Beaver County, Pennsylvania Genealogy

United States Pennsylvania Beaver County

Historical Facts

 * Parent Counties: Formed from Allegheny, Lycoming and Washington Counties 12 March 1800.
 * County Seat: Beaver
 * Neighboring Counties: residents may also have records in Lawrence (north) • Butler (east) • Columbiana County, Ohio and Hancock County, West Virginia (west) • Washington (south)  • and Allegheny (southeast)

==== Boundary Changes ====


 * 1780: Future southern 1/3 of Beaver County was disputed between Virginia and Pennsylvania until Mason-Dixon Line was finalized.
 * 1785: Future northern 2/3 was not included in any county until 1785.
 * 27 January 1750: Future southern 1/3 was incorporated into Cumberland County when it was formed.
 * 9 March 1771: Future southern 1/3 became part of Bedford County when it was erected.
 * 26 February 1773: Future southern 1/3 became part of Westmoreland County when it was formed.
 * 28 March 1781: Future southern 1/3 became part of Washington County when it was formed.
 * 1783: Future northern 2/3 was designated as Depreciation Lands for Revolutionary War soldiers.
 * 1785: Future northern 2/3 was annexed to Northumberland County.
 * 24 September 1788: Nearly all of Beaver fell into Allegheny County when it was created. a small southern portion remained in Washington County.
 * 20 March 1849: Lawrence County was created, giving Beaver County its current boundaries.

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

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 – $, 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.
 * 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 ate 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: www.catholicgbg.org

Prothonotary
Prothonotary Office Beaver County Court House 810 Third Street Beaver, PA 15009 Phone 724-770-4570 Fax: 724-728-3360 Email: nwerme@beavercountypa.gov

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

Online Land Records


 * 1957–present Beaver County offers online access to indexes and images. Fees apply.

Land Records on Microfilm


 * 1800–1918 Deeds, 1800-1887; Deed Indexes, 1800-1918.
 * 1800–1918 Mortgage Index.

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 Beaver 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

 * Ancestor Tracks has posted free, 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.

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

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

Online Newspaper Abstracted Articles


 * PA-Roots Newspaper Articles

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
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


 * PA-Roots Obituaries for Beaver County.

Courthouse
Beaver County Courthouse 810 Third Street Beaver, PA 15009 Phone:(724) 728-5700

Family History Centers

 * Introduction to LDS Family History Centers
 * Beaver Valley Pennsylvania Family History Center (Monaca)

Societies

 * Western Pennsylvania Genealogical Society
 * Beaver County Genealogy History Center

Beaver Falls Historical Society and Museum 1301 7th Ave. Beaver Falls, PA 15010 724-846-4340

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.

Births

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

Marriages

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

Divorce
Divorce records are available through the office of the Prothonotary. Since there is no on-line index, you can search the index at the the Prothonotary' office. The office of the Prothonotary is located at: Beaver County Court House 810 Third Street Beaver, PA 15009 Phone: (724) 770-4570 Fax: (724) 728-3360 Email: nwerme@beavercountypa.gov

Deaths

 * 1852-1854 – Pennsylvania Births Ancestry.com – ($) Index with images.
 * 1852-1854, 1893-1906 – Helen G Clear. Registration of Deaths, Beaver County, Pennsylvania (New Brighton, Pennsylvania: H. G. Clear, c 1984).
 * 1893–1907 – Registration of Death, 2 volumes

Web Sites

 * Linkpendium - Beaver County
 * Beaver County PAGenWeb site
 * Beaver County PA Old Photos