Cecil County, Maryland Genealogy

United States &gt; Maryland &gt; Cecil County



County Courthouse


County Commissioners County Administrative Building 200 Chesapeake Blvd., Suite 2100 Elkton, MD 21921 Ph: (410) 996-5201

History



 * The County was named for Cecilius Calvert (1605-1675), Second Lord Baltimore, and founder of the Maryland colony. Although he never lived in Maryland, Cecilius Calvert was Proprietor of the colony from 1632 until his death in Middlesex, England in 1675.

Parent County

 * 1674--Cecil County was created 6 June 1674 from Baltimore County by a proclamation by the Proprietary Governor Cecil Calvert. County seat: Elkton.

Boundary Changes

 * Much of the county was originally attached to Kent County until Baltimore County was created 12 January 1659.

Record Loss
Many early court records have disappeared.

Time Lines
Cecil County Chronology

Neighboring Counties
Harford | Kent | New Castle County, Delaware | Pennsylvania counties: Chester | Lancaster | York

Bible Records
Family Bible Records at the Historical Society of Cecil County

Cemeteries

 * Cherry Hill United Methodist Cemetery
 * Colora Friends Meeting Cemetery
 * Elkton Catholic Church Cemetery
 * Saint Mark's Episcopal Church Cemetery
 * Cecil County Cemetery Records from the Historical Society of Cecil County. On this page, you will find links to PDF files containing an inventory of Cecil County tombstone transcriptions. One of their most experienced family history researchers and a past president of the Genealogical Society of Cecil County, Gary Burns, has worked several years compiling this detailed spreadsheet. It is still a work in progress and only goes to the letter P right now, but you will find over 29,000 entries for Cecil County Tombstones thus far.
 * Interment.com
 * USGenWeb's Tombstone Transcription Project

Census
Federal Census reports available 1790-1930 including slave and veterans schedules.


 * 1790 - 1830 Census Transcripts
 * 1850 Census Searchable index from FamilySearch
 * 1860 Census Searchable index from FamilySearch
 * 1870 Census Searchable index from FamilySearch
 * 1880 Census Searchable index from FamilySearch (no images)
 * 1900 Census Searchable index from FamilySearch

For more information about the using the census in Maryland please refer to the Maryland Census page.

Churches

 * Maryland State Archives' Guide to Maryland Religious Institutions identifies all churches known to have existed in Cecil County, Maryland. It covers all denominations and includes record descriptions. Maryland Archives' List of Churches in Cecil County
 * Nottingham, Cecil County, Maryland Quaker Records at Ancestry.com (subscription required). This database contains records for the Quaker Monthly Meeting for the city of Nottingham, which lies in Cecil County. Researchers may find records of birth, marriage and death for their nineteenth- century Quaker ancestors listed in this database.
 * St Stephen's Parish (North Sassafras Parish)
 * St Mary Anne's Parish (North Elk Parish)
 * Shrewsbury Parish (South Sassafras Parish)(now in Kent County, Maryland)
 * St Augustine Parish(Bohemia Manor, Chesapeake City, MD)
 * St Paul's Methodist Church at Johntown
 * St Xavier or Old Bohemia - The Roman Catholic Church of St. Xavier, also called the Old Bohemia Shrine, is near Warwick. This building is not the original one but there was a church here as early as 1704, the oldest Roman Catholic Church on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Bohemia offered advantages which were influential in the selection of this spot for a center of missionary enterprise. It was accessible both by land and water. A trading post at a nearby landing offered opportunities for the shipment of tobacco to England and the import of supplies needed by the colonists. By land, the Delaware Path or Highway was an artery of traffic between the two bays.


 * Zion Methodist Church Cecilton

Court

 * Cecil County Orphans' Court

Before 1776, information may be found in any one of the following types of courts:


 * The Admiralty Court
 * The Provincial Court
 * The Prerogative Court
 * The Chancery Court

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. FHL US/CAN Book 975.21 D2b v. 1 ff. [Cecil County families appear in Vol. 6]

Bibliography


 * [Hendrickson] Bendler, Bruce A. "The Hendrickson Family in Cecil County, Maryland: The First Three Generations," The Maryland and Delaware Genealogist, Vol. 31, No. 1 (Winter 1990):20-22. FHL US/CAN Book 975 B2m.

