Dorchester County, Maryland Genealogy

Guide to Dorchester County Maryland ancestry, family history, and genealogy. Birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, family history, and military records.

United States   Maryland    Dorchester County

Dorchester County Maryland Courthouse
Clerk Circuit Court has marriage records from 1780. Divorce records from 1821, equity docket record from 1821 and corporation records from 1858.

Dorchester County Maryland History



 * The county is believed to have been named after Dorchester, a city in England, or Edward Sackville, 4th Earl of Dorset, a family friend of the Calverts.

Parent County

 * Created 27 May 1668 from Colonial lands.

Boundary Changes

 * 15 June 1773, Caroline County was set off.
 * For animated maps illustrating Maryland county boundary changes, "Rotating Formation Maryland County Boundary Maps" (1637-1997) may be viewed for free at the MapofUS.org website.

Record Loss
For a list of record loss in Maryland counties see: Maryland Counties with Burned Courthouses

City

 * Cambridge

Neighboring Counties


Maryland counties:


 * Calvert
 * Caroline
 * St. Mary's
 * Somerset
 * Talbot
 * Wicomico

Delaware county:


 * Sussex

Cemeteries
Dorchester County cemetery transcriptions in the US Genweb Project and other sources. http://www.idreamof.com/cemetery/md/dorchester.html

Census

 * 1776 Transcription and Index
 * 1778
 * 1790
 * 1800
 * 1810
 * 1820
 * 1830
 * 1840
 * 1850
 * 1850 Slave
 * 1860
 * 1860 Slave
 * 1870
 * 1880
 * 1890
 * 1900
 * 1910
 * 1920
 * 1930

Church
Maryland State Archives' Guide to Maryland Religious Institutions identifies all churches known to have existed in Dorchester County, Maryland. It covers all denominations and includes record descriptions. The following records from their collection have been digitized and made available to view for free online:


 * Society of Friends (Quakers), Northwest Fork Monthly Meeting, Treasurer's Account Book 1801-1853 (link broken 5/25/10)

Church of England
Trinity Church was built by 1690. A chapel of ease served parishioners on Taylor's Island.

See also Dorchester Parish See also Great Choptank Parish

Family Histories
It is anticipated that this bibliography will eventually identify all known family histories published about residents of this county. Use this list to:


 * Locate publications about direct ancestors
 * Find the most updated accounts of an ancestor's family
 * Identify publications, to quote Elizabeth Shown Mills, about an ancestor's "FAN Club" [Friends, Associates, and Neighbors]

General


 * Barnes, Robert W., F. Edward Wright, Vernon L. Skinner and Henry C. Peden. Colonial Families of the Eastern Shore of Maryland. 23 vols. Westminster, Md.: Family Line, 1996-2003; Lewes, Del.: Delmarva Roots and Colonial Roots, 2007. ff. [Dorchester County families appear in Vols. 7, 11, 13-14, 16, and 19.]

Bibliography


 * [Ennalls] "The Ennalls and Waggaman Families of Maryland," The William and Mary Quarterly, Vol. 2, No. 2 (Oct. 1893):98-105. Digital version at JSTOR - free.
 * [Wright] Wright, Charles W. The Wright Ancestry of Caroline, Dorchester, Somerset and Wicomico Counties Maryland. Baltimore: Baltimore City Printing and Binding Co., 1907. Available at ; ; and Google Books.
 * [Wroughton] Loeser, Rudolf. "Margaret (__) (Wroughton) (Attowell) Grimes and Some Relatives," The Virginia Genealogist, Vol. 42, No. 2 (Apr.-Jun. 1998):111-118; Vol. 42, No. 3 (Jul.-Sep. 1998):194-204. Digital version at American Ancestors ($)..

Immigration
The New Early Settlers of Maryland database is a great place to start searching for immigrants who had arrived in the colony by the 1680s. The database "comprises 34,326 entries from Gust Skordas' Early Settlers of Maryland and Carson Gibb's Supplement to the Early Settlers of Maryland." Available online, courtesy: Maryland State Archives.

Other Dorchester County immigration resources include:


