Record Atlas
6 eras · 1638–2026 · 8 places

Delaware — New Sweden and the Lower Counties

Wilmington, New Castle, Dover, Lewes, Georgetown. 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
1638–1655 New Sweden — Fort Christina no registers survive

Fort Christina, built at the confluence of the Christina River and Brandywine Creek after the expedition of 29 March 1638, was the first permanent European settlement in Delaware; Dutch forces took it on 15 September 1655. The American Philosophical Society holds a collection of New Sweden papers for 1640-1655, transcribed in 1820 from originals in Stockholm.
1655–1664 New Netherland — New Amstel no registers survive

The Dutch captured the Swedish colony in 1655 and annexed it to New Netherland.
1664–1682 English — the Duke of York's colony no registers survive

England took control in 1664, when Robert Carr took New Amstel and renamed it New Castle. The New Netherland Institute publishes the Delaware Papers for 1664-1682 from the New York State Archives.
1682–1776 The Lower Counties on the Delaware — leased to William Penn FamilySearch

William Penn leased the three lower counties from the Duke of York in 1682, and they were governed as part of Pennsylvania until 1701, when they gained a separate legislature while sharing a governor with Pennsylvania until 1776.
1776–1861 State of Delaware FamilySearch · National Archives Catalog (NARA) · Chronicling America

The Delaware Assembly voted on 15 June 1776 to break ties with Great Britain and Pennsylvania, and Delaware was the first state to ratify the US Constitution, on 7 December 1787. No 1790 census schedules for Delaware are known to survive.
1861–2026 State of Delaware FamilySearch · National Archives Catalog (NARA) · Chronicling America

Birth and death registration began in 1861 under a law of 1860, with the Recorders of Deeds in the three counties; it was repealed in 1863 and not re-enacted until 1881. The Delaware Public Archives holds the 1861-1863 and 1881-1913 volumes, which are incomplete, and the state Bureau of Vital Statistics took over on 1 July 1913.

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, 1638–2026, 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.

8 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