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, 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.

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.

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

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

Newspapers
Johnstown


 * Tribune Democrat

Ebensburg


 * Mountaineer Herald

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

Family History Centers

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

Societies

 * Cambria County Historical Society
 * Western Pennsylvania Genealogical Society

Divorce
Divorce records area available through the office of the Prothonotary. Since there is no on-line index, you can search the index at the Porthonotary's office. 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

Web Sites

 * Linkpendium - Cambria County
 * USGenWeb project