• PA Home
• PA Genealogical Records
  • Census Records
  • Church Records
  • Court Records
  • Land Records
  • Military Records
  • Vital Records
• PA Maps
• PA Archives & Societies
• PA Newspapers
• PA Periodicals
• Search PA Databases
• Blog

Pennsylvania Birth, Marriage, Divorce and Death Records

See Also Researching in Vital Records - Vital records, as their name suggests, are connected with central life events: birth, marriage, and death. Maintained by civil authorities, they are prime sources of genealogical information; but, unfortunately, official vital records are available only for relatively recent periods. These records, despite their recent creation in the United States, are critically important in genealogical research, often supplying details on family members well back into the nineteenth century.......

Although a colonial law of 1682 provided for the recording of births, marriages, and burials in Pennsylvania, few if any of these events were ever entered in civil records. A new law in the mid-nineteenth century required these events be recorded by the county register of wills, with copies sent to Harrisburg. Some of these records are still in the courthouses, and others are at the Pennsylvania State Archives, where microfilms of many are available. Indexes to these records are arranged first by county, then by event, then by year. Films of some of these records are also available at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. From 1860 through 1893, and in some cases to a later date, births and deaths were recorded in Philadelphia and other cities-Allegheny, Easton, Harrisburg, Pottsville, Pittsburgh, and Williamsport-although there are gaps.

Except for the exceptions noted above and for marriages recorded from 1885 in the county orphans' courts, nineteenth-century civil vital records in Pennsylvania are practically non-existent. It is important, therefore, to make use of substitutes such as church and justice of the peace records, grave marker inscriptions and burial records, newspaper marriage and death notices, and censuses.

For Birth and Death before 1906 Write to: Register of Wills, Orphans Court, in county seat of county where event occurred. For Birth 1870 to 1905 for Persons born in Pittsburgh or in Allegheny City, now part of Pittsburgh, from 1882 to 1905 Write to Registrar of Wills, City-County Building, Pittsburgh, PA 15219

For Birth and Death 1860 to 1915 For events occurring in City of Philadelphia write to: Vital Statistics, Philadelphia Department of Public Health, 401 North Broad Street, Room 942, Philadelphia, PA 19108. The Cost of copy is $9. Births and deaths in Pennsylvania were also recorded in the county orphans' courts for the period 1893 through 1905, and here also may be found delayed birth records for events occurring as far back as the 1860s. The state archives has films of some of these records; the Historical Society of Pennsylvania has those for Philadelphia.

For Marriages, Make application to the Marriage License Clerks, County Court House in county where license was issued. Marriage licenses were not required in colonial Pennsylvania. Since 1885 the clerk of the orphans' court in each county has had the responsibility of recording marriages. Films of some of these records are at the state archives and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

For Divorces Make application to the Prothonotary Court House in county seat of county where divorce was granted.

Most Pennsylvania divorce records from 1804 are found in the county court of common pleas, where the prothonotary is usually the clerk with custody of the records. Only two divorces found in the Pennsylvania Statutes at Large for the colonial period-one granted in 1769 and a second voided in 1772. Divorces were granted, mostly for adultery, by the General Assembly during and following the Revolutionary War. The assembly had jurisdiction from 1776 to 1847 . The supreme court had concurrent jurisdiction of granting divorces from 1785 to 1804, and its records to 1801. The state archives has divorce papers for 1786-1815 from the records of the supreme court.