Guides

Research Services

We recommend that if possible, you visit Lancaster County's Historical Society yourself to do research. For those unable to do so, we provide some research services through the mail.
Genealogical Research

If you seek information about a Lancaster County ancestor you can now submit and pay for research on-line.  You may also submit a Genealogical Research RequestForm via regular mail.  A list of Contract Researchers is also available.

In order to provide prompt and accurate service, we ask patrons to note the following:

  • Please use one form for each ancestor you wish us to research.
  • Our staff is small and our priority is assisting researchers in our reading room. Therefore, wecan spendonly alimited amount of time working on requests, usually no more than two hours.We ask that you refine your inquiries as much as possible, limiting them to searches for specific information about one ancestor or immediate family in Lancaster County within a defined date range, for example: “Can you tell me when Joe Smith was born and where he is buried?” or “Can you tell me who Joe Smith’s children were?”
  • Requests for “All documents related to Joe Smith,” or questions such as: “Can you research the Smith family?” or "Can you tell me if my family was ever in Lancaster?"are too vague and are beyond the scope of the services our small staff can provide. Requests of this nature will be returned to the patron unanswered.For these types of questions, patrons who can't visit us in personmight consider hiring a professional genealogist (see link above).
  • For searches of specific legal document collections, please see our Document Ordering Service.
  • Research rates are $35 ($30 for members) for up to two hours of research. Pre-payment of this initial fee is required. If additional research is needed to complete your request we will contact you for authorization to proceed. Research beyond the initial two hours is charged at $10/half-hour. We accept checks and money orders. Fees are non-refundable.
  • Please allow up to four weeks for a response.

While we cannot guarantee results, we will consult all relevant texts and journals, archival, county document, manuscript and photograph collections, online subscription databases, in-house electronic databases and our objects collection. We will send a written response, including a list of sources consulted, a summary of results and photocopies of any relevant documents or printed text.
 
Historical Research Request

We are happy to assist patrons conducting Lancaster County-related historical research of a non-genealogical nature. We ask that patrons submit one specific and well-defined question per request. We are able to answer questions about specific events, people and places requiring consultation of mainly secondary sources, but cannot accommodate complex questions requiring original research and substantial interpretation of primary sources. For example, questions within the scope of our research service are: “Who were some of the leading figures in Revolutionary War-era Lancaster County, and what were their most significant contributions?” or “How many newspapers were published in Lancaster County between 1850-1870 and what were their political leanings?” In contrast, a question such as “How important was Lancaster County during the Revolutionary War?” is too vague, and a question such as “What were the relationships between the various European cultural and religious groups in Lancaster County during the mid-nineteenth century and how did they each view the issue of slavery?” is too broad and requires use and interpretation of primary sources beyond the scope of our research service.

  • Please use one form for each question you wish us to research. You can now submit your request online.
  • Research rates are $35 ($30 for members) for up to two hours of research. Pre-payment of this initial fee is required. If additional research is needed to complete your request we will contact you for authorization to proceed. Research beyond the initial two hours is charged at $10/half-hour. We accept checks and money orders. Fees are non-refundable.
  • Please allow up to four weeks for a response.
 
Ready Reference

Ready reference questions are those that our research staff can answer quickly using secondary sources easily at hand in our reading room, including the historical society's online catalog. These searches are free of charge, but are very limited in scope. If staff determines that a question is beyond the scope of the ready reference service, we will ask that you submit a research request by printing and mailing in a request form, or submitting your request online. This process and the associated fees are explained above.

Do you have a general question about Lancaster County history? Want to know a bit more about our collections? Email your question to our reference staff. We will respond as soon as possible, usually within 24 hours (Monday-Thursday).
 

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Our Volunteers & Interns

Building a Tour

faith_spring_2010

Faith McCarrick is a senior history major at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. This semester she has been interning in both the archives and education departments at LancasterHistory.Org. In the archives department, she found herself creating box lists of manuscript groups that covered the history of the United Steel Workers Union in Lancaster and the writings of Jewish World War II veteran and journalist, Charles H. Kessler.  Read more...

Diplomacy

alextrimble

Alex Trimble is a senior at Elizabethtown Area High School. His primary focus of study has been in history and social sciences. During his internship at the James Buchanan Wheatland mansion he will be conducting research on James Buchanan's diplomatic mission to Russia.

Parks and Recreation

Amy_at_computer_2010

Amy Noll is a New Hampshire native who graduated with her B.A. in History and Management from Gettysburg College in 2007.  She received her M.L.S. with a specialization in Archives, Records, and Information Management from the University of Maryland in 2009, and recently moved into the Lancaster area.  She has past experience working at the National Archives and is also a Civil War Reenactor.  In the Archives, Amy is working on the Lancaster Recreation Commission Records manuscript group.  She has found many interesting records about past recreational programming for senior citizens as well as records detailing the creation and acquisition of some of Lancaster’s most well known public parks.

Living History

katelynstauffer

At the time of her internship Katelynn Stauffer will be a rising sophomore at Gettysburg College, where she will be majoring in History and Political Science with minors in Education and Civil War Era Studies. While interning at Wheatland she will be working on the creation of a new living history tour that will examine the war years at Wheatland.  She will be organizing volunteers and setting up a test run of the program for the public.

Cultural Politics

becca

My name is Rebecca Macy and I am a rising sophomore at The George Washington University in Washington, DC. I am an American Studies major with a concentration in Cultural Politics. I have a great interest in civil rights, immigration, and the American Presidency. With a love of history, I am so excited to be working in my hometown this summer with LancasterHistory.org, Lancaster County's Historical Society & President James Buchanan's Wheatland!

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