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Genealogists with ancestors from Pennsylvania can now - for the first time - access historical records from the PA State Archives online, thanks to the brand-new state Archives Records Information Access System (ARIAS). The Digital State Archives currently provides easy, cost-free access to approximately 200,000 records from the Revolutionary War, Spanish-American War and World War I. More than 300,000 Civil War and Mexican Border Campaign service card images are also being added. Eventually, millions of digitized records, ranging from 19th-century county birth, death and marriage records to collections of photographs illustrating every aspect of Pennsylvania's long history, will be added.

The records available through ARIAS are digitized images of the microfilms of the original paper records. The Digital Archives are not completely searchable, but images are arranged alphabetically by surname with the opportunity to fairly easily drill down to the records you need. Overall, the images are of fairly good quality, but are dependent upon the condition of the original records and the quality of the microfilming process.

Explore Historical Records Through ARIAS

For further research:

Pennsylvania Genealogy Links

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