Searching Through Adams County Records

 

Tracing Nicholas Snider, my mother-in-law's second great-grandfather, as we go backwards in time can be a trying proposition. We've already discovered other men by that name in the early 1800s around the vicinity of Pennsylvania, so spotting that Snider name—or its variant spellings—in Adams County doesn't necessarily mean I've found the right man. Until I'm prepared to zero in on the right candidate, it seems a wise approach would be to glean more background information on not just the man, but the history—and historical resources—of the region during the time when I spotted him there: the 1810 census.

Since Nicholas' descendants, once they moved westward to Perry County, Ohio, were connected to the local Catholic Church there, it seems reasonable that they would have attended the same religious body while living in their previous home in Pennsylvania. Indeed, there was a Catholic church established in Adams County, known as the Conewago Chapel. And thanks to some notes at the FamilySearch wiki for available church records in Adams County, Pennsylvania, we can see those records reach back to 1790.

Besides baptismal records, though, I was curious to see what other ways I could track Nicholas Snider during his stay in Adams County. The good news for this, according to the FamilySearch wiki for Adams County, is that court records and land records date back to 1800. Added bonus: no courthouse fires to spoil my fun!

While attaining records from 1800 may not seem like much of a bonus, given my research goal of finding Nicholas Snider's origin and having found his appearance in the 1810 census already, I am fairly certain all I will need to work on would be that ten year span of time. Reason I'm sure: later census records indicate Nicholas' oldest son Jacob was born in Germany about 1799. All surviving children after that point were said to have been born in either Pennsylvania or Maryland before the family's arrival in Ohio.

For those ten years, possible searches could be made of land records in Adams County, which thankfully are available to view at FamilySearch from 1800 onward. In addition, I'll be searching for tax records attached to Nicholas Snider's residence there. But the main discovery of resources I'll be interested in is the collection at FamilySearch called "Landing Reports of Aliens, 1798-1828." No title could have fit my search parameters more closely.