On July 3, the State of Pennsylvania issued the following announcement:

On behalf of Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC) Executive Director Brent D. Glass today announced Pennsylvanians now—for the first time—can access historical records through the PA PowerPort.

The Archives Records Information Access System (ARIAS) will enable Pennsylvanians and researchers from around the world to utilize the tremendous resources of the Pennsylvania State Archives right from their homes or local libraries.

The records can be accessed through the PA PowerPort at or directly at the Commission's site.

"With the click of a mouse, students, teachers, family researchers and history buffs will be able to view online historical records maintained at the State Archives in Harrisburg," Glass said. "Our goal is to provide easy, cost- free access to historical records that constitute our most valuable window to the past. We think of it as the `Digital State Archives.'"

Currently, ARIAS offers approximately 200,000 images relating to the participation of Pennsylvanians in the Revolutionary War, Spanish-American War and World War I.

The Revolutionary War records are arranged alphabetically by the surname of each soldier, with information on service in the Pennsylvania Militia, Pennsylvania Line, and the Navy; the name and rank of soldier; active or inactive duty; county of residence; battalion in which served; and the archival record from which the information was extracted.

More than 300,000 Civil War and Mexican Border Campaign service card images also are being loaded into the system.

Eventually, millions of digitized records, ranging from 19th- century county birth, death and marriage dockets to collections of photographs illustrating every aspect of the Pennsylvania experience, will be added.

"Genealogists are hungry for access to records such as these," said James Beidler, executive director of the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania. "The beauty of the resources found in ARIAS is that they will lead researchers to the original source documents, which is what every family historian yearns to find about his or her ancestors."

• Read the next article in this issue.
  
• Return to the previous article in this issue.
  
• Return to the Table of Contents