Pennsylvania Map Page for Woodward Web Site
Advertisement


Pennsylvania Map Page
------------------------------------

Return to Woodward Home Page
Return to Quaker Meetings
Return to Quaker Migrations
Return to Land Records


Link to map of Delaware River, 1631-64 - settlement of Dutch, Swedes, and Finns
(on Ancestry.com for members: enter "Delaware River 1631-64" for search term)

Link to A Mapp of Ye Improved Part of Pennsylvania 1687.
Includes Chester, Bucks and Philadelphia Counties

The Delaware Valley 1701-1718
(from Papers of William Penn, Vol 4)

Map of Pennsylvania in 1756

Map of Pennsylvania in 1796 (despite what the title says!)
Link to USGenWeb Pennsylvania Land Records Archives Index

Part of the difficulty of doing research in very early time periods is that boundaries were constantly changing, and one doesn't always know where to look for information.. We have followed the custom throughout this site of putting birth, marriage, and death dates, to the best of our knowledge, in the county that existed at the time of the date. Sometimes this makes it look like families moved about a great deal when the county boundaries simply changed around them. The same is certainly true for township boundaries and occasionally even for state boundaries. We feel that knowing where an event took place assists a great deal in knowing where to write for records. Some researchers use the name of the present day site in their records feeling it is most useful for locating the site on a map.

The above 1796 Pennsylvania map is from a tiny but powerful book called Early Pennsylvania Research published by The Everton Publishers, Inc. P. O. Box 368, Logan, Utah 84321. Anyone doing early Pennsylvania research would be wise to have this book in hand - it is a very inexpensive paperback. This book tells us that Pennsylvania was surveyed and its boundaries established by 1792. The original three counties in 1682 were Bucks, Chester, and Philadelphia. The additional counties established before 1800 were: Lancaster 1729; York 1749; Cumberland 1750; Berks Northampton 1752; Bedford 1771; Northumberland 1772; Westmoreland 1773, Washingnton 1781; Fayette 1783; Franklin and Montgomery 1784; Dauphin 1785; Luzerne 1786; Huntingdon 1787; Allegheny 1788; Delaware and Mifflin 1789; Lycoming and Somerset 1795; Greene 1796; and Wayne 1798.

Below is a link to a map showing the progression of settlement across Pennsylvania by date. It is part of a wall map available from (? ) for a very reasonable price. It contains much information about the changes in county boundaries and the years that they occurred. (Sorry - we cut off the name of the company to fit the xerox machine and haven't been able to locate the source again yet.) We have found it useful for identifying bogus genealogical information that gives very early dates for a family's arrival in a part of the state that wasn't actually settled until much later.

Map of Pennsylvania Showing Settlement Dates

Map of Main Indian Paths and Migration Trails in Pennsylvania

Link to PAGenWeb list of Counties and parent Counties with Dates of Formation (and links to GenWeb's countyresearch sites).

Maps of Chester County - 1683 to Present - Main Pennsylvania area of interest to this site (There is an interesting Web Site about Chester County at www.oldchesterpa.com.) (And don't forget the Chester County Genealogy Site!)

Lancaster County 1729 - Thornbroughs came from Warwick Township and Alice Simcock's Sadbury Meeting was in Lancaster County
(from Anniversary History of the Family of John 'Hannes' Miller, Sr J. Virgil Miller, 1998)

Lancaster County Present Day Township Boundaries

(1)Link to 1895 map of York, Lancaster, and Chester Counties

(2)Link to Web Site with entire 1895 Pennsylvania Map



Delaware County - set off from Chester County in 1789 - The township of Thornbury was divided but Richard Woodward's original land remained on the Chester County side.

Link to Delaware (State) Counties and Hundreds List - Delaware was originally part of Pennsylvania but was granted its own assembly in 1703. Rather than townships, its counties were divided into hundreds. This is a Web Site link with information on the basis of hundreds with names and locations.

Link to Ashmead's History of Delaware County
by Henry Graham Ashmead (Philadelphia: L. H. Everts & Co, 1884)
M. D. Monk has visited some sites in the Shenandoah Valley and has posted photographs on his Web Site, particularly of points along the Great Wagon Road.

Link to Web Site which contains a map of the Great Wagon Road and additional interesting information.



Link to Western Migration Map on Haworth Association Web Site. Shows routes west and south from Pennsylvania.




Advertisement