Maryland Genealogical Society
Maryland Genealogical Society

MGS Response to the Coronavirus

As part of the effort to contain the spread of the coronavirus outbreak, the Maryland Historical Society building - where our office is located - is closed until the Fall. You can still reach us by email, but there will be some delays in processing new memberships and renewals received by postal mail and in filling orders for publicataions. We also temporarily have stopped accepting new orders for reserach. We regret the interruption in our services, and we thank you for your understanding and patience.
 
Due to the state of emergency regarding the coronavirus, MGS cancelled its Spring Luncheon that was scheduled for April 4. Refunds have been processed for those who registered. We hope to be able to have our scheduled speaker Carol Kostakos Petranek give her presentation at a future event. The Basics+ Workshop scheduled for June 6 has been postponed. We hope to present this program on census records in October in lieu of our usual Fall Seminar.
 
Everyone please continue to take care. I hope you stay well and can hole up at home and work on genealogy!
 
~ Dru Null, MGS President
 
 
 

Welcome!

Since 1959, the Maryland Genealogical Society has been promoting genealogical study and research.   Through our publications, programs, resources, and outreach, the Society can help you explore your family history.
 
If you are already a member of the Society, you can log in by clicking on the Members Only link. If you are not already a member, we encourage you to become a member and begin receiving all the benefits of membership.  
 
And we hope that you'll follow us on Facebook for timely news and information.
 
        
    
                      
 

Election Results

Congratulations to our newly elected slate of at-large Board members:

Robert Barnes — Donna Carter — Alexa K. Corcoran
Jaclyn Fox — Debra A. Hoffman — Tom McCarriar
Janelle Bartlett Mummey — David Powell
Malissa Ruffner — Ellen Ward
 
We thank outgoing Board member Nancy Waters for her dedication and service to MGS, notably her work as editor of the MGS Journal. And we welcome newcomer to the Board, Donna Carter. 
 
In other Board changes, Betty DeKeyser has stepped down from her position as Recording Secretary. Edward Foreman will be fulfilling the remainder of her term. Many thanks to Betty for her service and to Ed for taking on this important position.
 
And thanks to all the at-large Board members for volunteering their time and energy to help make MGS a success.
 
 

Baltimore City Online Marriage Index (1886-1914)

MGS is pleased to announce the online launch of the ongoing Baltimore City Marriage Licenses (1886-1914) Index project. This Members Only index is designed to help you find/identify ancestors who obtained Marriage Licenses in Baltimore City in the subject time period. When complete, the index will include names and dates from 157,000 index cards in the Maryland State Archives Record Series T2426. The original index cards are alphabetized by the name of the groom, so the MGS index provides the first searchable index to the names of the brides!
 
New records were added on 19 May 2020, now up to 94 percent complete online.
Currently, the index is 94 percent complete (online), with the remainder to be added in the near future, following rigorous quality checks of the data. So check back soon for the final addition.
 
MGS would like to thank the more than 30 dedicated volunteers who've spent several thousand hours getting this project to this point. Many thanks also to Board Member John Siemon for his coordination of the project and to Board Member Dave Powell for his database expertise.
 
 

The MGS Journal

The December 2019 issue of the Journal is available. Members receive their copies by mail. Limited quantities of the current and earlier issues of the Journal also are available for sale. Members receive a discounted price. Click here for information on prices and how to purchase.
 
This issue features the second installment of a four-part series by Kent Randell describing the Rousby family of southern Maryland, with this article exploring the peculiarities of John Rousby's will. Helen Hinchliff continues her exploration of the lives of entrepreneurial women in nineteenth-century Baltimore. Malissa Ruffner begins her story at the yellow brick farmhouse in Walkersville that was home to the Stauffer family and leads us through four generations, with some wonderful family photos. John Trezise examines Virginia records to shed light on the life of Edward Dorsey. Carmen Cross links her ancestor Thomas Uriah Cross to his parents through his siblings. And William Hollifield shares Bible entries from the Alban-Hale-Zouck Bible. Book reviews by Allender Sybert and a genealogy crossword puzzle by Jane Burgess round out the issue.
For a look at the full table of contents, click here.
 
 

Will and Probate Indexes Available

An index spreadsheet to Anne Arundel County probate records is now available. The Maryland State Archives is participating in a joint project with the Comptroller of the Treasury, the Registers of Wills, and FamilySearch to have the state's probate records from 1634 to 1940 indexed, scanned, and made available online. Volunteers are preparing the documents for scanning and indexing the records. The indexed information eventually will be available in an online FamilySearch database. In the meantime, as county indexes are completed, the Maryland State Archives is making the spreadsheets available for researcher use.
 
Many thanks to MGS Board Member Tom McCarriar - who is participating as a volunteer on the project - for providing us with the Anne Arundel County spreadsheet. Click here to see the index spreadsheets currently available - Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Caroline, and Carroll Counties. Visit the Maryland State Archives web site for more information about volunteering for this or other projects.
 
 

Digital Issues of the MGS Bulletin

 
MGS Members can read 48 years (1960 to 2007) of the Maryland Genealogical Society Bulletin in the Members Only portion of the web site. 
 
Access is available to MGS members as an exclusive member benefit. After signing in as a member, look for the "MGS Bulletin Archive" link under Members Only on the lefthand navigation bar.
 
The Bulletin is packed with family genealogies and transcriptions from source records, including bible records, church records, tombstones, court records, etc. You can consult the cumulative table of contents to learn what articles appear in each issue. The issues are PDFs that are full-text searchable.
 
 

Leave No Stone Unturned

“Leave No Stone Unturned” is a series of occasional articles in MGS News and its predecessor, the MGS Newsletter, by Board Member Robert Barnes. Bob has had over 50 years’ experience tracing Maryland families. He is the author of many source books, compiled family histories, and guides, and has taught many courses in genealogical research and lectured at genealogical conferences.
 
We have assembled an archive of his articles - 28 to date - which is available to MGS members in the Members Only section of the web site. MGS thanks Bob for sharing these articles on a variety of Maryland genealogy topics. 
 
 
 
 

We're Looking for Your Photos!

 
Would you like to see images of your ancestors included on the MGS Web site? Members are encouraged to submit photos for inclusion in the gallery of images at the top of the page that rotate and change each time visitors go to a new page on the Web site. (Each has a caption that you can read by hovering your cursor over the image.) For more information about submitting images, click here.