Enter tax records. Everyone hates that tax man—our ancestors, too, I’m sure—but tax records can help to fill in the gaps between census enumerations.

In the Census

Take for instance, the example of my Hocker relatives in Cocalico Township. The census records for Cocalico Township for 1800 through 1820 include the following Hockers:

• 1800
  • Frederick Hocker
• 1810
  • Frederick Hocker
  • John Hauker
  • George Hocker
• 1820
  • John Hocker
  • Jacob Houker

In Tax Records

The tax lists from Cocalico Township fill in the years between the census and provide glimpses of additional Hocker men. The Hockers listed in the township include:

Do these records refer to the same man? Probably not. First, there’s the separation of 10 years between the appearances. Secondly, the first Jacob was a married land owner—the records indicate he owned 100 ares, while the second was an unmarried man.

Conclusions

Correlating these records with others—church records (birth, baptism, confirmation, communion, marriage and death), estate files and wills, deeds, etc.—will flesh out the story even more. Putting it all together, I can conclude that Frederick and George were probably brothers—sons of Johan Adam Hacker. Their youngest brother Jacob purchased about 100 acres in 1803, then sold it to Frederick in the spring of 1806. Jacob and his wife Elizabeth likely moved across the river to York County around this time.

Frederick’s eldest son John came of age about 1802 and likely married by 1804. He appears in tax records starting in 1805. His next oldest son George appears in the 1810 tax record, but I don’t know if  it’s him or his uncle in the 1810 census. Without the tax record, I wouldn’t have even known there were two men named George in Cocalico Township in 1810—and may have attributed children to one or the other that didn’t belong to them.

Frederick Hacker died in 1812. John refused his father’s property. His younger brother George accepted it, but didn’t—or was unable to—keep it. George sold the property in 1813. Meanwhile, their younger brother Jacob, who’d come of age in 1812, was listed in the 1813 tax list as a freeman.

Uncle George, who disappears from the tax record about this time, too, starts appearing in Church records in Schaefferstown (just to the north) by 1815 and is included in the 1820 census for Lebanon Township.

Tax records can help to fill in the holes and provide clues on where and when to look for other documents. A change from being listed as freeman to not might tell you when a man got married. An appearance in the tax list might also tell you when and where to look for deed records. Tax records won’t tell you everything you want to know, but they can help you build the story and verify that you’ve got the right person in other records.

Have you found your ancestors in tax records? What did you learn about them?

* Inmate and freeman are terms used in Pennsylvania tax records. An inmate is not a prisoner or someone locked up. In this case, it is a married man with who owns no land. A freeman is a single man. You’ll sometimes see single man in the records, too. All men in the tax records are at least 21 years of age.

PA State Archives Land Records

If you’ve read my blog, you’ll know that I use land records—a lot! I’ve mentioned warrants, patents and deeds in a number of posts. They’re some of my favorite record groups. And best of all, depending on where your ancestor lived, the records may be available online for free.

This blog post is going to explain how to use the land records available online at the PA State Archives. These records are organized by record and then either by county or volume and surname. They have been scanned and placed online as PDFs by page. The records include:

• Warrant Registers
• Copied Survey Books
• Patent Indexes
• Patent Tract Name Index
• Indexes of Selected Original (Loose) Surveys
• East Side Applications (Register)
• West Side Applications (Register)
• Philadelphia Old Rights (Index)
• Old Rights Index: Bucks and Chester Counties
• New Purchase Register
• Original Purchases Register
• Last Purchase Register
• Luzerne County Certified Townships
• Donation Lands
• Depreciation Land Register
• Warrantee Township Maps
• Melish-Whiteside Maps

I’m going to focus on the records in bold.

To understand how to use these records, it’s important to understand how the process worked in Colonial Pennsylvania.^[1] Technically, William Penn owned all of the land in Pennsylvania. A settler would apply to the land office for land. Before 1687, these applications were typically oral and not recorded. After 1687, they were recorded in the minute books of the Commissioners of Property. The minutes can be found in Pennsylvania Archives, Second Series, Volume 19 and Third Series, Volume 1.

After the application, a warrant was issued to authorize a survey of the land. The warrants I’ve seen specify the name of the warrantee, the location of the desired property (sometimes rather generally), the amount of land, the quit-rent—and sometimes the date from which the rent commences—and the price per acre. The issuance of a warrant, however, does not mean that the applicant actually owned the property.

