Records Information

Washington County Pennsylvania and State of Pennsylvania

Where are Records for Washington County, PA

What do you need to know ? 

Index to Official County Records

Washington County Courthouse (Main Address)
100 W. Beau St. 
Washington, PA 15301-4402
Phone: (724)-228-6700 
Hours: Monday through Friday, 9:00 AM - 4:30 PM

 The links on this page should help researchers know which offices have what records, 
and will give assistance about how to write for records.  

Directions To Washington County PA Court House / Government Complex

Washington County Courthouse (Main Address)
100 W. Beau St. 
Washington, PA 15301-4402
Phone: (724)-228-6700 
Hours: Monday through Friday, 9:00 AM - 4:30 PM

COURT HOUSE OFFICES

Please visit each "Office" on this Web Site to see what records the Office maintains.

• Recorder of Deeds
  
• Register of Wills
  
• Clerk of Courts (criminal)
  
• Prothonotary's Office (Civil, Jury Duty, Grand Jury, Naturalizations)
  
• Court of Common Pleas
  
• Tax Office (and aerial maps)
  
• Tax Lists - see Citizens Library
  
• Law Library

Citizen's Library Link

Prior to the 1990s, all Court House documents were stored in the Court House, in every knook and cranny available.  From the attic in the CH dome to the basement, in old steel vaults in various offices, and even inside closets (yes, closets), old original documents filled shelves, on-top-of counter space, below-counter racks, above-counter racks, or were stacked haphazardly in broken and crushed cardboard boxes.  The smell of dusty, musty-smelling ledger books filled the air, even during summer when employees pushed open the large office windows in an attempt to keep cool, with small and large rotating fans set in each major office.

As our County has continued to grow, the Commissioners realized the Court House had little space left!  The County began microfilming documents and moving the original records to various holding-storage sites, from offices across the street, to an abandoned coal mine at Brady's Bend, PA!

Researchers prior to 1990s could just walk into the offices, get basic instructions for how to read and use the indices (indexes), and go a-hunting.  The ease of records access was only limited by the fact that so many records were not stored inside the office which maintained them; Who would think to look under the attic eaves for your ancestors' records, for example.  But, once you knew where something was stored--and found the correct person with keys to unlock those pesky locked closet doors, or to let you go to the attic, hey, you had free reign to "rummage" through any book, box, or drawer you wished.

Ease of access, lack of monitoring, and far too much "rummaging" was putting our ancestors' records at major risk.  Besides deteriorating paper, records became misplaced or misfiled, or even stolen by unscrupulous "researchers", "historians", and "collectors".  I use each of those terms loosely, believing no conscientious researcher, historian, or antiques collector would resort to stealing County Documents and History.  But, unfortunately, records over the years have disappeared, including some Index Books.

On top of these actions, I heard that some offices "purged" some original documents!  These were put out on the sidewalk for garbage pick up.  I heard that some citizens picked up, "took", ("rescued") some of those records.

The new storage system and computerized indexes / records (I hear) is a bear to figure out.  Visiting researchers learn they must request records to be brought back to the Court House for review, taking anywhere from a few hours to a couple days.  So, if you plan to visit for on-site research, plan ahead and plan to stay in the area a couple extra days so you can request records and have them brought back to the office.

Good things about today's system include that

• the county has a better inventory of "what they've got"
• records that belong to one office are now stored together for that office
• the office personnel oversee people handling the originals
• some book indices are locked up all the time now (good for preservation but might delay your research requests.  As always, they give priority to professionals in the office.  Lawyers and their employees, [deed] Title Searchers, and other professionals are accommodated first before genealogy researchers or even members of the public, sometimes.
• fragile records get less handling, especially when someone wants just one record but before ended up handling whatever other records were stored together
• fragile records are in a cooler environment at Brady's Bend, they say, limiting humidity and moisture exposure