Dorchester County, MarylandEdit This Page

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Dorchester County, Maryland in green.

County Courthouse

Dorchester County Courthouse, Cambridge, Md.

Dorchester County Office Building
501 Court Lane
Cambridge, MD 21613

History

• The county is believed to have been named after Dorchester, a city in England, or Edward Sackville, 4th Earl of Dorset, a family friend of the Calverts.^[1]

Parent County

• Created 27 May 1668 from Colonial lands.

Boundary Changes

• 15 June 1773, Caroline County was set off.

Record Loss

Places/Localities

Populated Places

City

• Cambridge

Towns

Communities

Neighboring Counties

Calvert| Caroline| St. Mary's| Somerset| Talbot| Wicomico| Deleware Counties: Sussex

Resources

Cemeteries

Dorchester County cemetery transcriptions in the US Genweb Project and other sources.  http://www.idreamof.com/cemetery/md/dorchester.html

Census

• 1776 Transcription and Index
• 1778
• 1790
• 1800
• 1810
• 1820
• 1830
• 1840
• 1850
• 1850 Slave
• 1860
• 1860 Slave
• 1870
• 1880
• 1890
• 1900
• 1910
• 1920
• 1930

Church

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

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]

Bibliography

• [Wright] Wright, Charles W. The Wright Ancestry of Caroline, Dorchester, Somerset and Wicomico Counties Maryland. Baltimore: Baltimore City Printing and Binding Co., 1907. Available at FHL; digital versions at BYU Family History Archives and Google Books (full-view).

Gazetteers

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 Dorchester County immigration resources include:

• Coldham, Peter Wilson. "Intercepted Letters Relating to America 1777-1811," The Genealogist, Vol. 14, No. 2 (Fall 2000):184-200; Vol. 15, No. 1 (Spring 2001):53-74. [Overseas correspondence of a resident of Vianna [Vienna, Dorchester County] with the following surname: Dennis.]
• List of imported servants and convicts from Europe who served labor terms in Colonial Dorchester 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 Dorchester County Deed Books (1669-present) have been uploaded to their website: MDLandRec.Net: A Digital Image Retrieval System for Land Records in Maryland. (Requires free registration.)

Local Histories

Maps

Military

Newspapers

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

Dorchester County, Maryland Old Newspapers are available online.

Private Papers

• Coldham, Peter Wilson. "Intercepted Letters Relating to America 1777-1811," The Genealogist, Vol. 14, No. 2 (Fall 2000):184-200; Vol. 15, No. 1 (Spring 2001):53-74. [Overseas correspondence of residents of Vianna [Vienna, Dorchester County] with the following surname: Dennis.]

Probate

Taxation

Vital Records

Death

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

Other Dorchester County death record resources include:

• Dorchester County, Maryland Cemeteries, Death Certificate Indexes, Death Certificate Abstracts, Abstracts of Obituaries are available online.

Societies and Libraries

Web Sites

• The Dorchester County MDGenWeb Project, a member of The MDGenWeb Project, an affiliate of The USGenWeb Project.
• The USGenWeb Archives Project for Dorchester County.
• The USGenWeb Archives Project for Dorchester County. (Backup site)
• FamilySearch.org Family History Library Catalog for Dorchester County.

References