USGSMD Facebook GroupUSGSMD Announcements
MDLANDREC.NET ACCESS ISSUE AT MARYLAND STATE ARCHIVES
As many of you know, if you do research into genealogy in Maryland, the Maryland State Archives [MDLandRec.Net] website has always been a real treasure, and all of the county clerks of court have always kept their records up to date and filed with the Maryland State Archives to be freely available to the public.
The MSA has just announced they plan to charge a fee to VIEW or DOWNLOAD any record less than 100 years old. I guess the state government is scrambling to monetize anything they can. There is absolutely no reason for them to charge a fee for something provided to them for nothing. It seems outrageous to me, as you may not even know if it is a relevant record until you view it. This will impact a lot of people, not just in Maryland, but anyone researching records for ancestors in Maryland. If you go to the MSA main website, you'll see this message:
"Announcement from the Maryland State Archives:
Maryland Land Records Website Update
The Maryland State Archives plans to launch a new version of the Maryland Land Records website, in May 2025. Updated features will include all search criteria being accessible on one screen, new search fields being added, increased website stability, and enhanced security features.
Users will be charged $0.20 per page to view and download modern records that are less than 100 years old online.
All index files and records that are 100 years old or more will remain free to view and download online.
Access at the Maryland State Archives Search Room in Annapolis and the local Circuit Courts remains unchanged."
I am asking any of our members who care about this matter to please write to your State Legislators. I'll attach a sample letter you can use. Please do this right away, as we need to make our voices heard NOW!
You can get the sample letter here: mdlandrec-access.pdf
MEMBERSHIP MEETING
Meeting reminder - the next membership meeting for USGSMD will be on May 10, 2025, at 1 PM. This will be our annual election meeting, so please plan to attend! Details for location and for remote attendence will be provided shortly.
BOOKS FOR SALE
BOOKS FOR SALE - FIRST COME, FIRST SERVED - Over the last year or two, we have had several large donations of materials to our Family Research Center/Library, which has resulted in a modest increase to the holdings we have available for anyone visiting us. However, as a result, we have quite a bit of materials which are duplicates of holdings we already have. The donors have graciously allowed us to offer any duplicate items for sale, in order to raise funds for the continued operation of the Family Research Center/Library.
We have a PDF file of the list of duplicate items for sale. Many of these items are in excellent condition. The list is sorted by Title, Subtitle, then author. The listing includes the publisher, date of publication, as well as the type of publication and condition. The Value lists an average value for each item, based on researching multiple sources, and is generally for fair-good condition. The PDF is available here on our website (at this url - http://usgsmd.org/pdfs/USGSMD-Duplicates-ForSale.pdf) and will be updated as books are sold by lining through the text and highlighting the text in red.
Please take a look at the list, and if you are interested in purchasing any of these items, send an email back to us, stating which item(s) you would like to purchase. We would use our standard shipping costs (based on US Postal Service Media Mail which includes tracking numbers and insurance, and is the most economical way to ship).
Orders will be processed in the order they are received, and a PayPal shipping invoice will be prepared which will have the amount due. If you'd prefer to send a check for your purchase, that is fine, although shipping would be delayed until the check is received, as we have had issues with occasional lost mail ever since 2020 (COVID). We will offer our standard membership discount of 20% on any of these purchases to current members in good standing. Membership dues are $30, if you need to renew your membership or join USGSMD. If multiple items are ordered, we will combine items to reduce shipping costs. Maryland Residents must add 6% sales tax.
UPDATED INVENTORY AVAILABLE - October 2024
The latest version of our Research Center/Library Inventory has been posted, which includes all of our recent acquisitions, including our Maryland State-Level holdings and now including our Delaware holdings, including state-level, as well as holdings from all three counties in Delaware (Newcastle, Kent, and Sussex). Just click on the link in the left menu titled Family Research Center Inventory to look through the PDF of all of our inventoried holdings.
New Annual Dues Rate Takes Effect - July 2024
Due to the rising costs associated with everything from printing to our utility bills, the dues have been raised from $25.00 to $30.00. This dues increase was postponed for quite a while, in the hope that costs might stabilize, however it's become apparent we're stuck with these higher costs for the foreseeable future. Dues have been at $25 for a very long time, and unfortunately, in order to remain within our budget, we have to have this increase.
Individual Issues Now Available!
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Individual past issues of the Chesapeake Cousins from volumes 1 through 50-2 are now available for purchase.
Each issue is $9 for CD (PDF) and $17 for book format (if available). All volumes (1 through 50-2, 98 issues) are also available on CD (PDF) for $50 and USGSMD Member price is $40 (20% OFF). The table of contents has been updated and can be found on the Chesapeake Cousins page and at the USGSMD Bookstore. |
Dorchester County Cemetery
Preservation Organization
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Edward Dean formed a new non-profit organization to help preserve Dorchester County cemeteries.
It all began with trying to preserve the Anchor of Hope Cemetery (aka: Travers Family Graveyard) on Hoopers Island, and it has grown from there. Please join the Dorchester County Cemetery Preservation Organization Facebook group to get updates on their progress and to see days and times of volunteer projects. Pictures on the left are of the Anchor of Hope Cemetery, one of the many cemeteries in Dorchester County that needs preservation. |
Family Group Sheets- Form-Fillable PDF Files
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FRE Instructions We have created new family group sheets for the Family Record Exchange (FRE) and for submitting to the USGSMD journal, the Chesapeake Cousins. These new family group sheets may be filled out on your computer and emailed to usgsmd@yahoo.com for submission. We still accept handwritten forms, though they will not be text searchable. These forms are listed on the Chesapeake Cousins page.
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Caroline County Administrative Accounts Indexes
1703 - 1776 and 1790 - 1817
This index to the Caroline County Administrive Accounts of the Register of Wills records, was compiled by USGSMD member, Gary Willis, and can be found on our research links page. Thank you Gary!
Will and Probate Records Indexes
1634-1940
This is a joint project by the Maryland State Archives, Comptroller of the Treasury, Register of Wills and FamilySearch. This project began in 2013. The volunteers are working on indexing all the counties in Maryland. Baltimore, Caroline and Carroll counties have been completed so far. If you would like to volunteer to help with this project, please email usgsmd@yahoo.com. These indexes can be found on our research links page.