Worcester County, Maryland Genealogy

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

Courthouse
Clerk Circuit Court has marriage records from 1866, divorce records from 1900 and court records from 1916. Register of Wills has probate. Worcester County, Maryland Register of Wills

Facts
The county is named after Mary Arundell, the wife of Sir John Somerset, a son of Henry Somerset, 1st Marquess of Worcester. Her sister, Anne Arundell, married Cecilius Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore.

The 300 or fewer American Indians of Worcester county for the most part avoided fighting and preferred living next to their new British neighbors. They left the county by 1748 eventually ending up in Ontario.

The first English/Scottish settlers of Worcester County were mostly religious dissenters (generally Presbyterian), voting with their feet by moving north from Accomack County, Virginia starting in the late 1630s. All social classes from gentlemen to freed indentured servants settled in the area. There is no evidence that transported convicts ever settled in Worcester as in other parts of Maryland and Virginia. The settlers were first attracted by furs, and by slowly expanding small farms in the forests. The ancestors of early Worcester settlers were almost all British.

Before long Virginia authorities were giving land grants in the area over objections from Maryland. Virginia granted 27,800 acres of land to settlers in Worcester from 1645-1666, more than Maryland had granted. After many disputes the Maryland was forced to recognize most of these Virginia grants. Lord Baltimore’s official Maryland proprietary land grants started in Worcester in 1651. Many of his grants were large 3,000 and 4,000 acre grants.

Maryland continued to dispute her border with Pennsylvania as well until the drawing of the Mason-Dixon Line in 1767. Old Worcester County was created about 1669 absorbing now extinct Durham County, and for awhile in 1672 claimed nearly all of the state of Delaware. But by 1685 the British Board of Trade and Foreign Plantations ruled old Worcester County, Maryland dissolved by degree, but the decree was not fully accepted until 1738. However, in 1742 a new Worcester was Country reconstituted out of the eastern part of Somerset County.

In 1684 Maryland’s proprietary land grant system was replaced with a land-for-fee system which attracted large numbers of new settlers. For awhile tobacco was important both as a crop and as currency, but Worcester’s sandy soil could not grow the best quality. By 1700 indentured servitude began to decline and lifetime slavery became more prominent.

By 1662 Quaker and Presbyterian “dissenters” leaving Episcopalian Virginia, together with some of their Episcopalian neighbors, and a few Huguenots were among the first settlers in Worcester County. Baptist ministers, including Francis Makemie, arrived in 1735. In 1766 Methodist circuit riders began to appear including William Barnes and Lorenzo Dow. In 1878 the first Catholic church, and in 1903 the first Jewish synagogue were built.

Parent County

 * Created 22 October 1742 from Somerset County.

Boundary Changes

 * 17 August 1867: Wicomico County was set off from Somerset and Worcester counties.
 * 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
Major fires in 1844 and 1893 destroyed the center of Snow Hill, including two successive Court Houses.

City

 * Pocomoke City

Neighboring Counties



 * Somerset
 * Wicomico
 * Sussex County, Delaware
 * Accomack County, Virginia

Archives and Libraries
Local genealogy materials are available in the Worcester Room of the Worcester County Library.

Cemeteries
Some cemetery transcriptions on Interment.net

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

Church History and Records

 * 1668-1995 at FamilySearch — index

The following records, taken from its collection, have been digitized and made available to view for free online:
 * Maryland State Archives' Guide to Maryland Religious Institutions is not intended to be a complete listing of all Religious institutions in Maryland. It was originally based upon the churches recorded by the Federal Works Progress Administration during a records survey conducted from 1935 to 1941. It has been expanded by later acquisitions from religious organizations to the Maryland State Archives.


 * Presbyterian, Makemie Memorial Church, Snow Hill, MD. The church office has photographs of tombstones in the "old section" of the cemetery and recordings of the epitaphs.
 * Protestant Episcopal, St. Mary the Virgin (Pocomoke Parish, erected from Coventry Parish), includes: Parish Registers 1855-1930 (2 vols.) and Vestry Minutes 1855-1891

Court Records
For information about the Worcester County, Maryland Courthouse and its records, click here.

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. . [Worcester County families appear in Vols. 8-10, 12, 15, 17-18, 20, and 22.]

Immigration and Emigration
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.

Land and Property

 * Through a Joint eGovernment Service of the Maryland Judiciary and the Maryland State Archives, free images and indexes of the complete series of Worcester County Deed Books (1742-present) have been uploaded to their website: A Digital Image Retrieval System for Land Records in Maryland. (Requires free registration.)
 * Salisbury University has published abstracts from Early Salisbury County Land records on its website, including 1670-1683 Land Surveys and 1685 Rent Roll. These cover land now in Worcester County.

Maps

 * 1877 Atlas of Wicomico, Somerset, and Worcester Counties, MD

Revolutionary War

 * 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, Worcester 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, Worcester County, pp. 159-160. Identifies War of 1812 veterans living in this county in 1883.]

Civil War

 * 1861-1865 - at FamilySearch — index
 * 1861-1865 - at FamilySearch — index


 * - Purnell Legion, Maryland Infantry, Companies D and G.

Newspapers

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

Probate Records

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

For information about the Worcester County, Maryland Register of Wills and its records, click here.

Online Probate Records
 * 1635 – 1777 Maryland Wills and Probate Records, 1635-1777 at Ancestry.com — index and images $
 * 1635 – 1743 Maryland Calendar of Wills 1635-1743 at Ancestry.com — index and images $
 * 1796 – 1940 at FamilySearch images

Taxation

 * [1783] Worcester 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.

Marriage

 * 1658 - 1940 at FamilySearch — index
 * 1666 - 1970 at FamilySearch — index

Deaths

 * 1898 - 1944 Maryland Death Index 1898-1944

Societies, Libraries and Museums
Lower Delmarva Genealogical Society Wicomico County Library 16-1 North Division Street Box 3602 Salisbury, MD 21802-3602 Phone: 410-742-3501 E-Mail: [mailto:lowerdelmarva@yahoo.com lowerdelmarva@yahoo.com] Website

Worcester County Library, Snow Hill Branch 307 North Washington Streetb Snow Hill, MD 21863 Attn: Worcester Room E-Mail: [mailto:worrm@worcesterlibrary.org worrm@worcesterlibrary.org] Website

Family History Centers

 * Introduction to LDS Family History Centers

Websites

 * Worcester County, Maryland Genealogy, History and Facts (Genealogy Inc)
 * The Worcester County MDGenWeb Project, a member of The MDGenWeb Project
 * "Worcester Co.," in Genealogical Sources in Periodicals at The Maryland State Archives.
 * The USGenWeb Archives Project for Worcester County.
 * The USGenWeb Archives Project for Worcester County. (Backup site)
 * , Worcester County.