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One of the original 13 colonies, Cecilus Calvert was granted a charter for Maryland in 1632. St. Mary's City, established as the first Maryland colony, was also the birthplace of religious freedom in North America and the first seat of Maryland's colonial government. St. Mary's City acted as the capital of the Maryland colony for 61 years, until 1695, when the capital was moved to the city of Annapolis. Maryland was constituted a slave state although it did not join the Confederacy during the Civil War.
Compiled by reference specialists at the Library of Congress, this guide identifies key print and online resources for pursuing family history, as well as state, county and municipal historical research, for the state of Maryland.
The Library of Congress has one of the world's premier collections of U.S. and foreign genealogical and local historical publications, numbering more than 50,000 compiled family histories and over 100,000 U.S. local histories. The Library's genealogy collection began as early as 1815 with the purchase of Thomas Jefferson's library.
