Sharon discovered these maps years ago but found that the maps are not "user friendly." While each map shows the names of the landowners, the names are not indexed and most researchers are not even aware that they exist for their counties.
Sharon has been indexing and publishing these township warrantee maps, as well as designing coordinate grids to locate each tract and owner. So far she, joined by her husband, has published 3 volumes in a series which will eventually include all counties in Pennsylvania for which these Township Warrantee Maps exist. As an adjunct to the volumes concerning western Pennsylvania, she has identified the locations of the land tracts which were transferred from Virginia to Pennsylvania jurisdiction in 1779-1780, after the boundary dispute between the two states was settled.
Downloadable images of a host of 19th Century Pennsylvania landowner maps and atlases are now available at no charge on a web site created by Sharon Cook MacInnes and her husband Angus MacInnes
Sharon wrote:
You can see the extent by going to our home page and scrolling down to the map of Pennsylvania and hovering over each county. Nearly all of these maps are in the Library of Congress, and we have spent months trying to get the clearest images we can of each township of each county. So far we have posted 19th-century landowner maps covering at least two-thirds of Pennsylvania counties, and we have linked to a number of other sites which have posted landowner maps and atlases. Altogether, our website includes images of cadastral maps, or links to other sites, for over three-quarters of the land mass of Pennsylvania, and our goal is to complete the state by the end of the year.You can access the FREE Ancestor Tracks web site at http://ancestortracks.com
Most of the images are high quality, but we will also be replacing some of the images over time with clearer versions. These maps are invaluable when used in conjunction with the 1850, 1860, 1870 and 1880 census records, as well as the many county histories that were written around the time these maps were drafted. Our website is the most comprehensive one-stop site for free Pennsylvania landowner maps and atlases.
We also have written 8 volumes of the Early Landowners of Pennsylvania series which we sell, but the vast majority of our website is devoted to providing free, downloadable 19th century maps and atlases for the use of genealogists and historians.
