What Can Be Found in WPA Files?

Last week, I viewed the Legacy Family Tree Webinar presented by Sharon Batiste Gillins titled “Research Treasures in the W.P.A. – You Won’t Believe What You’ll Find.” She discussed the various departments of the Works Progress Administration, later known as Work Projects Administration. The Federal Writers’ Project produced the Historical Records Surveys, the American Guide Series, the American Life Series, and the Slave Narratives. The Federal Arts Program supported artists, musicians, and theatre performers. Artwork from that era can be found in many public buildings. The mural in our post office, “The Road to Eldorado,” was painted by Edith Hamlin and Maynard Dixon.[1] 

Martinez, California Post Office Mural

To discover all the kinds of records housed at the National Archives for the Work Projects Administration (WPA) in Record Group 69, see the catalog entry at: https://www.archives.gov/research/guide-fed-records/groups/069.html#69.2.

I wonder if anyone in my family participated in the above projects. If not, then I wonder if any of the products created by the above projects could be useful to my genealogy research.

William Cyril Hork
She described one method to discover whether a family member worked for the WPA. The 1940 census may note it in the occupation fields. This is the case for my grandfather, William Cyril Hork, whose entry states he was a foreman in public emergency work.[2] His WWII draft registration card noted he was employed at WPA project #12322-5, located at the Ontario Municipal Airport.[3] I have ordered the WPA file for William Cyril Hork and wrote about the file in my post “Week41: Context—William C Hork Worked for the WPA.” I could learn more by checking out what work project #12322-5 was. Perhaps newspaper articles might discuss the activity at the Ontario Airport.

Lundquist Burials in Iowa
The other WPA research results in RootsMagic showed my referencing the WPA Graves Registration Survey conducted in Iowa. Before the creation of Find a Grave and my visit to Montgomery County cemeteries, I used the information about burials from this website, hosted at https://iowawpagraves.org/. The advantage of this resource is that the gravestones were read in the 1930s, and the stones may now be illegible. These records were collected as part of the Historical Records Survey. The Survey also indexed vital statistics, school records, military records, newspapers, and the 1920 census. Many of the cemeteries in counties in Iowa were surveyed, except Appanoose, Benton, Cherokee, Clinton, Dallas, Des Moines, Dubuque, Hardin, Humboldt, Ida, Iowa, Jasper, Lyon, Monona, Osceola, Pottawattamie, and Warren.[4] Of course, this database will not have burials of people after the survey was taken. I am fortunate that none of my Iowans were in these counties.

James Dunn Interview
Another RootsMagic hit was to an interview taken in Benton County, Oregon, by Mark Phinney. He interviewed James Dunn in June 1938. James is my second cousin, twice removed. Our common ancestor is John Tierney and Ann Murray, through their daughter, Elizabeth Tierney, and her husband Charles Dubreuille. James Dunn was employed as a fireman and engineer working at the Christensen Planing Mill at Kings Valley. The interview can be found using the Wayback Machine on the Internet Archive.[5]

Inventories of County Archives
Many of the county’s records were inventoried by workers of the Historical Records Survey. They visited county offices to create inventories of their records, venturing into attics and basements. These record lists, of course, are current as of the date of the survey. Since that time, some of the records may have been destroyed by natural disaster or by willful destruction by officials. When the Genealogical Society of Utah (now FamilySearch) visited counties to film the records, they may not have filmed everything. These surveys can help researchers discover other resources not yet digitized.

A helpful resource for what might be available is the book The WPA Historical Records Survey: A Guide to the Unpublished Inventories, Indexes, and Transcripts.[6] This book lists the locations of the unpublished materials in each state, most of which are housed in the state’s archives. In California the state was divided into Northern California and Southern California. In Northern California, the records are either at the California State Archives or at the Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley. At the state archives, there are several indexes to court cases, prison papers, and Spanish Archives (particularly the Spanish-Mexican land grants). In Southern California, the records are housed at the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History.

For the published works, I found the Bibliography of Research Projects Reports: Check List of Historical Records Survey Publications at the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/Researchbiblio/mode/1up?q=WPA+inventories.

