Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Tuesday's Tip - FamilySearch has 12 Maryland Collections

This week's Tuesday's Tip is:  FamilySearch has 12 historical record collections for the state of Maryland.

On the FamilySearch Historical Record Collections page, if you put "Maryland" in the search filter filter (upper left-hand corner), you can see the list of 12 record collections currently on FamilySearch:


The 12 record collections, with the number of records (or if not indexed, a Browse Images" collection) are:

*  Maryland, Baltimore Passenger Lists Index, 1820-1897; Browse Images, last updated 20 Dec 2013
*  Maryland, Baltimore Passenger Lists, 1820-1948; 798,916 records, last updated 20 Dec 2013
*  Maryland, Baltimore, Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels and Airplanes, 1954-1957; 16,952  records, last updated 27 Aug 2013
*  Maryland, Births and Christenings, 1650-1995; 199,433 records, index only, last updated 09 Mar 2012

*  Maryland, Civil War Service Records of Confederate Soldiers, 1861-1865; 43,508 records, last updated 20 Apr 2012
*  Maryland, Civil War Service Records of Union Soldiers, 1861-1865; 642,857 records, last updated  15 May 2012
*  Maryland, Deaths and Burials, 1877-1992; 3,709 records, index only, last updated 25 Feb 2013
*  Maryland, Marriages, 1666-1970; 256,134 records, index only, last updated 05 Mar 2012

*  Maryland, Naturalization Indexes, 1797-1951; 85,222 records, last updated 06 Mar 2013
*  Maryland, Naturalization Petitions, 1906-1931; 45,165 records, last updated 06 Mar 2013
*  Maryland, Probate Estate and Guardianship Files, 1796-1940; 89,727 records, last updated 21 Mar 2014
*  Maryland, Register of Wills Records, 1629-1999; Browse Images, last updated 03 Apr 2014

There are only three collections that don't have record images;  the other nine have record images.

 Only two collections are Browse Images only, and the other ten are indexed.  For those Browse Images collections, users will have to look for indexes in the digitized record books, and use information from the index to find records for their research target.

Researchers looking for Maryland passenger lists and naturalization records may find records for their research targets in those collections.

The two Civil War Soldier collections are on Fold3.com, and users must have a Fold3 subscription to see the record images.

The gems in this list of Maryland record collections, for me, are the Probate Estate and Guardianship Files and the Register of Wills Records.  Those collections have the potential to solve research mysteries for my wife's McKnew and Pickrell ancestors.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2014/04/tuesdays-tip-familysearch-has-12.html

Copyright (c) 2014, Randall J. Seaver


1 comment:

Geolover said...

Randy, this is a nice alert.

You say, "The gems in this list of Maryland record collections, for me, are the Probate Estate and Guardianship Files and the Register of Wills Records."

One must use the wills uploaded in the Register of Wills Records group with caution. Many (but not all) of the pre-1777 wills are fairly recent transcripts from the Prerogative Court wills. Not all were proved in the County as well as or instead of in the Prerogative Court.

One can find the Prerogative Court wills' images on the MD Archives site, with some patience.

It is always useful to get to the original recorded copy whenever possible.