Pennsylvania Land Owner Maps - online!

Pennsylvania Land Owner Atlas are now on line! 71 of them from Adams, Allegheny, Armstrong, to Warren, Washington, Wayne and York. These maps are part of a collection of 1200 U. S. County Land Ownership Atlases maps ranging from 1864-1918, across 34 states that were just added at ancestry.com.

Each of the county map books detail the township, town and village showing the location of each landowner's property.

Your great-great grandfather's name may be on one of these maps! Up until now, for the most part, viewing these maps meant a trip to the county's historical society and with a magnifying glass pouring over the hundreds of names printed in small type for each township. The online digitizing of this collection is a tremendous genealogy aid. Not only are the maps online - they are searchable! And, you can zoom in 200%. Within minutes of searching the maps, I found ancestors that I had given up looking for!

The 24/7 Ancestry Family Circle had an excellent suggestion for plugging the township maps into Google Earth and actually seeing what your ancestors' property looks like today!

View the U. S. County Landowner Maps

Shown above is a section of Fairview Township from the 1873 Mercer County, PA Atlas, one of the map sets in the collection. This image was scanned from a hard copy of the maps and is not an image from the online collection.

Lots of History... But No Lunch

The Youngwood Historical Museum, located in the historic old railroad building built in 1902, thought a cafe might be a way to revitalize interest in the museum. The permit was turned down. The museum has been open by appointment only since a scandal rocked its board in 2004.

Read the full story from Pittsburgh Live

Pennsylvania College, Gettysburg, PA Class of 1917

View the photograph

The Class of 1917 photographed on Nov. 21, 1913 when they were freshmen.

Class Roll (and probably in the photograph): Morville Ashton, Elmer Beale, Wilbert Beechy, Howard Bink, Mark Bishop, Robert Boden, George Bookhultz, Vance Boyd, William Boyson, John Braunlein, Willis Brenneman, Clifford Campbell, James Cannen, Raymond Carlson, Arthur Clemens, D. Clifton Daugherty, Charles Diller, James Duffy Jr., C. William Duncan, George Eckman, John Embich, Charles Fager, J. Russel Fink, Robert Flenner, Robert Foote, John Geiser, David Glatfelter, Frank Glatfelter, Rudolph Gleichman, Chester Hollenbeck, Ralph Hankey, James Hatch, Clarence Hershey, Raymond Hesson, George Hixon, Paul Horick, Myron Huff, Robert Keener, Joseph Kendelhart, Jacob Kremer, J. Warren Kuhlman, Otto Kunkle, Chester Kurtz, Norman Kunkle, Edmund Lakin, Robert Lang, Paul Laudenslager, George McIntyre, Wallace McMabb, Clarence Markel, Harry Matz, David Maxwell, Leon Mead, Charles Miller, Luther Miller, Harold Millin, Samuel Newcomer, Adam Orris, Clyde Orris, William Peters, Alexander Ringler, Lawrence Rost, J. Carrol Rupp, Harry Ruth, Lloyd Schaffer, Roger Shearer, George Schillinger, Fredrick Schwartz, Mayone Sheads, Paul Shenberger, C. Morris Sincell, Luther Slifer, Earl Smeich, John Snyder, Alton Snyder, Raymond Sorrick, J. Claire Sowers, Lauran Sowers, John Spangler Jr. C. Edwin Springhorn, John Steacy, Paul Stermer, Henry Starr, Minerva Taughinbaugh, Thomas Thrasher, Charles Venable, H. Theophil Weishaar, Park Wertz, Jacob Wierman, Frank Williams, Ira Williams, Albert Zeilinger.

Marie Bentz, Minnie Bortner, Minerva Taughinbaugh, Mary Watson, and I. Dorothy Zane are listed on the class roll, but are not in the photograph, which appears to be only male members of the class.

More Pennsylvania Old Photos