Note: A good and much more
in-depth reference is George K. Schweitzer's Pennsylvania Genealogical
Research (Knoxville, Tennessee: By the author,407 Regent Court,
For the period 1682-1893,
virtually no records of birth were kept by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
or Washington County. For births before 1893, you should look at grave
headstone inscriptions, bible records, church
registers, census, military
and veterans records, wills, mortuary
or naturalization records, published genealogies,
Social Security Death Indexes, or obituaries.
In 1893 a law was passed requiring
births to be reported. The Clerk of the Orphan's Court in each county was
charged with maintaining the birth records. In Washington County, these
original records can be found at the Washington
County courthouse. To obtain copies, address your correspondence to
the County Clerk. The original records were also microfilmed by the LDS
church and the films may be rented through the LDS
Family History Centers.
On 1 January 1906, the Commonwealth
of Pennsylvania started registering births. Births were to be reported
to the county, and county officials were to report them to the state. While
the law took effect in 1906, 90% registration compliance was not obtained
until 1915. For births from 1906 on, you can get information on how to
obtain certificates from United
States Vital Records.
Bible records are considered
a valuable, credible genealogical resource. There are two reasons for this.
First, the records are usually recorded at the time of the event. That
means that the accuracy of the recording, whether it is a date or name
or a place, is not faded by memory. Second, the person doing the recording
is usually someone to whom the event is important and therefore is more
apt to be accurate, as in the case of a mother recording the birth or death
of her child.
The information kept in bible
records varies according to the custom of the family keeping them, but
often includes birth, death, and marriage dates.
Most bible records are found
in the hands of the families to whom they belong, so you should always
check within your family for bibles. Also, many bible records have been
submitted to local libraries
and many have been published by local
Starting in 1850, the Federal
Census recorded the name and gender of each family member, as well as the
year and place (state or country) of their birth. Starting in 1880, the
birthplace of each individual's parents was recorded. For more information
on where to find microfilm and indexes of the Federal Census, click
From 1850 to the present,
the marital status of each person enumerated is given. This helps to narrow
down dates of marriage. Beginning in 1900, the census notes, for the present
marriage, the number of years married.
Note that the information
in census records, including spellings of names, often fails to match the
same sort of information obtained from other sources. This may be because
the later information is erroneous or because the census information is.
For instance, your great
grandfather's death may be recorded in the census as 1872, but on his headstone
it may be 1874. If it was his mother or father who reported the date to
the census taker, then the 1872 date is probably more accurate since the
date on the headstone may be derived from what a grandchild thought was
his birth date at the time the stone was carved. You must be the ultimate
judge and you must use all the evidence at your disposal to make an intelligent
Church records are an excellent
resource for determining dates of birth, death and marriage. Dates of birth
can be estimated based on dates of baptism, and death dates can be estimated
from burial records.
Early church records, if
they survived through through the ages, are generally found at the local
church or at the denominational archives. Frequently, photocopies, transcriptions
or microfilms of these records may be available at local or regional libraries.
And, as with vital records, many original church records have been microfilmed
by the LDS church and the films may be rented through the LDS
Family History Centers.
Naturalization records frequently
contain the petitioner's exact date of birth, sometimes just the year,
but at least their age. An immigrant could apply for naturalization at
any state supreme, superior, district, or circuit court, or at any federal
circuit or district court. For more information, see the immigration
and naturalization page.
Military and Veteran Records
Among the many military and
veteran records that may yield vital statistic information, are:
Some resources for military
records may be found on the worldwide web. Don't forget to also check
the National Archives
Pension records which may include,
among other things, age, birth and death information, name of wife and
marriage information, names and ages of children.
Bounty land records which may
include similar information as found in pension records.
County veteran's grave registers
starting in 1775 and continuing to the present, available in a card file
at the Pennsylvania
Marriage records are important
to genealogists because marriage is what connects two families. We rely
upon marriage records to tell us the date of a marriage, but often the
crucial bit of information is name of the spouse.
In addition to marriage records
kept with the county, marriage dates and/or spouse's names can be obtained
from grave headstone inscriptions, bible
records, church registers, census,
military and veterans records, wills,
mortuary or naturalization
genealogies, or obituaries.
Marriage records are not
a matter of vital statistics which covers births and deaths. Therefore
you cannot obtain copies of marriage certificates from the state.
of the Orphans' Court in Washington County was required to keep marriage
records beginning 1 October 1885. You should always write to the county,
not the state, for marriage certificates. There are two types of marriage
records: applications for marriage licenses and returned marriage licenses.
Be aware a small minority of people who apply for marriage licenses do
not actually get married, so you should always look for the returned license.
Applications contain the
name of the bride and groom, their parents' names, and their age. They
sometimes contain other information depending on what part of the century
the marriage took place.
For the period 1682-1893,
virtually no official state or county records of death were kept. For deaths
before 1893, you should look at grave headstone inscriptions,
bible records, census
mortality schedules, military records, mortuary
records or naturalization
genealogies, or obituaries.
Note that for the period
before 1893, some cities did register deaths, and among those close to
Washington County are Pittsburgh and Allegheny City. Pittsburgh has death
records for 1870-1905 and Allegheny City kept records 1882-1905. Microfilm
of the Pittsburgh records are housed at the Carnegie
Library of Pittsburgh. Both records groups are housed at the Pittsburgh
In 1893, Pennsylvania passed
a law requiring the registration of deaths. Deaths were reported to the
Clerk of the Orphans Court in each county. The original records were also
microfilmed by the LDS church and the films may be rented through the LDS Family History Centers.
