My experience in regard to locating property in and near Indian River, DE, some of the "original" records are found in Harrisburg, PA: ".The process for obtaining land in Pennsylvania involved a 3-part process: (1) the prospective landowner had to file an application for land in fairly specific terms. When the Land Office received the application, they issued a warrant, or an order to have the desired tract surveyed. The applicant had to pay a fee for this warrant and became known as the warrantee. The loose warrant was copied into a ledger called a Warrant Register. (2) The next step was to pay a fee for the survey and wait until a deputy surveyor could be assigned to do the work. The results of the survey were returned to the Land Office with a precise description and map of the tract, nearly always including the names of the neighbors who owned the adjacent tracts. These loose surveys are on file at the Pennsylvania Archives in Harrisburg and have been copied into Survey Books. (3) The last step was to pay yet another fee to the colony or state and receive the final title which was called a patent. This is the official deed transferring ownership from the colony or state to the individual. He or she now became the patentee. Again, the patents were copied into ledgers called Patent Registers. Sometimes, many years passed between the 3 steps. In our experience, perhaps 60-70% of the warrantees of a county were also the patentees. Often, however, the original warrantee died and the land passed to a relative or was bartered (sometimes for a gun or a coat) or sold to someone else; or he stayed on the land for a short while before moving on (usually west) and transferred the land to someone else who then patented it and became the patentee; or he was a speculator who never intended to settle on it and transferred ownership to someone else to then patented it.."