When a warrant was issued, orders were sent to the surveyor to survey the property and draw a map of the courses and bounds, the acreage, and the neighbors. After a survey was done, the applicant would have to pay for the land and provide evidence of their improvements to the property. In viewing the survey books, there are sometimes multiple surveys of a tract of land. Sometimes the original applicant failed to follow through, sometimes they sold their “rights” to someone else prior to the patent, or sometimes subsequent owners required a re-survey.

Once the survey was complete and the land paid for, a warrant of return was sent to the surveyor general, who in turn sent the survey to the secretary’s office so that a patent could be issued. The patent is the document that transferred ownership of the property to the settler.

So, warrants, patents and surveys deal with transfers of land between the Pennsylvania land office and the settler. Records of land transferred between individuals will be found—if recorded—at the Recorder of Deeds for the appropriate county. This may not be the same as the modern county. For more information on the historical transformation of the counties, take a look at the Genealogical Map of the Counties.

Patents

Ulrich Hoober, Patent Book A11:408

If you know that your ancestor received a patent for their property, you can begin with the Patent Indexes. How would I know that, you ask. Often, deeds—sometimes several transactions removed from the patent—will reference the original patent for the property. You may have seen something like:

“It being the same tract of land which the late Proprietaries of Pennsylvania by their Patent dated the twenty eighth day of September A. Dom. 1744 and recorded at the Rolls Office at Philadelphia in Patent Book A vol 11 page 408 &c did grant & confirm to Ulrich Hoover his heirs and assigns forever…”^[2]

If you haven’t seen a reference like this, but want to know if your ancestor was an early landholder, the Patent Indexes are still a good place to start. The Patent Indexes will not only provide the patent book, volume and page number for a patent, but will also identify the name of the original warrantee and the date of the warrant. This will make it possible to locate the warrant and survey if your ancestor was not the original warrantee.

1. First, go to the Patent Indexes page on the State Archives site. The records are arranged by series, which are arranged by date. Choose the series you want to review.
2. Next find the list of pages for the first letter of your ancestor’s surname. Be prepared to check multiple spellings if they apply. I’ve found “Brenneman” listed under both “B” and “P.”
3. Check the available pages to see if your ancestor is listed. Each page is a separate PDF file, so you may need to download and open each file in Adobe Reader if your browser doesn’t have a plugin to view PDF files.
4. Each listing includes: series and volume, date of patent, page number, patentee name, area in acres and perches, name of warrantee, name of tract (if available), date of warrant, and county.

If you find your ancestor, make note of the series, volume, page and date of the patent. You’ll need this information if you want to order the patent from the Archives. You should also note the name of the original warrantee, the date of warrrant and the county. This will be necessary for the next step.

In the image above, we have a patent for Woolrick Hoober, dated 20 Sep 1744, with 226 acres in Patent Book A11, page 408. We can also see that he is listed as the original warrantee for a warrant dated 19 Sep 1744 in Lancaster County.

Warrants

Woolerick Hoober, Warrant H338, Lancaster County

Now that you have the name of the warrantee, warrant date and county, you can look-up the warrant and survey information in the Warrant Registers. These registers cover approximately 70% of all land in Pennsylvania for 1733—1957. If the warrant date is 1733 or later, follow these instructions.

1. Go to the Warrant Registers page on the State Archives site. The registers are first arranged by county. Click on the link to the appropriate county.
2. The pages for each register are listed first alphabetically by the first initial of the warrantee’s surname, then chronologically.
3. Check the pages to see if the warrantee is listed.
4. Each listing should include: warrant number, warrantee, type of warrant, quantity of land, warrant location, date of warrant, date of return, acreage returned, name(s) of patentee(s), where the patent is recorded (book, volume, page), and where the survey was copied (book, volume, page). Sometimes there are multiple patentees or surveys for each warrant. Sometimes the warrant was vacated and no information is available.

Woolrick Hoober’s listing tells us that he was issued a warrant (#338) to accept a survey of 226 acres in Conestoga Township, dated 19 Sep 1744. The patent was issued 19 Sep 1744 on 226 acres. The patent is listed in Book A11, page 408 and the survey is in book D88, page 127.

If the warrant date was before 1733, you’ll need to check the Old Rights Index for Bucks and Chester counties or the Philadelphia Old Rights Register.

Surveys

Woolrick Hoober, Survey Book D88:127

With the location of the survey from the Warrantee register, the next step is a piece of cake.

1. Go to the Copied Survey Books page.
2. Select the appropriate page for the book and volume.
3. Click on the page link.
4. Each survey should provide either a description of the metes and bounds or a drawing of the tract’s boundaries with the calls and the names of the tract’s neighbors. The survey also usually shows the date of the survey, name of surveyor, who the land was surveyed for, the date of the warrant, and the warrantee.

