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purchasing hex signs like these.
Visit Will-Char for information on
purchasing hex signs like these.
Berks County, Pennsylvania was created in 1752 from parts of the original counties of Philadelphia and Chester. Union Township was incorporated in 1753 from Lancaster County. Official and legal records from 1752 onward can be found at the Berks County Courthouse. Prior to 1752, records for townships east of the Schuylkill River are found in Philadelphia County. Records for townships west of the Schuylkill River are found in Lancaster County. Records for Union Township prior to 1753 are found in Chester County.
Click here for a township outline map for Berks County.
The following paragraphs identify and describe some of the genealogical resources in Berks County which I have used in the course of my research over the past 20 years. The red buttons below jump to the sections of this document which describe each resource.
Berks
County Court House Historical
Society of Berks County Gingrich
Library at Albright College
Reading Public Library Berks
County Genealogical Society Reading
LDS Family History Center
Tri-County Heritage Society
Tulpehocken Settlement Historical Society Shortcut to My
List of Surnames 
Berks County
Courthouse RECORDS AVAILABLE
Family History Center,
3344 Reading Crest Avenue
Muhlenberg Park, Reading, PA
Phone: 610-929-0235
Hours:
Tuesday 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Wednesday 10:00 AM - 9:00 PM
Thursday 10:00 AM - 9:00 PM
Saturday 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
The Family History Center (FHC) has mostly microform records and some printed material for Berks and surrounding counties. Of course, films and fiche may be ordered from the FHL in Salt Lake City.
The FHC has two computers for accessing the usual collection of LDS CD-ROM information (catalogue, IGI, Family Search, Ancestral File, etc.). There are about a half-dozen microfilm readers, a half dozen microfiche readers, and one copier which can copy either microfilm or microfiche. The staff is knowledgeable and helpful.
The film collection includes most Federal census schedules for the county through 1900, many church and ministerial records, indexes of wills and marriage licenses, early probate records, immigration records
Historical Society of Berks County,
Pennsylvania The Historical Society of Berks County has an extensive collection of microform and printed source materials. These include:
They have recently added the capability to search a computer database of their surname index.
Berks County (Pennsylvania) Genealogical Society The library is located on
the fourth floor of the
GoggleWorks Center for the
Arts building at 201 Washington St.,
Reading, PA 19601. Plenty of free parking behind the
building, with an entrance from 2nd and 3rd streets, and
also Walnut Street.
Phone: (610) 921-4970
Hours: Regular hours:
Monday to Friday - 11 to 4
Saturday - 1 to 5
Sunday - 12 to 4 Closed holidays
The Genealogical Society of Berks County maintains an exceptional collection of microform and printed source materials. These source materials focus on Berks County but also cover surrounding counties and states. There are reference materials pertaining to the principal countries of origin for immigrants to Pennsylvania (primarily Germany).
The collection includes church, ministerial, cemetery and census records, tax lists, immigration records, histories, genealogies, and many reference works. Most of the records are available in printed form which makes searching much easier.
There is a lending program for microfilm and microfiche records available to members for a separate registration fee and a rental fee per film.
The Society's web site is http://www.berksgenes.org
Gingrich Library at
Albright College The Gingrich Library has numerous reference works of interest to genealogists working the in the eastern Pennsylvania region. They have a very extensive and complete collection of local newspapers on microfilm and Reading city directories. The city directories are available from 1868 to the present. The following newspapers are available:
Reading Public
Library The Reading Public Library is part of the Berks County Public Library System. The library has many general reference works on Berks County and Reading, Pennsylvania.
The Pennsylvania Room located in the Reading Library is open on a limited basis. This room contains numerous works pertaining to the history of Reading, Berks County, and Pennsylvania.
The collection includes:
The library's main collection has microfilm copies of the following newspapers:
Tri-County Heritage
SocietyP.O. Box 352
Morgantown, PA 19543
Phone: 610-286-7477
Fax: 610-286-7196
email: tchslbry@voicenet.com
Visit their site for the most complete and up-to-date information.
Tulpehocken
Settlement Historical SocietyTulpehocken Settlement Historical Society
116 N. Front St.
P.O. Box 53
Womelsdorf, PA 19567
Phone: 610-589-2527
e-mail: cdonmoyer@dejazzd.com or go
to our unofficial web site at
http://www.berksmuseums.org/tulpe/
Hours: Daily 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Exceptions: closed Wednesdays and
major holidays
closed Saturdays November thru April
The Society was incorporated in 1970 and dedicated to preserving historical
artifacts and genealogical material of the Tulpehocken Region. It found its
first home in the Conrad Weiser Park in 1980. As the Park expanded, the Society
was forced to vacate. A new building was erected and in 1987 we moved into our
permanent quarters in Womelsdorf. These new quarters quickly filled to
overflowing with historical memorabilia in our Livingood Museum and genealogical
research material in our Stephen Brecht Library. By the mid 1990's the building
had no room for our material. Thus our home was expanded and the Lucille M.
Hackman Annex was dedicated Sept. 21, 2002 more than doubling our space.
The TSHS Stephen Brecht Genealogical Library contains well over 5000 items that
includes genealogies, church and cemetery records, histories, genealogical aides
and how to’s, as well as numerous periodicals and files of historical and
Genealogical interest. In our special collections we have the Ray Dieffenbach
Card Catalog, Dr. Spannuth’s Gerhard Notebooks and the Schuyler Brossman’s
Microfilm Collection. Visitors are welcome to tour our museum as well as doing
genealogical research
Surnames I Am
Researching You are visitor number to this page.
Last Update: 19 August 2003
Please send comments/thoughts to RWagner245@aol.com