 * Coldham, Peter Wilson. "Intercepted Letters Relating to America 1777-1811," The Genealogist, Vol. 14, No. 2 (Fall 2000):184-200; Vol. 15, No. 1 (Spring 2001):53-74. [Overseas correspondence of a resident of Vianna [Vienna, Dorchester County] with the following surname: Dennis.]
 * [http://www.pricegen.com/immigrantservants/search/advancedResults.php?surname=&givenName=&varientSurnameSpellings=&gender=&dateOfBirthDay=&dateOfBirthMonth=&dateOfBirthQuantifier=&dateOfBirthYear=&placeOfBirthParish=&placeOfBirthTown=&placeOfBirthCity=&placeOfBirthCounty=&placeOfBirthColony=&placeOfBirthNation=&occupations=&religions=&orphan=&familyPosition=&immigrationYearQualifier=&immigrationYear=&portOfDepartureTown=&portOfDepartureCity=&portOfDepartureCounty=&portOfDepartureNation=&placeOfArrivalTown=&placeOfArrivalCounty=&placeOfArrivalColony=&shipName=&convict=&yearOfIndentureQualifier=&yearOfIndenture=&lengthOfIndentureYears=&lengthOfIndentureMonths=&yearOfFreedomQualifier=&yearOfFreedom=&placeOfIndentureTown=&placeOfIndentureCity=&placeOfIndentureCounty=Dorchester&placeOfIndentureColony=Maryland&agentSurname=&agentGivenName=&agentTitle=&masterSurname=&masterGivenName=&masterTitle=&residenceParish=&residenceTown=&residenceCity=&residenceCounty=&residenceColony=&residenceNation=&landowner=&literate=&spouseSurname=&spouseGivenName=&spouseMarriageDateDay=&spouseMarriageDateMonth=&spouseMarriageDateQualifier=&spouseMarriageDateYear=&spouseMarriageLocationParish=&spouseMarriageLocationCounty=&spouseMarriageLocationColony=&spouseMarriageLocationNation=&deathDateDay=&deathDateMonth=&deathDateQualifier=&deathDateYear=&deathLocality=&deathCounty=&deathColony=&deathState=&testate=&proofServantStatus=&proofConvictStatus=&headright=&preServitudeSources=&postServitudeSources=&comments=&family=&sourceCitations=&interestedResearchers= List of imported servants and convicts from Europe] who served labor terms in Colonial Dorchester County, Maryland (work in progress), courtesy: Immigrant Servants Database. [Includes Richard J. Cox's abstracts of Maryland Gazette runaways.]

Land
Through a Joint eGovernment Service of the Maryland Judiciary and the Maryland State Archives, free images and indexes of the complete series of Dorchester County Deed Books (1669-present) have been uploaded to their website: MDLandRec.Net: A Digital Image Retrieval System for Land Records in Maryland. (Requires free registration.)

Revolutionary War
Dorchester County men served in the 5th Maryland Regiment.


 * A Census of Pensioners for Revolutionary or Military Services: With their Names, Ages, and Places of Residence, as Returned by the Marshalls of the Several Judicial Districts, Under the Act for Taking the Sixth Census]. 1841. Digital version at Google Books et. al. 1967 reprint: 973 X2pc 1840. [See Maryland, Dorchester County on page 128.]

War of 1812

 * List of Pensioners on the Roll, January 1, 1883; Giving the Name of Each Pensioner, the Cause for Why Pensioned, the Post-Office Address, the Rate of Pension Per Month, and the Date of Original Allowance... Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1883. 973 M2Lp v. 5; digital versions at Google Books and Internet Archive. [See Vol. 5, Maryland, Dorchester County, pp. 145-146. Identifies War of 1812 veterans living in this county in 1883.]

Civil War
Civil War service men from Dorchester County served in various regiments. Men often joined a regiment or a company (within a regiment) that originated in their county. Listed below are the military units that were formed in or had many men from Dorchester County.


 * - 1st Regiment, Maryland Eastern Shore Infantry, Companies A, B, and C.

Newspapers

 * Dorchester County newspapers are identified in "Guide to Maryland Newspapers," available online, courtesy: Special Collections, Maryland State Archives.

Dorchester County, Maryland Old Newspapers are available online.

Private Papers

 * Coldham, Peter Wilson. "Intercepted Letters Relating to America 1777-1811," The Genealogist, Vol. 14, No. 2 (Fall 2000):184-200; Vol. 15, No. 1 (Spring 2001):53-74. [Overseas correspondence of residents of Vianna [Vienna, Dorchester County] with the following surname: Dennis.]

Probate

 * Probate Records, Colonial Index, 1634-1777 online at Maryland State Archives website - free

Taxation

 * [1678, 1681] 1678 and 1681 Dorchester County tax lists, available online, courtesy: MDGenWeb.
 * [1783] Dorchester County Tax List of 1783: This is an alphabetical index to names to all property owners assessed. The index cards at the Maryland State Archives include county, hundred, names of tracts of land and whether individuals were paupers or single males as provided in the law.

Vital Records
Marriage


 * Maryland Marriage References by Robert Barnes - free.
 * Marriage Records - Maryland State Archives

Death


 * Maryland Death Certificate Index 1898-1944, available online, courtesy: Vital Records Indexing Project, Maryland State Archives.

Other Dorchester County death record resources include:


 * Dorchester County, Maryland Cemeteries, Death Certificate Indexes, Death Certificate Abstracts, Abstracts of Obituaries are available online.

Family History Centers

 * Introduction to LDS Family History Centers

Dorchester County Maryland Genealogy Websites

 * Dorchester County, MD History, Records, Facts and Genealogy (Genealogy Inc)
 * The Dorchester County MDGenWeb Project, a member of The MDGenWeb Project, an affiliate of The USGenWeb Project.
 * "Dorchester Co.," in Genealogical Sources in Periodicals at The Maryland State Archives.
 * The USGenWeb Archives Project for Dorchester County.
 * The USGenWeb Archives Project for Dorchester County. (Backup site)
 * FamilySearch Catalog for Dorchester County.