How to track past owners with a pre-1980 VIN

I have a suspicion that I may have repurchased a car 30 years after I owned it.

Any way I can trace the owners from that far via the VIN?

How about talking to your old insurance company and verifying what VIN you insured in the past?  

Does the state have records like through the Title Office of what vehicles (vin) you have owned in your name?  

I just sent an email to the PA DMV. No clue who I was insured with 30 years ago.

You'll likely hit a dead end with PennDOT.  They only keep records for 10 years.  Supposedly there is a super-secure, useless hard drive somewhere that they keep older electronic data for legal stuff with a longer statute of limitations, (for instance, a car used in a homicide or something in case those records would be needed in a trial) but anything paper went to Iron Mountain many years ago.

I had a vanity plate in PA, then moved to CA for a while.  By the time I got back 12 years later, I tried renewing that vanity plate and they had zero record of it.

Is it a car of interest?  By that, I mean something like a mustang where there is an enthusiast registry?

I might try a little brain sleuthing to try and remember who your insurance company was at the time.  Even googling "auto insurance providers" and looking at the list might jog your memory.  Reach out to a bunch of them and see if they have any record of you being a customer.

This won't help you, but I got a project car once that had an incorrect vin on the title. Too many digits in all the wrong places. I pointed it out to the dmv, which triggered a search of the car's history. I got a clear title with complete owner history back to the early 70's. Car is a 1965.

This is completely variable from state to state. The best case scenario is at least one I know of that can tell you every previous registered owner it that state. PA, I think Curtis is correct, PENNDOT releases as little info as they legally can about anything.

PennDOT got back to me today, they only can go back ten years. I tore the house apart today to try to find pics but couldn't. I did find W-2s from when I owned it though.

Maybe run the VIN at the dealer or quick lube or anywhere you might have had service, to see if your name pops up?  And how about any unique features of the car that you remember, maybe a door ding, aftermarket part, modification or hack repair? I ran across my old Corvette a while back on Craigslist, and recognized it right away from a not-too-common paint combo and a distinctive wood dash trim package that an owner had applied prior to me, all confirmed by the VIN from my old car papers file.