Unlike England with its College of Arms, the United States has no governmental agency to maintain pedigrees of our nation’s families. Since we do not, we have to rely upon the nation’s hereditary societies for doing so.
It was in 1895 that a group of gentlemen met to organize the Colonial Society of Pennsylvania. The criterion for membership was a descent from a colonist, male or female, who settled in any British colony which became part of the United States of America prior to 1700. One of its goals was to collect, preserve, and publish records and documents relating to the early history of Pennsylvania. Just nine years after its founding, the society published Records of the Court of New Castle on Delaware 1676-1681. Six more volumes of court records followed.
The seventh volume of court records of Pennsylvania and Delaware has recently been released, and it completes the century-long commitment of the society.
The remainder of this article is for Plus Edition subscribers only.
If you have a Plus Edition user ID and password, you can read the article right now at no additional charge in this web site's Plus Edition at http://plus.eogn.com. This article will remain online for several weeks.
If you do not remember your Plus Edition user ID or password, you can retrieve them at the same place: http://plus.eogn.com.
If you decide to subscribe to the Plus Edition right now, you will be able to immediately read this article online.
For more information about subscribing to the Plus Edition of Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter, visit http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/plusedition.html.