ROOTS & BRANCHES

I used last week’s “Roots & Branches” column to talk about what I deem core collections of published materials for Pennsylvania genealogical libraries, starting with collections that apply more to general genealogy and statewide.  

A lot of materials, of course, are best viewed through the lens of Pennsylvania’s counties, although the caveat here (both for researchers as well as the libraries collecting the materials) is that families often do not respect such county boundaries, necessitating searches of records from different counties.

Here’s a rundown of what I think the county-level elements of a core collection are:

• Abstracts or at least indexes to the early courthouse probate records are essential, and not just the wills but also administrations as well as Orphans Court dockets if these files were all kept separately.
• Likewise, if abstracts of early deeds have been published, they are needed, as well as abstracts of early tax lists (showing a county’s pioneers if the earliest ones are extant) and Quarter Sessions (the early criminal courts).
• A set of the most comprehensive county biographical histories produced is helpful, even though these secondary sources are often flawed.
• Church records are a must although there are so many denominations and congregations in Pennsylvania that the best approach is probably to look for compilations of these fine vital records substitutes (although care must be taken not to omit helpful private pastoral registers). For many counties, there are works such Early Church Records of Lancaster County that combine several churches into a single book of a multivolume set; likewise, the late John T. Humphrey’s Pennsylvania Births series is essential for the counties he completed in the southeastern quadrant of the state.
• History books of the earliest church congregations should be sought out, especially since they may include early records or at least names of founding families (which can help overcome the problem of denominations in which genealogically useful registers were not kept).
• Likewise, genealogists in some counties have produced guidebooks to the churches and cemeteries, which ma be essential in identifying congregations no longer extant.

An area’s most prominent ethnic and racial groups might have resources particular to those origins. For example, the three-volume set Pennsylvania German Pioneers contains the oaths of allegiance for thousands of 18^th century German-speaking arrivals (two volumes of this set can be found digitally on Ancestry, too, which has some uses that can be helpful—such as searching for uncommon first names when surnames have been garbled—in conjunction with the print set).

Beyond the county-level records, for at least Pennsylvania’s adjoining states, any guidebooks that have been published, particularly by state genealogical societies, are welcome additions. The New York Family History Research Guide and Gazetteer from the New York Genealogical & Biographical Society is prime example.

Did I mention this was all subjective? Reader thoughts invited!