Pennsylvania Bible Records

Online Records

 * The National Society Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) has an index of over 40,000 digitized family Bible records and each day more records are digitized and added to the Index.
 * Index to Early Bible Records provides a free index to over 17,000 online and offline pre-1830 Bible records.


 * Some collections of Bible records at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania, and the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) Library are also on microfilm at the Family History Library.

Many Bible records are also in these collections:


 * Family Records Arranged Alphabetically
 * Family Records "F.C. Collection"

Start with the free Index to Early Bible Records (pre-1830; 17,000 entries).

Pennsylvania Bible Records
A Bible was often given by relatives to a bride as a wedding gift, where she recorded information about her immediate family and close relatives. Relationships were seldom stated but were often implied. Names of parents, children, and their spouses, including maiden names, were frequently given along with dates of birth, marriage, and death. Sometimes the age of a person was given at the time of death. Many families kept Bible records from the 1700s (and sometimes earlier) to more recent times, although few have survived. Some have been donated to local libraries or societies.

Copies, or abstracts of old family Bibles that are no longer known to exist, may survive in Revolutionary War Pension application files at NARA, Washington, D.C., which are available online at three commercial websites: Ancestry, Fold3, and Heritage Quest Online.

DAR Collection
These are described in the "Genealogy" section. The DAR Collection is partially indexed by E. Kay Kirkham, An Index to Some of the Bibles and Family Records of the United States, vol. II (Logan, Utah: Everton Publishers, 1984; Family History Library Many other Bible records are listed in the Locality Search of the FamilySearch Catalog under PENNSYLVANIA - BIBLE RECORDS