Tracing the Land: Review and introduction of on-line sources for property research in Philadelphia

Presented by The Athenæum of Philadelphia, Philadelphia Department of Records, and Philadelphia Archaeological Forum

Tuesday, June 30 2009, 3 to 5 PM
At the Athenæum of Philadelphia
219 S. 6th Street, Philadelphia, PA

N.B. Seating is limited to 50 people, RSVP is required! (See below.)

The last year has seen the introduction and expansion of variety of on-line resources for tracing the history of the ownership, use and development of property in the city of Philadelphia. The ready access to these sources will greatly expand our understanding and interpretation of Philadelphia history. Among the sources highlighted at this meeting will be:

Philadelphia Land and Vital Records System: A new subscription-based system of the Philadelphia Department of Records which has scanned images of Philadelphia's deed books from 1682 to 1974. Though the images are not fully indexed, it is fairly easy to use for those familiar with Philadelphia deed records.

Philadelphia ParcelExplorer: A subscription-based system that provides interactive geographical searches for official current Philadelphia property maps as well as scans of the historical Philadelphia deed registry maps which trace property division and consolidation from the 1865 to the present.

PhilaDox Historical Index Info: A free system that contains images of the Philadelphia Deed Book Indexes from 1682 to 1976 and the Philadelphia Deed Registry Ledgers which details property ownership changes from 1865 to 1955 by Deed Registry plan and plot numbers.

PhillyHistory.org: A free systems that contains images from the photograph collection of the Philadelphia City Archives as well as other resources, such as a database of Philadelphia street name changes.

Greater Philadelphia GeoHistory Network (PhilaGeoHistory.org): A free system that contains an expanding collection of historical maps and property atlases of the Philadelphia area and other sources such as city directories, industrial fire insurance surveys and historical aerial photographs.

Work of variety of researchers in original manuscript surveys and related collections relating the history of land use and development in the Philadelphia area.

Please RSVP by Friday, June 26th, 2009 to Lynda Yerkov at Lynda.Yerkov@phila.gov or 215.686.2268