Beaver County, Pennsylvania Genealogy

Guide to Beaver County, Pennsylvania ancestry, genealogy and family history, birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, family history, and military records.

Description
It is named from the Beaver River. It is located in the West-Central section of the state.

County Courthouse
Beaver County Courthouse 810 Third Street Beaver, PA 15009 Clerk of Court, (724) 770-4586 Email: [mailto:@beavercountypa.gov @beavercountypa.gov] Beaver County Website Register of Wills and Orphans' Court, 724-770-4550 Prothonotary Office,(724) 770-4570, Fax: 724-728-3360 Register of Wills has birth records 1893-1906, death records 1852-1854 and 1893-1906, marriage records 1852-1854 and from 1886, and probate records from 1800 Recorder Deeds has land records from 1800 Prothonotary has divorce, court, and naturalization records Veterans Office has military records

Populated Places
For a complete list of populated places, including small neighborhoods and suburbs, visit HomeTown Locator. The following are the most historically and genealogically relevant populated places in this county:

Cemeteries
Additional Cemetery Resources
 * ca.1700-ca.1950 - at FamilySearch — index and images
 * Pennsylvania Genealogy LDS Genealogy

Church Records


Moravians who came in the 1770s were perhaps the earliest religious group to arrive in the county, and they came to preach to the Indians. The early settlers were almost exclusively Scotch-Irish Presbyterians who arrived by 1785. Methodists arrived in the early 1800s. They kept very poor records. Episcopalians arrived around 1799. The minister of that church performed many of the early marriages in the county.

County-wide Database (Multi-denominational)


 * 1708 -1985 Pennsylvania, Church and Town Records, 1708-1985 at Historical Society of Pennsylvania – $, to members of the society; Also available at Ancestry $


 * Contains church records of:
 * Aliquippa: House of Prayer Evangelical Lutheran Church
 * Beaver: First Presbyterian Church
 * Beaver Falls: Christ Lutheran Church; First United Methodist Church
 * Conway: Conway United Presbyterian Church
 * Freedom: First Presbyterian Church
 * Monaca: Lutheran Church of the Redeemer
 * New Brighton: Christ Episcopal Church
 * Rochester: Grace Lutheran Church

Catholic List of Churches and Church Parishes
 * "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.
 * The Archives of the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh contains all sacramental records older than 70 years beginning in 1808 for parishes in the following counties of Pennsylvania: Allegheny, Beaver, Butler, Greene, Lawrence and Washington. Sacramental records include baptismal, first communion, confirmation, marriage and death registers. The only records older than 70 years that are open for research are death records. They are released without restriction. The research can only be done by Archive staff. Research fees are charged at an hourly rate. For more information about obtaining records of the Diocese and its records click here. For records before 1808 researchers should contact: Diocese of Greensburg 723 E. Pittsburgh Street Greensburg, PA 15601 Telephone: (412) 837-0901 Fax: (412) 837-0857 Website
 * FamilySearch Places

Land and Property Records
Land records in Beaver County began in 1800. These records are filed with the Recorder of Deeds office in Beaver, Pennsylvania.

Online Land Indexes and Records
 * 1800 -1918 Deeds, 1800-1887; Deed Indexes, 1800-1918. - images only; click on the camera icon to view images
 * 1800 -1918 Mortgage Index. - Some images online only; click on the camera icon to view images
 * 1957 – present Beaver County offers online access to indexes and images. Fees apply.

Local Histories

 * The History of Beaver County, Pennsylvania. 1980. Evansville, Indiana : Unigraphic. Online at: FamilySearch Digital Library, Hathitrust, Internet Archive; . Reproduction of book originally published in 1888 by A. Warner in Philadelphia and Chicago.
 * History of Beaver County, Pennsylvania, and Its Centennial Celebration. 2 volumes. 1904. By Joseph Henderson Bausman. New York, New York : Knickerbocker Press. Online at: Vol. 1 - FamilySearch Digital Library, Vol. 2 - FamilySearch Digital Library, Hathitrust, Vol. 1 - Internet Archive, Vol. 2 - Internet Archive, Vol. 1 - Google Books, Vol. 2 - Google Books;.