Ulrich’s survey shows that John Line, Jacob Hoober, and John DeHoof were his neighbors at the time of the survey—20 Oct 1728.

Warrantee Township Maps

Maps for some of the townships were drawn up showing all of the original landholders—those who received the property directly from the Proprietors or the Commonwealth—within the context of the present-day townships. Unfortunately, not every township was mapped.

Pequea Warrantee Township Map

To find a map of the township were your ancestor held property, you need to know the relationship between the historical township and the modern township. For instance, Ulrich Hoober’s tract was in Conestoga township when he received the patent in 1744. Two modern townships—Conestoga and Pequea—make up the historical 1729 township.^[3] You can see Ulrich Hoober’s property in the context of the township’s other properties in the Pequea Warrantee Township map.

Don’t forget, using this information you can order a copy of the land warrant or patent from the Pennsylvania State Archives. If you know the reference—warrant number, warrantee and county of warrant for warrants or patentee, patent date, book, volume and page number for patents—you can order an uncertified copy fairly inexpensively. If you don’t have that information, you can also order a search by the staff archivist. That, of course, will cost you more. Warrantee township maps are also available for sale.

If you can visit the state archives in Harrisburg, you can use the information you found through the online records to locate the documents on microfilm, saving time looking up the references so you can research other records.

That’s a fairly quick explanation of warrants, patents and surveys at the Pennsylvania State Archives website. These instructions should work for most properties. However, there will be exceptions (aren’t there always?). If you have questions, leave a comment or drop me a line. I’d be glad to help however I can.

You can browse the census microfilm online from the comfort of your home. You can even download a reel and view it as a PDF on your computer. You can’t search the schedules for your ancestor—there is no index. But if you’re short on cash, here’s a free and convenient alternative to visiting the nearest NARA office or genealogy library.

I was finally able to learn the census schedules from Conestoga, Lampeter, Strasburg and Sadsbury townships from 1820 are missing by viewing the microfilm roll online—something Ancestry’s customer service department apparently did not know.

An Old German Midwife’s Record, 1795-1815

Yesterday, I was poking around online trying to find Huber information when I came across the most wonderful article. I found a book entitled The American Ethnographical Survey, Conestoga Expedition, 1902. In it there was an article that included a transcription of an old German midwife’s record.

Susanna (Rohrer) Müller (aka Miller) lived in Martic (now Providence) Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania and served as a midwife from 1792 through 1815 when she died. She kept a careful record of her practice. It included the date, the number of children, the name of the family, and how much she charged them in pounds, shilling and pence. She scrupulously tried to capture the family name as she heard it. This record is a wonderful find for a genealogist—both as a possible source for birth information and as a German speakers record of both German and English names.

Scrolling through the pages, I recognized many, many names from my deed research in the Martic and Conestoga townships area. The following is a list of Huber/Hoover families she served and the relevant dates:

