PA Room Collection

The Pennsylvania Room has a specialized collection of more than 3,000 volumes on state, local, and family history, as well as original Centre County records, newspapers, patron-provided manuscript genealogies, vital record indexes, and database and paper indexes to Centre County marriages and newspaper obituaries. Unique to this library is the massive Spangler Collection of data on families of central Pennsylvania, and the files of local genealogist J. Marvin Lee. The Pennsylvania Room is located in the historic 1814 Miles-Humes home, which also houses a historical museum featuring documents, photographs, family memorabilia, and other items of interest to family and local historians.

Items on the shelves of the Pa. Room are cataloged in the main database of the Centre County Library (searchable from the homepage of this website).

Some fees apply to research done by the staff: contact paroom@centrecountylibrary.org to inquire about services and costs. Patrons on-site pay only for any photocopies that they make. Laptops and scanning devices are permitted; WiFi is available in the building.

Spangler Collection:

This massive collection of data on central Pennsylvania families was compiled over a period of many years by Adella Fink Spangler (1871-1964). It was largely assembled from primary documents, some of which no longer exist. The collection consists of 176 typed notebooks, 20 scrapbooks, and 116 composition books of research notes on specific families. The typed notebooks and scrapbooks are fully indexed on about 250,000 cards, with many cards containing multiple names. The 116 manuscript composition books contain Mrs. Spangler's compilations of various Centre County families based on on data from early tax records, Bible records, estate files, newspaper articles, vital records, etc. There is a surname index to the composition books and most individual volumes also have a brief index. Among the contents of the fully indexed notebooks and scrapbooks are:

Tombstone inscriptions for 113 county cemeteries [updated in a set of modern books by the Centre County Genealogical Society]
Newspaper obituaries (1826-1854 and 1926-1942)
Marriage records [updated by a compact disk, indexing Centre County marriages 1764-2005]
Bible transcriptions
Church records
Family records
Tax lists
Other miscellaneous information

J. Marvin Lee Genealogical Collection:

A good adjunct to the Spangler Collection for the early to mid-twentieth century, this grouping contains approximately 20 notebooks compiled by a longtime Centre County genealogist/historian. Mr. Lee's work, which includes family group sheets with some documentation, is primarily from the 1940s to the 1970s.

Original Centre County Archives:

Civil and criminal court papers — 1800-1875
Marriage license applications — 1885-1987
Tax assessment records — 1802-1956
Will and intestate files — 1800-1990
Orphans court dockets
Road petitions

Local Newspapers:

Bellefonte Patriot
Bellefonte Republican
Centre Daily Times
Centre Democrat
Centre Reporter
Democratic Watchman
Democratic Whig
Keystone Gazette
Millheim Journal
Philipsburg Journal (10 years)

Indexes (Partial Listing):

Index to Centre County Death Notices and Obituaries 1821-1949
Centre County, Pennsylvania Marriage Index 1764-2005
Filby and Meyer: Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, Vol. I, II, III, and supplements 1982-1986
Centre County, PA: Index to the CCGS Cemetery Series
Centre County Births 1893-1905
Centre County Death Records 1893-1905

County Information:

The Pennsylvania Room collection is conveniently organized in county groupings, so that all information for each county is located together: histories, cemetery and church inforomatoin, etc.

Family Histories:

700 publications and growing, as researchers provide a copy of their published work for the Pa. Room collection. The family histories are listed in the main Centre County Library, searchable from the homepage of this website.

General Reference Works (Representative Partial Listing):

Allison: Marriage Records of Clearfield County, Prior to October 1, 1885
Bates: History of Pennsylvania Volunteers 1861-1865
Bates: 4 volume index to History of Pennsylvania Volunteers 1861-1865
Beers: Commemorative Biographical Record of Central PA
DAR: Clinton County Will Book A, Abstracts
DAR: DAR Patriot Index Centennial Edition, Parts I, II, and III
DAR: Lineage Books
DAR: Lycoming County Probate Records 1795-1850
Egle: Notes and Queries Relating to Interior PA, 12 volumes and indexes
Eleventh Census of the Population of the United States, 1890 Centre County with Business Directory
Fisher: Early Wills and Administrations of Northumberland County
Fisher: Abstracts of Snyder County Probate Records 1771-1885
Genealogies of Pennsylvania Families from the Pennsylvania Magazine of History & Biography, 4 volumes
Glazier/Tepper (eds.): The Famine Immigrants, 7 volumes
Linn: History of Centre and Clinton Counties, PA, 1883
Pennsylvania German Society: Pennsylvania German Church Records, Vols. I, II, III
Pennsylvania Vital Records from the Pennsylvania Magazine of History & Biog., 4 volumes
Pennsylvania Archives —complete set
Strassburger and Hinke: Pennsylvania German Pioneers, Vols. I, II, III
White: Genealogical Abstracts of Revolutionary War Pension Files, 4 vols., indexed
White: Index to War of 1812 Pension Files