Maps and Gazetteers
Maps
 * Maps of Pennsylvania (1673-1878)
 * Ancestor Tracks has posted downloadable images of the township maps showing landowners from Map of Lawrence and Beaver Counties from Actual Surveys by N.S. Ames which was published in 1860. 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 to commercially. We hereby give permission to use them strictly for personal use; please attribute to Ancestor Tracks.
 * FamilySearch Places:Cities and Towns- How to Use FS Places

Military Records
Revolutionary War Men living in what is now Beaver County (then Washington and Westmoreland counties) served in the 8th Pennsylvania Regiment.

Civil War
 * 1861-1865 - at FamilySearch — index

Naturalization and Citizenship

 * 1804 -1906, 1906 - 1920, 1929 - 1931 Naturalization Records - Index included: 1804-1982 - images only; click on the camera icon to view images
 * 1820 -1906 Index to Declarations and Petitions in the Western District of Pennsylvania, US Circuit and District Courts located in US Naturalization Records Indexes, 1794-1995 database on Ancestry $ National Archives publication M1208
 * 1820 -1930 Naturalization Petitions of the U.S. District Court, 1820-1930, and Circuit Court, 1820-1911, for the Western District of Pennsylvania on Fold3.com - ($), indexed, National Archives publication M1537, incomplete for all counties
 * 1820 -1930 Naturalization Petitions of the U.S. District Court, 1820-1930, and Circuit Court, 1820-1911, for the Western District of Pennsylvania located in Selected US Naturalization Records - Original Documents, 1790-1974 database on Ancestry $ National Archives publication M1537
 * 1906 -1934 Declarations of Intention - images only; click on the camera icon to view images

Newspapers
Newspapers of Beaver County


 * Pennsylvania Newspapers
 * Chronicling America US Newspaper Directory

Online Newspapers


 * Beaver County Times - full-text of more than 11,000 issues spanning 1954-2007 available on Google Newspaper Archive.
 * Beaver Falls Tribune - more than 2,700 full-text issues spanning 1912-1928 available on Google Newspaper Archive
 * Beaver Times - full-text of close to 800 digital issues spanning 1900-1906 available on Google Newspaper Archive
 * Beaver Valley Times - full-text of more than 2,500 issues spanning 1946-1960 available on Google Newspaper Archive

Online Newspaper Abstracts


 * PA-Roots Newspaper Articles
 * Selected items from The Western Argus, 1830-1834 at Beaver County, Pennsylvania USGenWeb Archives
 * 1947 -2010  at FamilySearch

Newspaper Extracts and Abstracts


 * Foster, Nancy (compiler), Every-name Index to History of the Newspapres of Beaver County, Pennsylvania (Cincinnati, Ohio:N.B. Foster, c1993)
 * Two books by Mark H Welchley, used together, provide abstracts from the Beaver County Argus newspaper from 1830 -1858. Argus Genealogical Gleanings covers 1830-1838 and Beaver County, Pennsylvania Marriages from Beaver County Newspapers  covers 1830-1878. Note that the content of these books do not overlap, despite the overlapping of the dates.
 * Clear, Helen G. Beaver County Deaths (abstracted from Warner's History) (S.I. s.n., 19--) ; A list of deaths taken from newspapers. Death dates are 1817-1886.

Obituaries
Online Obituary Abstracts


 * PA-Roots Obituaries for Beaver County.

Probate Records
Online Probate Indexes and Records
 * 1683 -1994  at FamilySearch
 * 1683 -1993 Pennsylvania Wills and Probate Records 1683-1993 at Ancestry $
 * 1683 -1994 at FamilySearch
 * 1803 -1917 Beaver County Probate Records, includes index to register's office, 1803-1965 at FamilySearch
 * 1803 -1917 Probate Records - images only; click on the camera icon to view images; Index included: 1803-1965

Social Security Records

 * 1935-2014 at FamilySearch - How to use this collection; index. Also at Ancestry, findmypast, Fold3, GenealogyBank, MyHeritage, and Steve Morse. Click here for more information.
 * 1936-2007 U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007 at Ancestry ($) — index, click here for more information.