• 20 Dec 1795: Henrich Huber
• 24 Apr 1796: Martin Huber
• 5 Oct 1796: Hans Huber
• 19 Mar 1797: Abraham Huber [Christianna, daughter of Abraham & Anna (Huber) Huber?]
• 29 Sep 1797: Henrich Huber
• 20 Nov 1797: Hans Huber
• 11 Dec 1797: Marde [Martin] Huber [Jacob, son of Martin & Mary (Miller) Huber]
• 23 Feb 1799: Henrich Huber
• 20 Mar 1799: Abraham Huber [Anna, daughter of Abraham & Anna (Huber) Huber?]
• 19 Nov 1799: Peter Huber [Esther, daughter of Peter & Mary (Huber) Huber?]
• 28 Mar 1800: Marde [Martin] Huber [Martin Jr., son of Martin & Mary (Miller) Huber]
• 29 May 1800: Hener [Henry] Huber [Benjamin, son of Henry & Barbara (Huber) Huber?]
• 4 Jul 1800: Christle [Christian] Huber [Christian Jr., possible son of Christian Huber?]
• 17 Mar 1801: Abraham Huber [Mary, daughter of Abraham & Anna (Huber) Huber?]
• 1 Aug 1801: Martin Huber, Schreiner [Martin, son of Martin & Mary (Eshleman) Huber?]
• 6 Oct 1801: Hans Huber
• 1 Feb 1802: Abraham Huber
• 2 Sep 1802: Martin Huber [Samuel, son of Martin & Mary (Miller) Huber]
• 12 May 1803: Henner [Henry] Huber [child of Henry & Barbara (Huber) Huber?]
• 28 Jun 1803: Marden Huber, Schreiner [Anna or Elizabeth, daughter of Martin & Mary (Eshleman) Huber?]
• 26 Mar 1804: Abraham Huber
• 8 Apr 1804: Peder [Peter] Huber [John, son of Peter & Mary (Huber) Huber?]
• 21 Jun 1804: Henrich Huber
• 17 Sep 1805: Hanes [Johannes] Huber, Maurer
• 27 Mar 1806: Abraham Huber [Elizabeth, daughter of Abraham & Anna (Huber) Huber?]
• 27 Feb 1807: Jacob Huber
• 26 Apr 1807: Jacob Huber, living with Peder [Peter] Guth [Good]
• 25 May 1807: Christle Huber
• 17-23 Jun 1807: Marde Huber, Schreiner^[1] [child of Martin and Mary (Eshleman) Huber?]
• 3 Mar 1808: Mardin Huber, Schreiner [child of Martin and Mary (Eshleman) Huber?]
• 20 Sep 1808: Hans Huber, Maurer
• 14 Apr 1809: Abraham Huber, Schumacher [Jacob, son of Abraham & Mary (Huber?) Huber]
• 23 Mar 1810: Marde Huber [possibly David, son of Martin & Mary (Miller) Huber]
• 14 Aug 1810: Hans Huber, Maurer
• 5 Apr 1811: Henrich Huber
• 5 Sep 1811: Abraham Huber, Wewer
• 17 Oct 1811: Mardin Huber, Schreiner [Barbara, daughter of Martin & Mary (Eshleman) Huber?]
• 15 Nov 1811: Jacob Huber
• 24 Dec 1811: Abraham Huber
• 17 Oct 1812: John Huber, Maurer
• 30 Nov 1812: Marden Huber [possibly Mary, daughter of Martin & Mary (Miller) Huber]
• 2 Dec 1812: Henrich Huber
• 9 Jul 1813: Jacob Huber
• 18 Sep 1813: Abraham Huber
• 15 Feb 1814: Abraham Huber
• 13 Sep 1814: Abraham Huber, Wewer
• 12 Apr 1815: John Huber, Maurer
• 21 Apr 1815: Abraham Huber, Schum. [daughter of Abraham & Mary (Huber?) Huber?]
• 24 May 1815: Daniel Huber [Catharine, daughter of Daniel & Susanna (Moyer?) Huber?]
• 19 Sep 1815: Abraham Huber
• 30 Mar ??: Martin Huber

Some of the entries indicate an occupation. I’ve translated them, as follows:

• Schreiner = carpenter
• Maurer = mason
• Schumacher = shoemaker
• Wewer = weaver?

Unfortunately, the entries do not include the names of the babies she delivered. However, using other documents that provide approximate birth dates with the dates in this record could help determine exact birth dates for children born in this area in the late 1790s and early 1800s.

You never know what you’ll find online. I’m certainly glad that I followed this search result!

What I found made me unhappy. The copies I’d made were not from volume 13, number 2; they were from volume 13, number 3. So, here I have a nice stack of reading that doesn’t include the information that I was seeking. My bad for not clearly marking each photocopy with its full source citation!

Maryland Historical Magazine, Volume 13, Number 3, page 245 PDF

I went online to see if I could find somewhere I could order copy of the pages from the correct volume. Instead I found a page on the Maryland Historical Society’s website that seemed to imply that they were providing online access to the periodical.

Wow! I logged in and sure enough volumes 1, number 1 through volume 99, number 4 are available online as PDFs through a joint project of the Maryland Historical Society and Maryland State Archives. Volumes 101-104 are available to members of the Maryland Historical Society. The volumes have been indexed, so you can search them.

Online viewing through the PDF viewer I have was not optimal—the text appears jagged and bitmapped. Opening the file in Preview on the Mac (an option in the viewer) was similar. However, downloading the file and viewing in the Adobe PDF viewer solved the problem—crisp, clear text! I search for “Hoover” in the PDF and it skipped to the first notation (see blue highlight).

I’m so glad I decided to clean up a bit and discovered my mistake. It lead to a wonderful online resource!

The warrantee township maps are a useful tool in researching your family history and provide an excellent means of visualizing the location of a specific piece of property within the borders of a specific township.

However, when you want to quickly determine if a specific name can be found on the map, it can difficult to do. Frustrated by having to search the map for each name I wanted to locate, I decided to create an index for each township map that I use on a regular basis. Now, I’ve made them available to other researchers. Please see a list of currently available on the Online Genealogy Documents page.