Surname Files


 * Cecil County Surname Filesat the Historical Society of Cecil County

Gazetteers
Gazetteer of the state of Maryland By Richard Swainson Fisher, pages 61-63 are about Cecil County.

A Gazetteer of Maryland and Delaware By Henry Gannett

A new and complete gazetteer of the United States: ... By Thomas Baldwin, J. Thomas

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 Cecil 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=Cecil&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 Cecil 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 Cecil County Deed Books (1674-present) have been uploaded to their website: MDLandRec.Net: A Digital Image Retrieval System for Land Records in Maryland. (Requires free registration.)

Local Histories
Chesapeake City, People, Places and Events Remembered - Lee Collins has digitized an outstanding collection of photos, ephemera, and other materials of interest to those researching or studying the past in Chesapeake City.

Maps

 * Catalog of Sanborn Mapsin the Collection of the Historical Society of Cecil County
 * Online mapsavailable from the Historical Society of Cecil County
 * Cecil County. Simon J. Martenet, Martenet's Atlas of Maryland, 1865, Huntingfield Collection, MSA SC 1339-1-75
 * Cecil County GIS- Online Mapping. An interactive geographic information systems (GIS) website of Cecil County.

Military

 * John F. DeWitt Military Museum at the Historical Society of Cecil County 135 E. Main Street, Elkton 410-398-1790 Impressive display of military memorabilia from the Revolutionary War through Desert Storm.

Newspapers

 * Cecil County newspapers are identified in "Guide to Maryland Newspapers," available online, courtesy: Special Collections, Maryland State Archives.
 * Cecil County Newspapers, as held at the Historical Society of Cecil County. Bound and microfilmed volumes of newspapers, as well as single issues, published in Cecil County since 1823 and the present, constitute a valuable portion of the Society's library.
 * Cecil Whig- P.O. Box 429, Elkton, MD 21922; (410) 398-3311
 * Rising Sun Herald - 303 E. Main St., Rising Sun, MD 21911; (410) 658-5740
 * Cecil Soil Magazine- P.O. Box 645, Rising Sun, MD 21911; (410) 658-3244

Probate

 * Probate estate files from 1851 to 1940 can be searched on FamilySearch. The site will let you view and save the actual probate record.

Societies and Libraries

 * The Historical Society of Cecil County

The Historical Society is open to the public at the following times. They are closed on all major holidays. Monday ………………………………………………….. 10:00 a.m.— 4:00 p.m. Tuesday………………………………………………….. 6:00 p.m.— 8:30 p.m. Thursday…………………………………………………. 10:00 a.m. — 4:00 p.m. 1st and 4th Saturday of Each Month…………………….. 10:00 a.m.— 2:00 p.m.


 * Genealogical Society of Cecil County, Inc P.O. Box 11 Charlestown, MD 21914 (410) 287-8793
 * Upper Shore Genealogical Society of Maryland P.O. Box 275 Easton, MD 21601 (410) 745-3050
 * Cecil County Public Library

Taxation
Cecil County Tax List of 1783 : First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth Districts. 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
Death


 * Maryland Death Certificate Index 1898-1944, available online, courtesy: Vital Records Indexing Project, Maryland State Archives.
 * Death Certificates 1920s-1940s, 1940s-1950s, available online, courtesy: Historical Society of Cecil County
 * Burial Permits, 1906-1912, 1912-1962; available online, courtesy: Historical Society of Cecil County

Web Sites

 * The Cecil County MDGenWeb Project, a member of The MDGenWeb Project, an affiliate of The USGenWeb Project.
 * The USGenWeb Archives Project for Cecil County.
 * The USGenWeb Archives Project for Cecil County. (Backup site)
 * FamilySearch.org Family History Library Catalog for Cecil County.
 * FamilySearch Record Search for Cecil County Probate Estate Files from 1851 to 1940 are searchable.The site will let you view and save.
 * The Historical Society of Cecil County
 * Cecil County Public Library