St. Mary's County, Maryland Genealogy

United States &gt; Maryland &gt; St. Mary's County

County Courthouse
St. Mary's County Government 23115 Leonard Hall Dr. Leonardtown, MD 20650

History


The county is named after The Virgin Mary. It was the "first county named in a colony intended to be a haven for Catholics."

The settlement of Lord Baltimore's Maryland began with the arrival of passengers from England at St. Clement's Island in the Potomac River in what is now southwestern St. Mary's County on March 25, 1634 (the anniversary of this landing being annually celebrated as Maryland Day). The passengers arrived in two vessels, the Ark and the Dove, which had set sail from the Isle of Wight on November 22, 1633. The county is also home to the first Catholic Mass celebrated in the original thirteen colonies.

Parent County

 * Created 24 January 1637 from the Colonial lands

Town

 * Leonardtown

Neighboring Counties
Calvert | Charles |Dorchester| Somerset| Virginia Counties: Northumberland| Westmoreland

Census
Federal Census reports available 1790-1930 including slave and veterans schedules. Exception-1830 census is missing.

Church
Maryland State Archives' Guide to Maryland Religious Institutions identifies all churches known to have existed in St. Mary's County, Maryland. It covers all denominations and includes record descriptions.

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]

Bibliography


 * [Butler] See de Hinojosa.
 * [Carvile] See de Hinojosa.
 * [DeButts] Russell, George Ely. "DeButts Family of Maryland and Virginia," The Genealogist, Vol. 12, No. 2 (Fall 1998):131-188.
 * [Decosta] Russell, George Ely. "Portuguese and Spanish Colonists in Seventeenth-Century Maryland," The American Genealogist, Vol. 76, No. 1 (January 2001):50-60.
 * [de Hinojosa] Hoff, Henry B. "Alexander de Hinojosa and His Descendants in Maryland," The American Genealogist, Vol. 79, No. 4 (Oct. 2004):260-273.
 * [Guyther] See de Hinojosa.
 * [Leigh] Hoff, Henry B. "Alexander de Hinojosa and His Descendants in Maryland," The American Genealogist, Vol. 79, No. 4 (Oct. 2004):260-273.

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 St. Mary's County immigration resources include:


 * [http://www.immigrantservants.com/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=St.+Mary%27s+Marys&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 St. Mary's 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 St. Mary's County Deed Books (1781-present) have been uploaded to their website: MDLandRec.Net: A Digital Image Retrieval System for Land Records in Maryland. (Requires free registration.)

Newspapers

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

Vital Records
Death


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

Societies and Libraries
The Society of the Ark and the Dove was founded in 1910. It was formed to fellowship those that trace their descent from Lord Baltimore and those that arrived on the Ark and the Dove in 1634 to settle Maryland. This society is multifaceted, encouraging research of early Maryland history and promoting and supporting Museums, Historical Foundations and Societies.

Web Sites

 * FamilySearch.org Family History Library Catalog for St. Mary's County.
 * The St. Mary's County MD GenWeb Project, a member of The MDGenWeb Project, an affiliate of The USGenWeb Project
 * The USGenWeb Archives Project for St. Mary's County.
 * The USGenWeb Archives Project for St. Mary's County. (Backup site)