User:Pipkincm/Sandbox

These are the items that I found on the wiki that either I want to edit/create or that I'll suggest someone else gives attention to. If you've been asked to collaborate, please review the topic of interest and add to the "discussion" tab.

Land and Property
Department of Real Estate County Office Building 542 Forbes Avenue Room 101 Pittsburgh, PA 15219 Phone: (412) 350-4226 Fax: (412) 350-6877

In 2008 the Recorder of Deeds became the Department of Real Estate. All power and authority previously vested in the Recorder of Deeds was transfered to the Department of Real Estate.

Free on-line indexes are available, however there is a charge to view the actual documents. Indexes are available for 1986 to the present. Imaged deeds are available for 1994 to the present. Imaged mortgages are available for 1995 to the present.


 * Historic Pittsburgh has posted the 1914 Warrantee Atlas of Allegheny County which shows the earliest landowners of the current county.  These  maps of each township were drawn using the earliest surveys, warrants and patents of the original owers of land within the county.
 * Deeds, 1788-1901; index, 1788-1904

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Land records in Allegheny County began in 1788. These records are filed with the Department of Real Estate office (formerly the Record of Deeds) in Pittsburgh, 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


 * 1792–1857; 1986–present Allegheny County offers online access to indexes and images. Fees apply for copies.

Land Records on Microfilm


 * 1788–1904 Deeds, 1788-1901; index, 1788-1904.

Maps


 * Fishman, Joel. The Warrantee Atlas of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh [Pennsylvania] : Western Pennsylvania Genealogical Society, 1982. Originally published by the Pennsylvania State Land Office ca. 1914. Digital version of the 1914 edition available at the University of Pittsburgh's "Historic Pittsburgh Maps Collection."

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 Allegheny 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.)



Suggested Text for County Probate Pages
Probate records are court records created after an individual’s death that relate to a court’s decisions regarding the distribution of the estate to the heirs or creditors and the care of any dependents. These documents are important to family history researchers because they usually exist for time periods before civil birth and death records were kept.

The [court] has responsibility for the probate records of [name] County.

The following [name] County probate records have been indexed or abstracted:

Suggested State Census Records "Overview" Text
[The State] often took censuses in the years between the federal censuses, the dates are listed below. State census records may have columns that were different or more unusual than those found on federal censuses, [make this specific for the state, such as the 1892 gives religion or 1925 gives a married woman’s maiden name]. The responses and years of coverage may give additional information on the family.

State Censuses
For a list of state and territorial censuses:


 * Lainhart, Ann S. State Census Records. Baltimore: Genealogical Publ., 1992. (FHL book X2Lai.) State-by-state list of censuses, and selected census substitutes. Describes dates, coverage, content, indexes and availability.

In addition, the staff of the Family History Library has compiled the following register which lists all state census records available at the library:


 * Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Family History Library, US/Canada Reference Staff, State Census Register, 3 vols. (Salt Lake City: Family History Library, 2005). FHL Ref. book 973 X23us. Available free online through Brigham Young University's Family History Archive: Vol. 1, Alabama - Kansas; Vol. 2, Kentucky - New York; Vol. 3, North Carolina - Wyoming.

Articles

 * Orphan Trains
 * Link "legal ages" page to land, military, court, immigration, and vital records pages.
 * Mining
 * Northern Liberties, Pennsylvania