Record Atlas
6 eras · 1500–2026 · 3 places

The Delaware River shore — New Sweden to Philadelphia

Chester, Pennsville, Carneys Point, Torresdale, Claymont. Which empire held this ground in which years — and, the part that matters, which archive that means.

Whose archive this ground was

YearsWho held itWhose archive that means
1500–1638 Before registers no registers survive

Before registers.
1638–1655 New Sweden FamilySearch

A Swedish expedition landed on 29 March 1638 and built Fort Christina, the first permanent European settlement in the Delaware Valley. New Sweden spread across the lower Delaware in what is now Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland.
1655–1664 New Netherland — the Delaware River Nationaal Archief · FamilySearch

The Dutch conquered New Sweden, and Fort Christina surrendered on 15 September 1655.
1664–1682 English conquest and the Duke of York's colony The National Archives — Discovery · FamilySearch

The English conquest of 1664 ended Dutch rule, and Fort Casimir fell in October. The Revolt of the Long Swede in 1669 failed to restore Swedish rule. After the Dutch recapture of 1673 three courts were set up: Hoarkill, New Amstel and Upland.
1682–1776 Pennsylvania and Delaware under William Penn Pennsylvania State Archives · FamilySearch · Ancestry

The former New Sweden area was divided into Delaware and Pennsylvania on 4 March 1681, and on 24 August 1682 the Duke of York transferred the western Delaware River region to William Penn. Swedish remained a church language into the 18th century, and Gloria Dei (Old Swedes') Church in Philadelphia was built about 1700 on the site of the 1669 blockhouse.
1776–2026 United States — Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey Pennsylvania State Archives · National Archives Catalog (NARA) · FamilySearch · Ancestry

The Delaware River is the line between New Jersey on the east bank and Pennsylvania and Delaware on the west, so a family on one bank is filed in a different state from one across the water.

The rings are approximate — deliberately. They exist to shade which filing system a place fell under, not to adjudicate a border. A place near a ring's edge should be checked against both neighbours.

See the whole span, 1500–2026, on the map →

The map takes a range, and a range that crosses one of the rows above is where records get lost: the family never moved, and the archive on the far side of the handover will tell you it holds nothing.

3 places on this ground

1742 FamilySearch collections reach this ground

Ranked with the regional ones first — a collection for a province is usually a better lead than a national index, though the national index is often where a name is actually written down. A free account opens the images.

…and 1682 more.

All record regions · The map