Lehigh County, Pennsylvania Genealogy

United States Pennsylvania  Lehigh County 

Parent County
6 March 1812: Lehigh County was created from Northampton County.

Neighboring Counties
Berks | Bucks | Carbon | Montgomery | Northampton | Schuylkill

Cemeteries
The records of the Fountain Hill Cemetery, Fountain Hill, Bethlehem, PA have been digitally immaged. Records from 1872 to the present were recorded. The persons interred in the cemetery are mostly from the Bethlehem, PA area, especially those from the South side of Bethlehem and ethnic Slovenes who lived there.

The Genealogical Society of Utah created the images as part of project PENN0061D. They are not available to the public as of October 2009.

Lutheran
Early records of the "Blue Church" have been published:


 * 1750-1764 - Beckel, Clarence E. "Records of St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Congregation, Lehigh Co., Penna., 1750-1764," The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 35 (1911):188-198. Includes marriages, deaths, and communicants. For free online access, see WeRelate.

Burials at Christ Church (united Lutheran and Reformed congregation) at Shoenersville have been published:


 * 1700s-1800s - Centennial of Christ Church at Shoenersville, Pa. 1880. Digital version at Ancestry ($).

Moravian
Moravians established a settlement at Bethlehem in 1741. The Bethlehem Digital History Project (winner of a National Endowments for the Humanities prize) includes community records, Bethlehem diary, bills of sale and manumissions, business activity, meeting minutes, Moravian Indian diaries 1763-1765, registers of baptisms, marriages, and deaths, and church regulations.

Land and Property
Recorder of Deeds Division Lehigh County Courthouse 455 W. Hamilton St. Room 122 Allentown, PA 18101

Due to the lack of vital records for Pennsylvania, land records are an important tool in early Pennsylvania research. Land records will list the seller and purchaser of the property and may hide clues to family connections. Land records for Lehigh County are available from the recorder's office for 1812 to the present.


 * Images and indexes are available through the Landex system from 1984 to the present. A fee is required to view the images.
 * Deed Records 1812-1901; Index 1812-1911

Maps
Ancestor Tracks has posted free downloadable images from the 1876 Illustrated Atlas of Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. This atlas located in the Library of Congress shows major landowners and geographic sites at the date of publishing. While the physical maps are in the public domain, the images we have taken of the maps belong to us and are not be used commercially. We hereby give permission to use them strictly for personal use; please attribute to Ancestor Tracks.

Migration
Early migration routes to and from Lehigh County, Pennsylvania for settlers included:


 * Delaware River a pre-historic patthway serving as the border between New Jersey and Pennsylvania rises in Schoharie County, New York and flows by the Lehigh Canal in Pennsylvania, Frenchtown, Trenton where river meets tidewater, and past Bordentown in New Jersey, Philadelphia in Pennsylvania to empty into the North Atlantic Ocean.
 * Delaware and Raritan Canal 1834 connected New Brunswick, New Jersey on the Raritan River (and NY City) to Bordontown, New Jersey on the Delaware River. Lehigh County, Pennsylvania connected via the feeder canal at Frenchtown, New Jersey.

Family History Centers

 * Introduction to LDS Family History Centers
 * Allentown Pennsylvania Family History Center (Whitehall)

Museums
Lehigh Valley Heritage Museum 432 W. Walnut Street Allentown, PA 18102 Phone: (610) 435-1074

Web Sites

 * USGenWeb project. May have maps, name indexes, history or other information for this county. Select the state, then the county.