Birth

 * 1852 -1854 Pennsylvania Births Ancestry $
 * 1893 -1904, 1942 - 1971 Beaver County Birth Index 1893-1904 and 1942-1971 in International Genealogical Index at FamilySearch

Marriage

 * 1626-2016 Pennsylvania, United States Marriages at FindMyPast$
 * 1677 -1950 at FamilySearch
 * 1700 -1821 Pennsylvania Marriage Records Ancestry $
 * Pre-1810 Pennsylvania Marriages Ancestry $
 * 1725 -1976 index. Not complete for all years. This index is not necessarily intended to index any specific set of records. This index is not complete for any particular place or region. This collection may include information previously published in the International Genealogical Index or Vital Records Index collections.
 * 1852 -1854 Pennsylvania Marriages Ancestry $
 * 1852 -1854 Beaver County Marriage Index 1852-1854 in International Genealogical Index at FamilySearch
 * 1885 -1950  Extracted marriage records – This database is incomplete for all counties. May also contain marriage records earlier than 1885.

Death

 * 1720-1999  at FamilySearch — index, some images
 * 1850-1880  at FamilySearch — index and images
 * 1852-1854, 1893 - 1906 Helen G Clear. Registration of Deaths, Beaver County, Pennsylvania (New Brighton, Pennsylvania: H. G. Clear, c 1984).
 * 1852-1854, 1893 - 1907 Beaver County Death Index 1852-1854 and 1893-1907 in International Genealogical Index at  FamilySearch
 * 1893-1907 Registration of Death, 2 volumes

Divorce
Divorce records are available through the office of the Prothonotary.

Archives
National Archives at Philadelphia 14700 Townsend Road Philadelphia, PA 19154-1096 Phone: (215) 305-2044 Fax (215) 305-2052 Website

Family History Centers

 * Beaver Valley Pennsylvania Family History Center

Libraries

 * Beaver County Library System 109 Pleasant Drive, Suite 101 Aliquippa, PA 15001 Phone: (724) 378-6227 The Beaver County library system consists of nine libraries. Website

Museums

 * Beaver Area Heritage Museum 1 River Road Beaver, PA 15009 Phone: (724) 775-7174 Website
 * Air Heritage Museum &amp; Aircraft Restoration Facility Beaver County Airport 35 Piper Street Beaver Falls, PA 15010 Phone: (724) 843-2820 Website

Societies

 * List of Pennsylvania Archives, Libraries, Publications, Historical Genealogical Societies Website
 * Western Pennsylvania Genealogical Society 4400 Forbes Avenue Pittsburgh, PA 15213-4080 Phone: (412) 687-6811 Email: [mailto:info@wpgs.org info@wpgs.org] Website
 * Beaver County Genealogy History Center 1301 Seventh Avenue Beaver Falls, PA 15010 Phone: (724) 847-9253 E-mail: [mailto:beavercountyresearch@yahoo.com beavercountyresearch@yahoo.com] Website
 * Beaver Falls Historical Society and Museum 1301 7th Ave. Beaver Falls, PA 15010 Phone: (724) 846-4340 Beaver County Sports Hall of Fame 1 Campus Drive Monaca, PA 15061 Phone: (724) 869-9684 Website

Websites

 * Linkpendium - Beaver County
 * Beaver County PAGenWeb site
 * Beaver County PA Old Photos
 * Beaver County PA Genealogy
 * – The FamilySearch catalog contains descriptions and access information for all genealogical materials (including books, online materials, microfilm, microfiche, and publications) in their collection.  Use Historical Records to search for specific individuals in genealogical records.