On 04 May, 2005, at 18:09, gordon crooks wrote: > Linda:I fail to see what you think that the Pennsylvania records > are confusing. It is in fact a vast collection and east to wade > thru. In addition to the State Archives, most counties also have > web site and they again are loaded with info. The state is very > history minded, their roads are lousy and their taxes are low. I > live in Maryland (next door to Pa.) and plan to visit on a day trip > tomorrow I will walk the lands that my ancestor settled on in 1741 > thanks to the State of Pennsylvania translating old hand written > maps onto modern maps. Unless things have changed radically since the last time I looked, very little of the Pennsylvania Archives are on-line, let alone those of places like Philadelphia. There are indexes to much Philadelphia material, but not the material itself. The same is true for the records of many of the local County Historical Societies. Don't be confused just because there is a lot of information on-line. What is on line is probably only about 1% of the materials available! Don't forget, the usefulness of such materials is always directly related to what information it is that you are looking for, as well as the time periods involved. One of the most confusing aspects of the Pennsylvania records is WHERE are they WHEN. Birth and Death records are not centralized. One must pick the right archive for the dates involved. The last time I checked, the Philadelphia archives had a pretty decent Genealogy "pointer" section ... i.e. they try to describe which records are where and what you have to do to access them. T.T.F.N. William H. Magill PM University Lodge 51, GLPA Pennsylvania Lodge of Research Philadelphia, PA magill@mcgillsociety.org magill@acm.org magill@mac.com whmagill@gmail.com