Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania Genealogy

United States  Pennsylvania  Huntingdon County

Historical Facts
Named for Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon, who as one of benefactors of Rev. William Smith's in his exploration efforts. Rev. William Smith was responsible for laying out the town of Huntingdon in 1767.

Wikipedia

Note of Interest
Almost everyone that lives in Huntingdon County speaks English as their first language. The dominant form of speech in Huntingdon County is the Central Pennsylvania accent, although some areas of the county, such as Kishacoquillas Valley, where many Amish and Mennonite people live, German is commonly spoken.

Parent County
20 September 1787: Huntingdon County was created from Bedford County.

Boundary Changes

 * 26 March 1804: Cambria County was set off from one part of Huntingdon County along with other parts from Bedford and Somerset Counties.
 * 26 February 1846: Parts of Huntingdon and Bedford Counties were taken to create Blair County.

Neighboring Counties
Bedford | Blair | Centre | Franklin | Fulton | Juniata | Mifflin |

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, Vol. 17, No. 1. . Chronology, map, county-by-county information.

Court Records
Some of the Continuence Dockets and the Quarter Session Books are stored in the basement of the Huntingdon County Court House. The Continuence Dockets have been microfilmed and are at the Huntingdon County Pennsylvania Courthouse.

Land and Property
Land records in Huntingdon County began in 1803. These records are filed with the Register and Recorder office in Huntingdon, 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


 * 1786–1972 Deeds, 1786-1866; Index to Deeds, 1786-1972; Misc. Index to Deeds, 1790- 1877.
 * 1803–1969 Mortgage Index

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 Huntingdon 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.)

Newspapers
NewspaperARCHIVE.com has the Huntingdon County News online.

The Pennsylvania State Library has a book entitled Huntingdon County Newspapers, Vol I that contains notices from the Huntingdon Gazette 1806-1811. This book is not indexed. It's call number is 929.37484 NW1001 and is found in Form Room 101.

The Blair County Genealogical Society and the State Library of Pennsylvania has the Huntingdon Gazette on microfilm.

The Blair County Genealogical Society has a copy of the book Huntingdon County Newspaper: A Finding List which was compiled by M. M. Faust and Nancy S. Shedd for the Huntingdon County Historical Society.

Probate Records
The Huntingdon County Historical Society has a wonderful every name indexed compilation by Linnaria B Wheland of Huntingdon County Will Abstracts from 1787-1846.

The original inventories for Huntington county are housed at the Huntington Historical Society.

Courthouse
Huntingdon County Courthouse Register and Recorder Courthouse - 223 Penn St. Huntingdon, PA 16652 (814) 643-2740 (814) 643-8152 - fax

Family History Centers

 * Introduction to LDS Family History Centers

Societies
Huntingdon County Historical Society

Taxation
Many of the tax lists have been microfilmed, but no one repository has them all. The Huntingdon County Historical Society, State Library of Pennsylvania and the Family History Library each have collections. One can purchase a microfilm roll from the Huntingdon County Historical Society and the State Library of Pennsylvania. The Family History Library will loan their films to their various centers for a small fee.


 * 1788 - Returns of Taxables for the Counties of Bedford (1773 to 1784), Huntingdon (1788), Westmoreland (1783, 1786), Fayette (1785, 1786), Allegheny (1791), Washington (1786) and Census of Bedford (1784) and Westmoreland (1783). (Pennsylvania Archives, Series 3, Vol. 22). Digital versions at Ancestry ($); Google Books - free.


 * 1798 - Pennsylvania, U.S. Direct Tax Lists, 1798 at Ancestry ($).

Birth

 * 1852-1854 – Pennsylvania Births Ancestry.com – $ Index with images.

Death

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

Web Sites

 * USGenWeb project. May have maps, name indexes, history or other information for this county. Select the state, then the county.