Cambria County, Pennsylvania Genealogy

United States Pennsylvania Cambria County

Historical Facts

 * Parent Counties: Formed from Somerset and Huntingdon Counties 26 March 1804.
 * County Seat: Ebensburg
 * Neighboring Counties: residents may also have records in Clearfield (north) • Blair (east) • Indiana (west) • Somerset (south)  •   Westmoreland (southwest)  •  Bedford (southeast) • Centre (northeast)

==== Boundary Changes ====


 * Prior to 1771: Future Cambria County was part of Cumberland County.
 * 9 March 1771: Bedford County (including the area of future Cambria County) was created from Cumberland County.
 * 20 September 1787: When Huntingdon County was carved from Bedford County, half of Cambria County was part of Huntingdon County and half remained in Bedford County.
 * 17 April 1795: When Somerset County was formed from Bedford County, half of Cambria became part of Somerset County while the other half stayed in Huntingdon County.

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

Church Records
The three religious groups that settled early in Cambria County were the Pennsylvania Germans and Scotch Irish Presbyterians in the south, Catholics who came from Maryland and settled in the northeast, and Welch Protestants who settled in the central part of the county.

Finding Church Records at Other Repositories

Additional church records can sometimes be found using search phrases such as Cambria County Church Records in online catalogs like:


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

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.


 * Contains church records of:
 * Barnesboro: St. Thomas Episcopal Church
 * Blandburg: Blandburg Evangelical Lutheran Church
 * Ebensburg: First United Presbyterian Church
 * Elton: Dunmyer Evangelical Lutheran Church
 * Glasgow: Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church
 * Johnstown: Bethany Presbyterian Church
 * Lilly: St. Luke's Lutheran Church
 * Patton: Trinity Episcopal Church
 * Portage: First Lutheran Church

Catholic

 * "100 years of the Pittsburgh Catholic Diocese 1843–1943". Western Pennsylvania Genealogical Society Quarterly, 17:1. FamilySearch Library book 974.8 B2wg. Contains chronolgy, map, county-by-county information.

Court of Common Pleas
The Courts of Common Pleas are the trial courts of Pennsylvania. Major civil and criminal cases are heard in these courts. Judges also decide cases involving adoption, divorce, child custody, abuse, juvenile delinquency, estates, guardianships, charitable organizations and many other matters. The Common Pleas courts are organized into 60 judicial districts. has its own judicial district. Judges of the Common Pleas courts are elected to 10-year terms. A president judge and a court administrator serve in each judicial district.

Land and Property
Land records in Cambria County began in 1804. These records are filed with the Recorder of Deeds office in Ebensburg, 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:

Land Records on Microfilm


 * 1869–1886 Deeds.

Additional Resources

Note that the "Maps" section below 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 Cambria 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
Click the image to view an enlarged version


 * Cambria County maps, including the 1890 atlas showing land owners, have been posted at the PAGenWeb site

Newspapers
Newspapers of Cambria County


 * Pennsylvania Newspapers
 * Chronicling America US Newspaper Directory


 * Johnstown - Tribune Democrat
 * Ebensburg - Mountaineer Herald

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.

Online Newspaper Abstracts


 * PA-Roots Newspaper Articles for Cambria County.

Newspaper Excerpts and Abstracts


 * Democrat and Sentinel (Ebensburg, Pennsylvania) (SLC, Utah, 1954)

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


 * USGenWeb Cambria County Obituary Abstracts
 * PA-Roots Obituaries for Cambria County.

Obituary Excerpts and Abstracts


 * Teeter, Grace A., The Nathaniel Teeter Family and Other Related Families (Rialto, California:G.A. Teeter, 1997) Digitized version available through Family Search catalog entry.

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

Cambria County Only:


 * 1806-1980-Cambria County Probate Records

Original Probate Records on Microfilm


 * 1808-1919 Records of the Orphan's Court and Register of Wills -Estate and Proceedings Indexes included, 1806-1980

Courthouse
County Courthouse 200 South Center Street Ebensburg, PA 15931 Phone: (814) 472-5440

The office of the Prothontary is located at: Office of the Prothonoary 200 South Center St. Ebensburg, PA 15931 Phone: (814) 472-1638 Fax: (814) 472-5632

Family History Centers

 * Introduction to LDS Family History Centers
 * Johnstown Pennsylvania Family History Center

Museums

 * Nant-Y-Glo Tri Area Museum and Historical Society 929 Roberts Street Nanty Glo, PA 15943 Phone: (814) 749-7352 E-mail: ngtamhs@itxbb.net


 * Johnstown Flood Museum 304 Washington Street Johnstown, PA 15901

Website includes a list of flood victims.

Societies

 * Cambria County Historical Society 615 North Center Street P.O. Box 278 Ebensburg, PA 15931 Phone: (814) 472-6674 Hours: Tuesday-Friday 10-4; Saturday 9-1


 * Western Pennsylvania Genealogical Society 4400 Forbes Avenue Pittsburgh, PA 15213-4080 Phone: (412) 687-6811 E-mail: info@wpgs.org Library Hours: Monday - Thursday: 10:00 am - 8:00 pm Friday - Saturday: 10:00 am - 5:30 pm Sunday: 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm

Marriages

 * 1700-1821 - Pennsylvania Marriage Records Ancestry.com – ($) This database is incomplete for all counties.
 * 1725-1976 - - free index. Not complete for all years.
 * Pre-1810 – Pennsylvania Marriages Ancestry.com – ($) This database is incomplete for all counties. Includes 35,000 marriage records from vol. VIII of of the second series of the Pennsylvania Archives.
 * 1852-1854 - Pennsylvania Marriages Ancestry.com – ($) Index with images.
 * 1885-1950 - Extracted marriage records – free. This database is incomplete for all counties. May also contain marriage records earlier than 1885.

Divorce
Divorce records are available through the office of the Prothonotary. The office of the Prothonotary is located in the courthouse building.

Web Sites

 * Linkpendium - Cambria County
 * USGenWeb project