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© St. Petersburg Times, published February 21, 2002
During this country's formative years, your ancestor could have spent his entire life on the same plot of ground and yet officially resided in two or three different counties. That's how quickly boundary lines changed.
In 1775, for example, Pennsylvania consisted of just eight counties. About one-third of the state, the entire northwest corner, bore no county designation at all. Ten years passed before it was parceled out to neighboring entities.
By 1810, the state's landscape had been sliced and diced into 42 counties, according to a Bureau of Land Records map. Another 20 were added by 1850. Today there are 67.
Pennsylvania is hardly unique. As America's population grew and migrated to other areas, state and county boundaries shifted as well. Every state has a distinct geographical story to tell.
Your eyes may be glazing over at this impromptu history lesson. You may have nodded off. But if you're serious about rooting out your ancestors, take heed. When these boundaries changed, so did the location of the courthouse where your kin took care of business.
Suppose for a moment that your ancestor bought a farm in a particular area of Bedford County, Pa., in 1794. You'll find documents pertaining to this land sale at the Bedford County courthouse. However, when this same man met his maker in 1796, his will and probate records were filed at the Somerset County courthouse. Why? Because Somerset County was carved from Bedford County in 1795. The man stayed put. But you'll need to check records in both counties to make sure you get them all.
(In large or heavily populated counties that have more than one courthouse, go to the county seat. That's the town that serves as the administrative center for a county. It is not always the largest town.)
How do you know where to look? The masochistic among us spend countless hours pinpointing precisely where their kin lived and even more hours poring over maps and overlays creating a geographical timeline. The rest of us simply consult a chart showing when each county was formed from its parent and pay a visit to both courthouses. (If the parent county underwent more than one split, there may be more than two locations to check.)
You can read up on these political divisions at the main branch of most public libraries or purchase a copy of Everton's Handy Book for Genealogists. Got a computer? Log on to www.usgenweb.org/statelinks-table.html. Some county genealogical sites feature charts and maps. Just for kicks, I put "Ohio+boundary changes" in the search box of my browser. Up popped a neat site for Jackson County that compares old maps with present towns to help folks get their bearings (www.rootsweb.com/ohjackso/boundary.htm). My first humbling encounter with changing boundaries came years ago when I began trolling through census records. A veritable contingent of Murrays appeared on the 1840 census records for Salt Lick Township in Fayette County, Pa. With the kind of cockiness reserved for true novices, I plucked the 1850 microfilm for the same place. Nearly every one of my Murray families had vanished! Imagine my despair.
Knowing the whole bunch hadn't packed up and moved -- my great-grandparents and grandparents are buried on that mountain -- I continued scrolling through the county census records and eventually discovered my missing Murrays in neighboring Springfield Township. I later learned that Springfield was created in 1848 and made its debut on the 1850 census.
Occasionally, geographical designations simply disappear. Created in 1847, Youghiogheny Township boasts a whopping 54 families and 238 inhabitants on the 1850 census. It doesn't exist on the next census. Eliminated in 1855, a portion of the area became part of the newly formed Stewart Township and the rest was absorbed by Springfield Township.
-- Donna Murray Allen welcomes your questions about genealogy and will respond to those of general interest in future columns. Sorry, she can't take phone calls, but you can write to her c/o Floridian, St. Petersburg Times, P.O. Box 1121, St. Petersburg, FL 33731, or e-mail her at rootscolumn@aol.com.