Howard County, Maryland Genealogy

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

United States Maryland  Howard County

Howard County Maryland Courthouse
Clerk Circuit Court has marriage, divorce, court and land records. Register of Wills has probate records.

Howard County Maryland History



 * Named for John Edger Howard, a Colonel in the American Revolutionary War, later the 5th Governor of Maryland.

Parent County

 * Made a separate county in 1838 from Anne Arundel County with a part from Baltimore County, but it was not formally recognized until 13 May 1851 by the state Constitutional Convention.

Boundary Changes
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
 * Baltimore
 * Carroll
 * Frederick
 * Montgomery
 * Prince George's

Cemeteries

 * On-line headstone trandscriptions
 * Findagrave.com (153 cemeteries)
 * BillionGraves.com (44 cemeteries)
 * Interment.net (19 cemeteries)
 * http://www.usgwtombstones.org/maryland/howard.html (21+ cemeteries)
 * see also files.usgwarchives.net/md/howard/cemeteries/multiple.txt (Howard County)
 * (for partial transcriptions of St. John's, Good Shepherd and Meadowridge Cemeteries)

Asbury Jessup UMC Churchyard

Blackstone Cemetery, Columbia

Blackwell, Boston, Fuller &amp; Howard Gravestones (see Pine Orchard Methodist Episcopal Cemetery)

Bonnie Brae Cemetery

Brown Family Cemetery at Good Fellowship, Woodstock

Bushy Park Community Cemetery

Bushy Park Manor Cemetery

Cavey Cemetery, Ellicott City

Cook Cemetery, Columbia

Davis-Wagon Gravesite, Woodstock

Dorsey Cemetery, Columbia

Dorsey Family Cemetery, Village of Harpers Choice, Columbia

Dorsey Graveyard at Arcadia, Ellicott City

Doughoregan Manor Chapel, Ellicott City

Elkridge Community Christian Church

Ellicott Family Graveyard, Ellicott Mills (Now Ellicott City)

Ellicott Family Graveyard, Hollifield

Fox Graves, Ellicott City France Gravestones

Gary Memorial Methodist Church Cemetery, Ellicott city

Gardner Cemetery, Jessup

Good Shepherd Cemetery, Ellicott City

Grace Episcopal Church Cemetery, Elkridge

Hammond Graveyard at Burleigh Manor, Ellicott City

Holy Trinity Orthodox Cemetery, Elkridge

Jones Cemetery, Ellicott City

McKendree Church Cemetery, West Friendship

McKenzie (MacKenzie) Gravestones, Ellicott City

Meadowridge Memorial Park, Elkridge

Melville Chapel UMC Cemetery, Elkridge

Mountain View Cemetery, West Friendship

Pine Orchard Methodist Episcopal Cemetery, Ellicott City

Rhine Stone at Pine Orchard, Ellicott City

Rosa Bonheur Memorial Park, Elkridge

Saint Augustine Roman Catholic Cemetery, Elkridge

Saint Johns Lutheran Cemetery, Columbia

Saint John's Howard County Cemetery, Ellicott City

Saint Marys Cemetery, Ellicott City

Saint Paul's Roman Catholic Cemetery, Ellicott City

Saint Stephens Cemetery, Elkridge

Smith Family Cemetery, Ellicott City

Stackhouse Cemetery, Poplar Springs

Trinity Cemetery, Elkridge

Trinity Cemetery, Pfeiffer Corners

Trinity Waterloo Cemetery, Columbia (Trinity Chapel Cemetery)

Tucker Cemetery, Ellicott City

Whipp's Garden Cemetery, Ellicott City

Zion Cemetery, Elkridge

Census
Federal Census reports available 1860-1930.

Church
Maryland State Archives' Guide to Maryland Religious Institutions identifies all churches known to have existed in Howard 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:


 * Protestant Episcopal (Church of England), Christ Church, Queen Caroline Parish 1712-1939 (includes parish register 1712-1937 and vestry minutes 1728-1776, 1809-1939)


 * 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:
 * Elkridge: Elkridge Methodist Church

Church of England
See also Queen Caroline Parish

Land
Through a Joint eGovernment Service of the Maryland Judiciary and the Maryland State Archives, free images and indexes of the complete series of Howard County Deed Books (1840-present) have been uploaded to their website: MDLandRec.Net: A Digital Image Retrieval System for Land Records in Maryland. (Requires free registration.)

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, Howard County, p. 151. Identifies War of 1812 veterans living in this county in 1883.]

Civil War

 * - 2nd Regiment, Maryland Cavalry (6 months, 1863-1864), Company C
 * - 3rd Regiment, Maryland Infantry, Potomac Home Brigade Company I
 * - 7th Regiment, Virginia Cavalry (Ashby's) (Confederate). Company B (1st) (Howard Dragoons).

Newspapers

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

Research Guides

 * Zimmerman, Kenneth E. Guide to Research in Howard County, Maryland. Woodstock, Md.: K. E. Zimmerman, 1997.

Vital Records
Birth

Marriage


 * Howard County Circuit Court Marriage Records 1886-1900
 * Partial Listing of Howard County Marriages 1858
 * Howard County Marriage Licenses 1860-1939 from the Howard County Historical Society site.
 * 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
 * Columbia Maryland Family History Center

Howard County Maryland Genealogy Websites

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