A-Z Databases

Ancestry is an international leader in compiling genealogical data for research. Data includes census, birth, death and military records, as well as church, immigration and travel records. Ancestry also contains several collections from HSP, including "Pennsylvania and New Jersey, U.S., Church and Town Records, 1669-2013," "Pennsylvania, U.S., Society of Mayflower Descendants Applications, 1911-1929," and "Pennsylvania, Card Indexes to Genealogical Scrapbooks and Research Folders."

*FOR ON-SITE USE ONLY

Search America's historic newspaper pages from 1777-1963 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present.

Family Search has over 6 billion searchable names and 2 billion images of historical genealogical records. The site includes birth, marriage, death, census, land, and court records from more than 130 countries, and adds over 300 million free genealogical records and images online yearly from all over the world.

*USERS MUST CREATE A FREE LOGIN TO USE.

Find My Past includes genealogical records from the United States, along with England, Ireland, New Zealand, and other smaller record sets from around the globe.
 

Find the graves of ancestors, create virtual memorials or add photos, virtual flowers and a note to a loved one's memorial. Search or browse cemeteries and grave records for every-day and famous people from around the world.

The College of Physicians of Philadelphia Digital Library is a searchable image database and exhibition platform dedicated to celebrating and communicating the history of medicine. The Digital Library launched in December 2013 with images drawn from the Historical Medical Library collection, with strengths in the history of anatomy and botanical medicine. Highlights include images from rare incunabula previously unavailable online, unusual selections from more popular early modern anatomists, and over 300 photos from the Philadelphia General Hospital Photograph Collection.

The Lutheran Archives Center at Philadelphia is the Northeast Regional Archives (Region 7) for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). It is a part of an ELCA network of nine regional archives and a national level (churchwide) archives. Our service area is limited to Eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Upstate New York, Metropolitan New York City, and New England. We house the oldest records of Lutherans in North America, including the journals of Henry Melchior Muhlenberg and many of the congregations he helped to found. 

Since 2017, undergradutes of the University of Pennsylvania have been conducting research to uncover the connections between their university and the institution of slavery. The project began with 5 members researching the university’s early founders and early faculty who owned enslaved people. Since then, the project has grown in size and scope. Students have investigated the university’s financial connections to slavery, and the scientific racism researched and taught in Penn’s early medical school. Penn’s relationship to slavery is complicated, and calls into question our understanding of ‘complicity.’ The undergraduate researchers are dedicated to learning as much as possible, and sharing it with the public.

If "newspapers are the first rough draft of history," the Philadelphia Real Estate Record and Builders' Guide is the first rough draft of Philadelphia's building history. Published weekly between January 1886 and November 1940, the Builders' Guide is unquestionably the single richest published source for documenting buildings in Philadelphia, containing hundreds of thousands of specific building references as well as statistical and editorial analysis of the building trades during the city's most dramatic period of growth.

The Builders' Guide provides unmatched detail of the activities of, and complex relationships between, architects, engineers, bankers, builders, developers, and tradesmen of all kinds from roofers, to plasterers, to garden suppliers, to gas fitters. In thousands of cases, the Builders Guide is the ONLY published source that links an architect, developer, or contractor with a specific building.  This database is keyword searchable and a valuable resource to anyone interested in architectural history, real estate, or the history of a building.

Organized in 1852, the Presbyterian Historical Society is the oldest denominational archives in the United States and serves as the national archives for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and its predecessor denominations.

The society’s holdings include more than 250,000 titles reflecting the history of the Presbyterian tradition in America and over 30,000 cubic feet of official records and personal papers. These include records of congregations, presbyteries, synods, and General Assembly agencies of the current and some predecessor Presbyterian and Reformed denominations in America. Types of materials include archival records, published materials, and artifacts documenting the history of the Presbyterian and Reformed tradition in America.