*Images of Each Survey*

Below are links to the scanned pages of the Copied Survey Books. These pages faithfully reproduce the original surveys done for persons purchasing unclaimed land directly from the Land Office maintained by William Penn's family, and later by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Each survey is a drawing on a separate page, and shows the name of the individual for whom the tract was surveyed, the acreage, the courses and distances and the names of adjoining property owners, and occasionally other significant geographical features of the landscape (water features, etc). The endorsement "Returned" and the date on the reverse side of each page refer to the date the Surveyor General sent the return of survey to the Secretary of the Land Office to prepare a patent. If the date of the patent itself is not known, the return date provides a useful starting point for patent searches.

The Copied Survey Books are divided into sub-series as follows:

• Full Alphabet subseries: Books A to Z
• "A" subseries: Books A-1 to A-89
• "B" subseries: Books B1 to B-23 (oversized surveys)
• "BB" subseries: Books BB-1 to BB-4 (very oversized surveys)
• "C" subseries: Books C-1 to C-234
• "D" subseries: Books D-1 to D-90 (surveys numbered D-91 through D-114 exist in loose form in series {#17.112}, but were never actually copied into books, and so no scanned versions are available).

Steps for Using the scanned Copied Surveys:

1. The surveys in these volumes are arranged by book and page number, which were assigned by Land Office staff in no particular alphabetical or chronological order when the surveys were re-drafted and bound into books. If you have not already done so, you will need to consult the scanned pages of another series, the Warrant Registers, 1733-1957 {series #17.88} in order to determine the survey book and page number for a particular person's survey.
2. When you know your survey number, select the appropriate subseries and volume, all listed below. For example, survey #A-228 would be page 228 of Copied Survey Book A in the "Full Alphabet" volumes, while survey #A-50-175 would be page 175 of Copied Survey Book A-50 in the "A" volumes subseries.
3. From the volume-specific interface page that comes up, click on the appropriate page number, or the link to its reverse side.
4. Please note: The page images are in Adobe.pdf format and require the Adobe Acrobat Reader to be viewed and printed. The software is available for download free of charge from Adobe's website.
5. Trouble? Use this email link to contact an archivist.

COPIED SURVEY Subseries and Volumes

RETURN TO...

Record Groups

Manuscript Groups