This is my second installment of information that might help people working on genealogy in Westmoreland County. I do hope it is of some assistance in locating ancestors in Westmoreland County. Ellen in PA The Development of Donegal, Ligonier and Cook Townships & part of Donegal becoming part of Fayette County. Donegal Twp. is one of the original townships created after the formation of Westmoreland County. It was created April 6, 1773 & was described as beginning where the line of Fairfield Township intersects the county line and to run along that line to where the Youghiogeny crosses the same thence down the North side of Youghiogeny to the top of the Chesnut ridge thence along the top of the Chesnut Ridge to the line of Armstrong, thence up the loyal Hannan to the mouth of the big roaring Run, & thence up said Run to the beginning - This is not the appearance of it today as approximately one half of it is now in Fayette county. This happened September 26, 1783 when the southern half was incorporated in to that county. From what I have seen the line was later changed on the north east corner to add acreage to the township. Other minor line changes appeared but in May of 1822 a new township was formed called Ligonier township out of Donegal and Fairfield. In November of 1852, we gained Cook township, which was divided off Donegal township. This last date differs from the 1855 date in the History of Westmoreland County by George Dallas Alberts but the date I state is from another source that I feel is accurate. The significance of these changes would be in determining the location of the earliest settlers who received the warrants and patents & would have had land in Donegal township prior to each change & where the land would appear to be if you look at a map today. One would need to go by the dates above to make that determination. Therefore if you are looking for someone who appears to have land in Donegal township in 1773, you might find that the acreage appears in a different township later & even in Fayette county. The earliest land patents in what is now Fayette county would need to be taken up as an entirely new topic. It may be at some point we can tackle that subject matter. It should be noted that a person wishing to examine the land patents for what is Fayette County will find them in the Third Volume of the Horn Papers which includes Washington & Green County. The earliest land patents in what it Ligonier township out of a total of 281 appear to be later than those I've seen for Hempfield township, that I discussed earlier. I have also noticed that for Ligonier township there are 11 patents with no dates listed. The earliest ones I am noting would either come from Fairfield or Donegal township. You would need to see where they are located on the patent map in the mapping department to see which one it would be. Philip Freeman in1785 George Eakert, William Hamilton, & William Jamison in 1786 John Brant, Matthew Henderson, Frederick Rohrer, & Isaac Warrell in 1787 Samuel Finley, Richard Freeman etal, William Hizer, & Frederick Rohrer in 1788 Philip Freeman, Robert Knox, Hugh Martin, Hugh Smart, & Thomas Sutton in 1789 If you are looking at land that appears in Cook township today means that it would be traceable to Donegal township prior to 1852. There are 55 patents that are after the formation of Cook township so that means those would always appear in the tax records for Cook township for those settlers. Any earlier would appear in the tax records for Donegal township.. There are 4 patents with no dates listed. The earliest settlers receiving patents in Cook township that would appear in Donegal township earlier would be: John McGraw in 1785 Joseph Campbell, & William Hamilton in 1786 (2 patents) Joseph Murdock, William Todd, & Isaac Warrell in 1787 Henry Beck, John Beck, Alexander Ewing, James Guffy, & Arthur St. Clair in 1788 (2 patents) Ruben Brislo, & John & Andrew Galbreath in 1789 Visit my web site at: http://www.familytreetracer.com <http://www.familytreetracer.com/>