This volume includes three libers done under the supervision of William Ritchie, Clerk of Frederick County Court, and labeled WR5 through WR7, covering 1784 to 1788. Some of the more interesting records include the sales of confiscated British property, including the Frederick Town lots and the ground rents owned by Daniel Dulany the Younger, who chose the Loyalist side at the beginning of the Revolutionary War period, sold at auction during the war to raise funds for the effort. Also in this volume are deeds for several new towns, including “New Town,” Liberty Town, Taney Town, Middletown, Creagerstown and Woodsberry.
Although it is becoming increasingly easy to access these records online through the Maryland State Archives, the value that abstracts offer in locating records through their every name indexing, cannot be matched with the indexes available online, which only list the principals in an indenture. The current indexes were prepared by the circuit clerks to identify property owners, and to assist the clerks in land title searches and often omitted other items. Users of these volumes understand much more is involved in family research. Deeds can be particularly useful in identifying family relationships.
Abstracts are best used as brief guides and indexes to original records, and to find people mentioned in deeds who would otherwise be lost in the records. This series of abstracts focuses on the names of parties in the deeds. This volume contains three indices to aid the researcher: an index to full-names, which includes an occupation section (occupations will sometimes help distinguish a man); an index to place names; and an index to land tract names. The name index includes slaves and free, mulattos and Negroes, listed under “Negro” to make identification easier for researchers. The name index also includes town lots.
Patricia Abelard Andersen
2021, 8½x11, paper, index, 214 pp.
ISBN: 9780788407451
101-A0745
