The largest collection of church records is at the Maryland Historical
Society, with a consolidated index, and many are at the Maryland
State Archives, which has various original and microfilmed records,
many with indexes. Some church records have been published in
the Maryland Genealogical Society Bulletin or in individual books,
such as those for St. Paul's in Baltimore and for many German
churches in the western counties.
Although Catholicism is very important to the history of Maryland,
the disenfranchisement of Catholics after the establishment of
the Anglican church in 1692 largely contributed to the lack of
record keeping prior to the Revolutionary War.
Records of the
German churches and the Society of Friends are very good. The
latter were early settlers of Maryland, along with Anglicans and
Catholics.
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The Maryland State Archives has indexes to cemetery records
for various time periods. Some have been published in the Maryland
Genealogical Society Bulletin and other journals and in individual
works covering large parts of Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Dorchester,
Frederick, Garrett, St. Marys, Somerset, Wicomico, and Worcester
counties. A great number of grave marker inscriptions have been
transcribed by members of the Maryland DAR and will be found
at the Maryland Historical Society and the DAR Library in Washington,
D.C.
Cemetery records and gravestone inscriptions are a rich source of information for family historians. Cemetery and other sources of information associated with death include:
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- Biographical works
- Burial permits
- Church burial registers
- Cemetery records (often several different kinds are kept)
- Cemetery indexes (often compiled by genealogical societies)
- Cemetery sextons’ records
- Cemetery deed and plot registers
- Death certificates
- Death indexes
- Family bibles
- Family burial plots
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- Funeral director’s records
- Grave opening orders
- Gravestone (monument) inscriptions
- Military records
- Monuments and memorials
- Necrologies
- Newspaper death notices
- Obituaries
- Probate records
- Published death records
- Religious records
- Transcriptions of cemetery inscriptions
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