Maryland Societies and Archives

The Repositories in this section are Archives, Libraries, Museums, Genealogical and Historical Societies. Many County Historical and Genealogical Societies publish magazines and/or news letters on a monthly, quarterly, bi-annual or annual basis. Contacting the local societies should not be over looked. State Archives and Societies are usually much larger and better organized with much larger archived materials than their smaller county cousins but they can be more generalized and over look the smaller details that local societies tend to have. Libraries can also be a good place to look for local information. Some libraries have a genealogy section and may have some resources that are not located at archives or societies. Also, take a special look at any museums in the area. They sometimes have photos and items from years gone by as well as information of a genealogical interest. All these places are vitally important to the family genealogist and must not be passed over.

Maryland Genealogical Archives

 

It is wise to acquaint yourself with any repository which you might visit by writing to the appropriate archive or library in advance. Every repository has published materials that introduce its collections and research policy. State archives and historical agencies also have Internet sites that provide the same information. Some even have downloadable databases for some or parts of their collections.

• Maryland State Archives , 350 Rowe Boulevard, Annapolis, MD 21401; 410-260-6400
  The Maryland State Archives is the historical agency for Maryland and serves as the central depository for government records of permanent value. Records date from the founding of the colony in 1634 to the 1990s. Included in the Archives' holdings are colonial and state executive, legislative, and judicial records; county probate, land and court records; church records; business records; publications and reports of state, county and municipal governments; and special collections of private papers, maps, photographs, and newspapers. The Archives' search room is open to the public Wednesday through Saturday. There, professional archivists are on duty to assist researchers.
• Maryland State Law Library, 361 Rowe Avenue, Annapolis, MD 21401
• Baltimore City Archives, 211 East Pleasant Street, Room 201, Baltimore, MD 21202
• George Peabody Library of Johns Hopkins University, 17 East Mount Vernon Place, Baltimore, MD 21202

Historical & Genealogical Societies

 

Because family history research relies greatly upon records found at the county level, many local societies represent counties. Organizations also form around shared interests. Ethnic or religious origins account for many groups, such as the Polish Genealogical Society of America and P.O.I.N.T. (Pursuing Our Italian Names Together). Societies also form around common locales of origin for members’ ancestors; hence, the Palatines to America and Germans from Russia societies. To locate these and other societies, consult Juliana Szucs Smith’s The Ancestry Family Historian’s Address Book. It lists addresses, telephone and fax numbers, and Internet addresses of thousands of organizations throughout the United States.

For almost every state there is a state genealogical society, a state genealogical council, or both. In addition to their own work, state-level groups sometimes help coordinate the efforts of local societies within the state. Their publications, newsletters and quarterlies, supplement those produced by the local societies.

• Maryland Genealogical Society, 201 W. Monument Street, Baltimore, MD 21201-4674.
  Publishes the Maryland Genealogical Society Bulletin Quarterly.
• The Maryland Historical Society, 201 W. Monument Street, Baltimore MD 21201-4674
  Has published a quarterly magazine Maryland Historical Magazinefor over 90 years
• Upper Shore Genealogical Society of Maryland , P.O. Box 275 , Easton, MD 21601; (410) 745-3050
• Lower DelMarVa Genealogy Society, P.O. BOX 3602, Salisbury, MD 21802-3602;
  (410) 742-3501 (Membership/Surname Chairman)
  Maryland Room of the Wicomico County Library: Th 10:00-5:00

Maryland Genealogical Publications

See specific county page for Individual County List

The Maryland Historical and Genealogical Bulletin was published privately in twenty-one volumes from 1930 to 1950. The Maryland Genealogical Society Bulletin has been published by the Maryland Genealogical Society since 1960 and has included the usual fare of genealogical records, including marriage licenses, cemetery and Bible records, wills, militia lists, naturalizations, railroad employees, slave lists, and vital records, as well as compiled genealogies.

Maryland Historical Magazine has been published by the Maryland Historical Society since 1906 and has included much historical and genealogical material. Like many other historical magazines, the Maryland Historical Magazine stopped publishing genealogical material for some years. In 1980 Genealogical Publishing Company issued two volumes of Maryland Genealogies: A Consolidation of Articles from the Maryland Historical Magazine.

The Maryland and Delaware Genealogist was introduced in 1959 by Raymond B. Clark, Jr., and his mother, Sara Seth Clark, who published the standard abstracts of records and genealogies. The Maryland Original Research Society of Baltimore Bulletin was published in Baltimore from 1906 to 1913 and included lists of early settlers, genealogies, cemetery and family Bible records, militia lists, oaths of fidelity, and so forth.