On 1 January 1906, the Commonwealth
of Pennsylvania started registering deaths. Deaths were to be reported
to the county, and county officials reported them to the state. While the
law took effect in 1906, 90% registration compliance was not obtained until
For deaths prior to 1906,
write to the County Clerk at the Washington
County courthouse. Provide either the name of the deceased and an approximate
year of death. The information recorded may be incomplete. For deaths from
1906 on, you can get information on how to obtain certificates from United
States Vital Records.
Modern death certificates
Be aware that the much of the
information on a death certificate is given by a third party, usually the
spouse or a child who may not know it accurately to begin with. And the
information is reported long after the event, as with the birth date.
Name and last residence of the
Date, place, and cause of death.
Marital status and spouse's
Parents names, including mother's
Burial place and funeral director.
Informant - the person, most
often a spouse or family member, who provided the personal information.
If you know the location where
your ancestor died, try to locate the cemetery
where they were buried. Once located, there are several ways to get
the date of death:
Other good information on headstones
often includes birth dates and maiden names. In Washington County, among
the Presbyterians, it is common for a married woman's maiden name to be
on her headstone.
Visit the cemetery, or have
someone do so for you, and try to locate a grave marker for your ancestor.
Most often, the date of death is noted on the stone.
Write to the cemetery, if it
is still maintained, and request they search their records for your ancestor.
Often the records will contain the name of the funeral home that had been
used and the names of other family members in the same lot.
Check the local
libraries to see if a census of the cemetery had been made at any time
in the past. Very frequently the local
genealogical society has launched a project in to record information
from stones in older cemeteries.
Finally, keep in mind that
in older cemeteries, the stones may be broken or worn away from weather.
Wills and Intestate Records
Obviously, wills and the many
records generated during disposition of an estate, often point to a date
of death. But you will also find key information within wills such as family relationships, birth order, which children are minors at the time, and the
married names of daughters.
Wills are filed with the
County Orphans' Court. Washington County started recording wills in the
late 1700's and the local
genealogical society published three volumes of indexes to early wills.
The indexes include the names of the executors, witnesses, and beneficiaries.
Many large libraries with genealogical collections have copies of these
indexes, and they are available at Citizens
If you resort to collecting
original records from the County Court, there are some key concepts you
must understand. When a person dies leaving an estate, the county government
is responsible for seeing that it is distributed according to law. How that
is done depends on whether or not the deceased left a will.
If the deceased leaves a
will, it must be filed with the county Register of Wills and must subsequently
be authenticated to the Orphans' Court. This process is called probate.
The executor named in the will is charged with carrying out the distribution
of the estate under the supervision of the Orphans' Court and the Register
If, on the other hand, the
deceased dies without leaving a will, then he or she has died intestate,
and the government must appoint an administrator to distribute
the estate according the law. In either case, several types of records
are generated through the court and may be of interest to the genealogist.
Obituaries are good places to
find vital statistic information and to uncover family relationships. Modern
day obituaries are usually submitted to local
newspapers, or newspapers covering the general area where a person
spent a significant part of their life, by the funeral director handling
the funeral and burial. The information is collected by them from the family
member arranging the funeral.
Of course, the key information
in an obituary are the name of the deceased, their death date and place,
often their spouse's name, frequently their birth date and place, and commonly
their place of burial.
A second bit of key data
obtained from obituaries is the place of residence of surviving family
members, and, in the case of women, their married names. Third, you can
find the name of the cemetery a person is buried in from his or her obituary.
This can often lead to the discovery of unknown family members who were
buried in the same lot.
Because much of the information
in obituaries is reported second-hand, you should always try corroborate it with other sources.
See our Observer-Reporter
Obituary Archive or the GenConnect
Obits for Washington Co.
Social Security Death Indexes
The Social Security death index
can be used to determine a month/year of death and a probable location.
The indexes have very few entries for anyone who died before the [1980's???].
They are available on CD-ROM for use at the LDS
Family History Centers and they are also available for searching on-line
These indexes contain the
Once you have located an entry
for which you'd like more information, you can write to the Social
Security Administration for more info. Be aware that SSA did not begin
keeping records until November 1936, therefore they have no records for
people who died before then.
The name of the person as it
appears in the Social Security records. This is the name they gave when
applying for their social security card and often corresponds to the name
as it appeared on their birth certificate which was frequently used in
obtaining a card. Note that most women have the name on their Social Security
records changed when they marry.
The individual's Social Security
The date of birth as it appeared
on the documents used when registering for Social Security.
City, county, and state (there
can be several entries) to which Social Security benefits were mailed.
This location frequently corresponds to the last residence. However, in
many cases it corresponds to the address of the relative to which a final
death benefit was mailed.
The date of death. This is most
often the date as appeared on the death certificate of the person in question.
Funeral home and mortuary records
often contain at least the date of burial, but often the date of death,
age at death, and family relationships. These records are kept at the funeral
home, and frequently pass to the descendants when a funeral home ceases
business. If the business is sold to another owner, the records are frequently
passed on to the new owners. Click here for a list of Washington
County funeral homes. Don't forget that obituaries
frequently mention the name of the funeral home handling the burial.