Talbot County, Maryland Genealogy

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

United States Maryland  Talbot County

Talbot County Maryland Courthouse
Talbot County Courthouse

Talbot County Maryland History

 * Named for Grace (Calvert), Lady Talbot, the wife of Sir Robert Talbot 2nd Baron of Carlton, Kildare, and daughter of George Calvert 1st Baron Baltimore. She was the sister of Cecelius Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore, and 1st Proprietor Governor of Maryland.

Parent County

 * Created 19 February 1661 from Kent County.

Boundary Changes

 * Queen Anne's County was set off 9 April 1706
 * 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

Neighboring Counties
Anne Arundel | Calvert | Caroline | Dorchester | Queen Anne's

Cemeteries
Transcriptions of various cemeteries in Talbot County can be found at the following websites:


 * Findagrave
 * Interment
 * Tombstone Transcription Project

The Political Graveyard is a great resource for Politicians that were born, lived and died in Talbot County.

Published Transcriptions:


 * Tombstone inscriptions and map of graves at Wye House, Talbot County, Maryland Tombstone inscriptions and map of graves at Wye House, Talbot County, Maryland
 * Tombstones of Talbot County

For more information about Cemeteries in Maryland please refer to the Maryland Cemeteries page.

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

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


 * Methodist, Bayside Charge Collection 1902-1967 (includes membership, church, and historical records for various congregations)
 * Protestant Episcopal (Church of England), Christ Church, St. Peter's Parish, Easton, Md. 1681-1956 (includes parish registers and other various records)

Church of England
St. Michael's Parish


 * 1672-1704 - Leach, M. Atherton. "Register of St. Michael's Parish, Talbot County, Maryland, 1672-1704," The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 29 (1905):427-438. For free online access, see WeRelate.


 * 1708-1985 - Pennsylvania, Church and Town Records, 1708-1985 at Historical Society of Pennsylvania – $, free to members of the society; Also available at Ancestry.com – $; 7,542,774 entries. This database is incomplete for all counties.


 * Contains the church records of:
 * St. Michaels: St. Michael's Protestant Episcopal Parish

St. Peter's Parish - records have been digitized, see above. St. Paul's 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. [Talbot County families appear in Vols. 4-5, 7, 11, 13, and 21.]

Bibliography


 * [Banning] Armstrong, Zella. Notable Southern Families. Chattanooga, Tenn.: Lookout Publishing Company, 1918. Vol. 1. Digital version at - free.
 * [Caulk] Russell, George Ely. "The Swedish Settlement in Maryland, 1654," The American Genealogist, Vol. 54, No. 4 (Oct. 1978):203-210.
 * [Neale] Neall, Harry Levy and Rosalie S. Neall Cunningham. Genealogy of the American Family of Neall: It Being a Branch of the Bedfordshire, England Family of Neale, from Whose Members, Circa 1630, Came the Emigrants Who Founded the Early American Family of Neale Who Settled at Accomack, Virginia, and Salem, Massachusetts, Some of the Succeeding Generations Finding Their Permanent Location of the Eastern Shore of Maryland: This Family History Has Its More Intimate Relationship in the Descendants of Francis Neale, a Quaker, Whose Children Changed the Spelling of Their Surname to Neall. Haywood, Calif.: R.N. Cunningham, 1969. 929.273 N259n
 * [Ungle] Pitman, H. Minot. "English Origin of Ungle Family of Maryland," The American Genealogist, Vol. 29 (1953):86. 973 D25aga v. 29; digital version at New England Ancestors ($).

Immigration
Oxford has been a port since colonial times. Unfortunately, no official passenger lists survive for the seventeenth or eighteenth centuries.

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 Talbot County immigration resources include:


 * Coldham, Peter Wilson. "Correspondence with the American Colonies 1739-1782," The Genealogist, Vol. 12, No. 1 (Spring 1998):108-128; Vol. 12, No. 2 (Fall 1998):189-205. [Overseas correspondence of a resident of Oxford [Talbot County] with the following surname: Crookshank.] Available at.
 * [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=Talbot&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 Talbot 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 Talbot County Deed Books (1662-present) have been uploaded to their website: MDLandRec.Net: A Digital Image Retrieval System for Land Records in Maryland. (Requires free registration.)

Revolutionary War
Talbot County men served in the 3rd 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, Talbot County on pages 127-128.]

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, Talbot County, pp. 155-156. Identifies War of 1812 veterans living in this county in 1883.]

Civil War

Civil War service men from Talbot 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 Talbot County.


 * - 1st Regiment, Maryland Eastern Shore Infantry, Company H

Newspapers

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


 * 1800-1804 - Herald and Eastern Shore Intelligencer (Easton, Md.) at Google News - free.

Probate

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

Taxation

 * [1678, 1681] 1678 and 1681 Talbot County tax list, available online, courtesy: MDGenWeb.
 * [1783] Talbot 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.

Family History Centers

 * Introduction to LDS Family History Centers

Talbot County Maryland Genealogy Websites

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