Western Maryland Genealogy, published by Catoctin Press, 709 East Main Street, Middletown, MD 21769, is a more recent addition to the periodical literature and is limited to Allegany, Carroll, Frederick, Garrett, Montgomery, and Washington counties. Considerable Maryland material, including genealogies, newspaper abstracts, tax lists, records of servants, and other source records, can also be found in the National Genealogical Society Quarterly (see Introduction). Statewide or regional publications include the following:

• Search The PERiodical Source Index
• The Maryland Historical and Genealogical Bulletin
  was published privately in twenty-one volumes from 1930 to 1950. The Maryland Genealogical Society Bulletin has been published by the Maryland Genealogical Society since 1960 and has included the usual fare of genealogical records, including marriage licenses, cemetery and Bible records, wills, militia lists, naturalizations, railroad employees, slave lists, and vital records, as well as compiled genealogies.
• Maryland Historical Magazine
  has been published by the Maryland Historical Society since 1906 and has included much historical and genealogical material. Like many other historical magazines, the Maryland Historical Magazine stopped publishing genealogical material for some years.
  The Maryland and Delaware Genealogist was introduced in 1959 by Raymond B. Clark, Jr., and his mother, Sara Seth Clark, who published the standard abstracts of records and genealogies.
• The Maryland Original Research Society of Baltimore Bulletin
  was published in Baltimore from 1906 to 1913 and included lists of early settlers, genealogies, cemetery and family Bible records, militia lists, oaths of fidelity, and so forth
• Western Maryland Genealogy, 709 East Main Street, Middletown, MD 2176

Maryland Newspapers

 

One of first places to hunt for a Maryland newspaper is Newspapers in Maryland Libraries: A Union List, by Eleanore O. Hofstetter and M. S. Eustis (Baltimore: Maryland Department of Education, Division of Library Development, 1977). The Maryland State Archives has many newspapers, as well as guides to and abstracts from them. See also Newspapers of Maryland: A Guide to the Microfilm Collection of Newspapers in the Maryland State Archives (Annapolis: Maryland State Archives, 1990).

Newspaper abstracts have been published for several localities, especially for Baltimore. These include:

• Three works by Robert Barnes: Marriages and Deaths from Baltimore Newspapers, 1796-1816; Marriages and Deaths from the Maryland Gazette, 1727-1839 (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1973, 1978);
• Gleanings From Maryland Newspapers 1727 - 1795, 3 vols. (Lutherville, Md.: Bettie Carothers, 1975-76);
• Thomas L. Hollowak's two-volume Index to Marriages and Deaths in The (Baltimore) Sun, 1837-1850 & 1851-1860 (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1978).

Other large-scale compilations are those by:

• F. Edward Wright: Western Maryland Newspaper Abstracts 1786 … 1810, 3 vols.;
• I. Harper, Maryland Eastern Shore Newspaper Abstracts … [1790-1834], 8 vols. (Silver Spring: Family Line Publications, 1981-87).
• The Maryland Gazette, 1727-1761: Genealogical and Historical Abstracts (Galveston, Texas: Frontier Press, 1990). The Gazette was Maryland's first newspaper and also included news about Delaware, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.

Newspapers can provide at least a partial substitute for nonexistent civil records. For example, a person’s obituary may have appeared in a newspaper even when civil death records for that person do not exist. And newspapers are an important source of marriage records, particularly in those states where civil recording of marriages was essentially nonexistent until the twentieth century.

Unlike official records, newspapers are not limited to a particular geographical area. They often include reports of the weddings of local citizens (even those that occurred in a neighboring county or another state), and they sometimes report visits of geographically distant relatives or the visits of former local residents. They often published death notices of individuals who had left the area long before but who still had local family or friends as well. In each case the newspaper account can identify the date and place of an event, thus opening the possibility of turning up additional documentation in other sources.

The first step in searching a newspaper is to identify those which served the area of interest and which have survived. The three most necessary tools are bibliographies (What was published?), inventories of library and depository holdings (Where is it?), and indexes (How do I find what I want in it?).

• Maryland and South Carolina Lutheran Newspapers, Marriages and Deaths: Containing marriage and death notices from two east coast newspapers, this collection has nearly 5000 entries, many with four, five, or more names of relatives involved in the burial or marriage.
• Search Historical Newspapers at Ancestry.com
• Find your family history In The World's Largest Newspaper Archive! Find News, Births and Deaths - Find tens of millions of historical newspaper articles, dating back to 1759. Search for newspaper articles about a deadly earthquake or one that mentions a past relative. Newspaper articles are easily accessible with online research tools.
• Find Obituaries in The World's Largest Newspaper Archive at NewpaperArchive.com! - Find thousands of obituaries to help you research your family history. Search for a newspaper obituary about your ancestor or a celebrity. Begin your search today and find death notices and funeral announcements printed in newspapers throughout the world.
• Search Historical Newspapers (1690 - 1980) - Quickly find names and keywords in over 450 million articles, obituaries, marriage notices, birth announcements and other items published in over 2,800 historical U.S. newspapers. New content added monthly!