It originally started ast The Freelance in 1887.
 * Free Lance (monthly) - April 1887-April 1904
 * State Collegian (weekly) September 28, 1904-June 10, 1911
 * Penn State Collegian (weekly) September 28, 1911 to August 2, 1940
 * The Daily Collegian (daily) September 5, 1940 to present.
 * The Centre County Gazette
 * Gantdaily.com

Online Newspapers

To learn if there are newspapers online for a specific town or city in Pennsylvania, see news.google.com/newspapers and search for the town or the name of a newspaper.


 * The Daily Collegian Historical Digital Collegian Archive.
 * Pennsylvania Civil War Era Newspaper Collection available through the Penn State University Library, dating from February 23, 1831 to February 1877.

Online Newspaper Abstracts


 * PA-Roots Newspaper Articles for Centre County.
 * The Centre County Daily Newspaper has an Archive Search for the years 1995 - current.

Archived Historical Newspapers


 * Centre Daily Times is available at the Centre County Library and at Penn State's News and Microforms Library.

Obituaries
Obituaries are generally found in local newspapers where the person died. However, sometimes an obituary is found in the location from which he or she originated. To find an obituary, see the information under the Newspaper heading

Online Obituary Abstracts


 * Centre Daily Times Past Obituaries
 * PA-Roots Obituaries for Centre County.
 * USGenWeb Obituaries for Centre County.

Obituaries and Indexes


 * The Centre County Library and Historical Museum in Bellefonte has obituary indexes from 1821 located in The Pennsylvania Room The email address for the Pennsylvania room is paroom@centrecountylibrary.org for more information on how to obtain an obituary.
 * The Centre Daily Times Obituary Index at Penn State University Library, 1937-1995 and 2010-2011.

Obituary Excerpts and Abstracts


 * Compiled by John H. Wion, Deaths in Central Pennsylvania; an Index to the Obituaries Appearing in the Democratic Watchman, Bellefonte, Pa. (S.I.:s.n., 1969)
 * A scrapbook kept by martha M. (Hoy) Vonada; index prepared by R. Fred Houts, Martha Vonada Scrapbook (Minneapolis, Minnesota:R.F. Houts, 1995) Martha Vonada saved funeral cards and obituaries from Centre County, Pennsylvania.
 * Compiled by Nancy Lee Stover, Centre County, Pennsylvania Newspaper Death Notices, 1821-1869 (S.I.:N.L. Stover, 1999)

Courthouse
Centre County Courthouse Centre County Government Centre County Register of Wills Willowbank County Office Building 414 Holmes Street Suite #2 Bellefonte PA 16823

Family History Centers

 * Introduction to LDS Family History Centers
 * State College Pennsylvania Family History Center

Libraries

 * The Pennsylvania State University - Pennsylvania's State University

http://www.psu.edu/

Museums

 * The Pennsylvania Room and Historical Museum

(State and Local History &amp; Central Pa. Genealogy) 203 North Allegheny St. Bellefonte, PA 16823 (814) 355-1516, ext. 214 [mailto:paroom@centrecountylibrary.org paroom@centrecountylibrary.org] Monday - Friday: 10:00 a.m. - 5 p.m. Saturday: 10:00 a.m. - 4 p.m.

Societies

 * Centre County Genealogical Society http://www.centrecountygenealogy.org/
 * Family History Center at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints


 * 842 W Whitehall Rd., State College (814) 237-1958
 * Hours: Tues &amp; Wed 9 am - 2 pm, 6:30 - 9 pm

County-wide Databases

 * Centre County Vital Statistics

Birth

 * 1726-1930 - Pennsylvania, Births and Christenings, 1709-1950 - free index. Not complete for all years.
 * 1852-1854 – Pennsylvania Births Ancestry.com – ($) Index with images.

Marriage

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

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:

Centre County Prothonotary Centre County Courthouse Bellefonte PA 16823-1488 Directions: Map Phone: (814) 355-6796 Hours: 8:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Monday - Friday

Death

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

Web Sites

 * Centre County Historical Society

Populated Places

 * Boroughs: Bellefonte, Millheim, Philipsburg, State College


 * Townships: Benner, Boggs, College, Ferguson, Gregg, Haines, Harris, Halfmoon, Patton, Potter