Some of the greatest wealth in genealogical data is held by local and county historical societies and archives. While most of the information must be researched by an actual visit to the location, some societies, with the assistance of government and charitable funds have been slowly digitizing some of these records. Such is the case with Lancaster County Historical Society in Lancaster Pennsylvania. While recently visiting their website I discovered a treasure trove of digitized records that I previously wasn’t aware of, and I thought I’d share them with you here.
Lancaster County PA Directories
Thanks to a Library Services and Technology Act grant they digitized all of their city and county residential and commercial directories from 1843 to 1914 for Lancaster County PA. These directories list residents in the city and the county by name and street address and can help locate people on an annual basis and additionally list businesses and professionals.
- Browse or search Lancaster Directories, 1843-1922
- Lancaster City Directories 1843-1900
This collection consists of Lancaster City and County residential and commercial directories, 1843-1900. These directories provide valuable information regarding the population of Lancaster City and County, as well as the growth and development of the community and the evolution of Lancaster commerce and industry. - Lancaster City Directories 1901-1914
This collection consists of Lancaster City and County residential and commercial directories, 1901-1914. These directories provide valuable information regarding the population of Lancaster City and County, as well as the growth and development of the community and the evolution of Lancaster commerce and industry. - Lancaster City Directories 1914-1922
This collection consists of Lititz and Columbia commercial directories, 1914-1922. These directories are useful to those researching family history and the development of communities over time. Advertisements in these directories are also valuable.
- Lancaster City Directories 1843-1900
They’ve also placed online a variety of historical Newspapers dealing with Lancaster County. Some of these are hosted on their own site, and in some cases, they’ve teamed up with archive.org to place them online.
- Lancaster’s Examiner and Herald
Lancaster’s Examiner and Herald was published weekly in Lancaster, Pa., during the middle years of the nineteenth century. By digitizing the years 1834 – 1872, patrons are provided with a view of politics and events of this tumultuous period from a liberal political slant, providing balance to the more conservative perspective of the Intelligencer-Journal, which was recently digitized by Penn State. - The Lancaster Farmer
- The Lancaster Intelligencer
- Lancaster Daily Intelligencer
- The Columbia Spy
- The New Holland Clarion
The New Holland Clarion was published weekly in New Holland, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania from 1873-1984. The newspaper provided the local news, world and regional news, information on social events and businesses, and historical sketches of New Holland. The New Holland Clarion is segmented into 3 collections: - The Lilitz Newspaper Collection