Cameron County, Pennsylvania Genealogy

United States Pennsylvania Cameron County

Historical Facts

 * Parent Counties: Formed from Clinton, Elk, McKean and Potter Counties 29 March 1860.
 * County Seat: Emporium
 * Neighboring Counties: residents may also have records in McKean (north) • Clinton (east) • Elk (west) • Clearfield (south)  •  Potter (northeast)

==== Boundary Changes ====


 * Before 1795: Future Cameron County was part of Northumberland County.
 * 13 April 1795: Lycoming County (including future Cameron County) was created from Northumberland County.
 * 26 March 1804: When McKean and Potter Counties were formed from Lycoming County, parts of future Cameron County were included in each, while about a third of today's Cameron remained in Lycoming County.
 * 21 January 1839: When Clinton County was formed from Lycoming and Centre Counties, what is today's Cameron County was split between McKean, Potter, and Clinton Counties.
 * 18 April 1843: A small part of Cameron County was included in Elk County when it was created.

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

Church Records
Finding Church Records at Other Repositories

Additional church records can sometimes be found using search phrases such as Cameron 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.

Land and Property
Land records in Cameron County began in 1860. These records are filed with the Prothonotary/Recorder of Deeds office in Emporium, 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


 * 1860–1902 Deed books, 1860-1889; Deed Indexes, 1860-1902.

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 Cameron 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
Newspapers of Cameron County


 * Pennsylvania Newspapers
 * Chronicling America US Newspaper Directory

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 Cameron County.

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

Online Obituary Abstracts

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 

Cameron County Only:

Courthouse
Cameron County Courthouse E. Fifth St. Emporium, PA 15834 Phone: (814) 486-3355

Family History Centers

 * Introduction to LDS Family History Centers

Libraries
The Barbara Moscato Brown Library 27 West 4th St., P.O. Box 430 Emporium, PA 15834-0430 Phone: (814) 486-8011 E-Mail: brocampl@zitomedia.net

Societies
Cameron County Historical Society P. O. Box 433 Emporium, PA 15834 E-mail: Info@thelittlemuseum.org

County-wide Database

 * 1700-1821 - Pennsylvania Marriage Records Ancestry.com – ($) This database is incomplete for all counties.
 * Pre-1810 – Pennsylvania Marriages Ancestry.com – ($) This database is incomplete for all counties. Includes 35,000 marriage records from vol. VIII of of the second series of the Pennsylvania Archives.

Marriages

 * 1725-1976 - - free index. Not complete for all years.

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 in the courthouse.

Web Sites

 * Linkpendium - Cameron County
 * USGenWeb project