Copyright 1996
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PENNSYLVANIA ARCHIVES
PA Archives: Back quite a few years ago, they decided to publish a huge amount of old stuff sitting around in the state. People must have typed for quite a long time to put together the PA Archives collection, a vast library of books available at most PA libraries and historical societies. You should consult the new general subject index to see what county records are available in which series and volumes. I'm not going to go into all the records available - take a look.
Tax records: there are only a few years within each county that the PA Archives covers. You may find earlier or later tax records at county libraries or historical societies. Anyway, these lists are great because they show the township where the person lived, occupation, size of farm, etc. One thing to note is that sometimes the younger folks appear at the end of the list as "single men". Since they weren't taxed until they were of age, 21, you can get an estimate of when they were born by when they appeared in the tax list.
The location the person lived will help determine which church records to look through. Just like any other book, don't just look in the index. If your ancestor was in the tax list for only one year according to the index, check that township for other years. Look just for the first name if you have to, and you'll be surprised at the creative spellings that were used!!
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