Primary Sources for Historians

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. Open to the public. Located in Annapolis.

The Maryland Statistical Abstract was produced biennially 1967-2006. Earlier volumes are available through the links in the catalog record.

Founded in 1844, the Maryland Historical Society (MdHS) is the state’s oldest continuously operating cultural institution. With over 350,000 objects and seven million books and documents, this institution now serves upward of 100,000 people through its museum, library, press, and educational programs.

Coverage: Full Text
Archives of Maryland Online currently provides access to over 471,000 historical documents that form the constitutional, legal, legislative, judicial, and administrative basis of Maryland's government.

The Maryland Center for History and Culture features a museum and library. The H. Furlong Baldwin Library holds more than 7 million items spanning five centuries, from early colonial and Revolutionary War records to 21st century materials that encompass arts and culture, politics, and local and national issues, including the struggle for civil rights.

Digital Maryland (previously Maryland Digital Cultural Heritage or MDCH), is headquartered at the Enoch Pratt Free Library/State Library Resource Center in Baltimore. The mission is to facilitate the digitization and digital exhibition of the historical and cultural documents, images, audio and video held by Maryland institutions.

PDFs of the 190 municipal charters of Maryland

MARMIA focuses on collecting records of marginalized individuals and communities within the Mid-Atlantic, as well as marginalized audiovisual technologies and genres. Content hosted by Mid-Atlantic Media.

Archaeological artifacts provide a unique window into the past. This blog will highlight some of the seven million archaeological objects curated at the Maryland Archaeological Conservation Lab at Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum.

This collection includes downloadable JPEG and TIFF or JP2000 images of selected, printed maps found in the Government Publications and Map collections at Johns Hopkins University.

Coverage: Index Only
This guide represents a combination of two previously published works: Avril J. M. Pedley, comp., The Manuscript Collections of the Maryland Historical Society (Baltimore, 1968) and Richard J. Cox and Larry E. Sullivan, eds., Guide to the Research Collections of the Maryland Historical Society (Baltimore, 1981).

The Maryland State Law Library's new Genealogy web pages include infromation on finding death records, obituaries, graves, cemeteries, and burial records, wills and probate, internet sources on genealogy, and law and genealogy.

Digitized copy of the 1909 publication compiled and edited by Jane Baldwin Cotton. It includes land and probate information, some genealogy and immigration information if provided in the Wills.

Scanned National Archives microfilm reels of the decennial censuses in Maryland.

This website provides public access to the case records of the Maryland Judiciary. Information is available on all civil, traffic, and criminal cases in the state. This information includes defendant name, city and state, case number, date of birth, plaintiff name (civil cases only), trial date, charge, and case disposition.

The Maryland Judiciary, the 24 elected Court Clerks of Maryland and the Maryland State Archives have joined in partnership to provide up to date access to all verified land record instruments in Maryland. This is a free service but you must apply for an account.

Name index to marriage records from the state of Maryland. Microfilm copies of these records are available at the Family History Library and Family History Centers. Due to privacy laws, recent records may not be displayed. The year range represents most of the records. A few records may be earlier or later.

Name index and images of probate estate files from the Register of Wills office in the county courthouse. Currently, the following counties are represented in this collection: Allegany (1779-1946), Baltimore City (1922-1941), Calvert (1882-1940), Caroline (1838-1940), Cecil (1851-1940), Garrett (1873-1946), Kent (1749-1940), Prince George's (1796-1940), and Queen Anne's (1833-1940), Somerset (1789-1946), Wicomico (1868-1940). This collection is being published as images become available.

Images of probate records from court record collections from the Register of Wills in Maryland counties. Probate records often include wills, and other records dealing with the administration of estates including bonds, inventories, guardianships, real estate, and various indexes to the records.

Coverage: Full Text
Probate records provide valuable information about the lifestyles of people during the colonial and early national periods.Included in the database are 325 inventories of the household items that provide insight into furnishings, dining habits & behavior