In particular, I found the Inventory of the County Archives of Pennsylvania, Beaver County, No. 4.[7] It was prepared by the Pennsylvania Historical Survey, Division of Community Service Programs, Work Projects Administration. It’s available at FamilySearch.

This 423-page volume covers in Part A:

• history of the county
• governmental organization and record system
• housing and care of the records
• abbreviations, symbols, and explanatory notes

In Part B: the county offices and their records, which include:

• Board of County Commissioners (minutes, taxation, road, bridges, accounts, military, and miscellaneous)
• Recorder of Deeds
• Prothonotary of the Court of Common Pleas
• Clerk of the Court of Quarter Sessions and Oyer and Terminer
• Register of Wills
• Clerk of Orphans’ Court
• Sheriff
• Coroner
• District Attorney
• County Detective
• Grand Jury
• Solicitor
• Board of Inspectors of the County Jail
• Jail Warden
• Probation and Parole Office
• Jury Commissioners
• Treasurer
• Mercantile Appraiser
• Controller
• Sinking Fund Commission
• Salary Board; Registration Commission
• County Board of Elections
• County Superintendent of Schools
• Institution District Board
• Board of Assistance
• Tuberculosis Sanatorium
• Surveyor
• Board of Viewers
• Scaler of Weights and Measures

I would begin by reading Part A, so I understand the county government organization and arrangement of the records. I need to remember that the information is as of 1942. Things could have changed since then.

This volume included floor plans of the basement, first floor, second floor, and third floor of the courthouse. I learned that the records in all offices were in good condition. Bound volumes were on steel roller shelves, and unbound records in steel fire drawers. All records were open to the public except those of the district attorney and the probate and parole offices. The basement storeroom housed records on wooden shelves. 

Each section describes the work of each department and then follows with the type of records they kept. For example, the first section is about the County Commissioners. Some records they have include:

• Minutes beginning 1884
• Duplicate Assessor books, beginning 1803
• Assessors’ and Registrars’ Oaths of Office 1900-1921
• Real Estate Assessment books 1803-1937
• Real Estate Returns, beginning 1811

There were many more types of records for this first category. I am only interested in records covering the period of 1800 through 1850, when my Gorrell family was living in Beaver County.

Once I determine which records might help me with my research goals, I will then attempt to locate the current location of these records. Some of the older materials may have been transferred to the state archives, a local archive, or a local library. I have worked with the Beaver County Genealogy and History Center in Beaver. They have tax lists and microfilm of deeds. The Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh has tax records. The state archives in Harrisburg have tax records, deeds, wills, and municipal records.

Summary
These Inventory Surveys are wonderful tools to learn about the resources of a county. It is a shame that not all counties in the country have a published inventory. However, I am thankful for the ones that do have one. Why don’t you search out the survey for one of your counties.

#WebinarWednesday
This is a new series where I further investigate a topic after attending a webinar. This way, I am applying what I learned.

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[1] “Post Office Mural – Martinez CA,” Living New Deal (https://livingnewdeal.org/sites/post-office-mural-martinez-ca/).

[2] 1940 US census, San Bernardino Co, California, Ontario, ED 36-63, sht 64A, p 903, William C. Hork.

[3] “U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947,” Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/2238/images/43995_03_00084-00448) > California > Hoemle-Houdyshell > Horgan, Kenneth-Horne, Hope > image 449 of 2102, Order No. 11387, Serial No. 849, William Cyril Hork, 1942.

[4] “WPA Work Projects Administration 1930’s Graves Registration Survey,” Iowa Graves Survey (https://iowawpagraves.org/index.php).

[5] “James Dunn” interview conducted by Mark Phinney, 1938, imaged, Internet Archive (https://web.archive.org/web/20160421041548/http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~orbenton/wpa/IntervD.html#James%20DUNN).

[6] Loretta L. Hefner, compiler, The WPA Historical Records Survey: a Guide to the Unpublished Inventories, Indexes, and Transcripts (Chicago: The Society of American Archivists, 1980), imaged at HathiTrust (https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015021534733&view=1up&seq=1&skin=2021 : accessed 29 Sep 2025).

[7] Inventory of the County Archives of Pennsylvania, Beaver County, Number 4 (Beaver, Penn: The Board of County Commissioners, 1942); imaged, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/library/books/viewer/530796/).