Record Atlas
6 eras · 1632–2026 · 60 places

Maryland - Chesapeake, Eastern Shore and the Potomac

Baltimore, Annapolis, St. Mary's City, Salisbury, Cumberland, Frederick. Which empire held this ground in which years — and, the part that matters, which archive that means.

Whose archive this ground was

YearsWho held itWhose archive that means
1632–1689 Province of Maryland - proprietary of the Calverts (Lords Baltimore) FamilySearch

Chartered on 20 June 1632 to Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore; the first settlers landed on 25 March 1634 and St. Mary's City was the capital until 1695.
1689–1715 Province of Maryland - royal colony FamilySearch

The proprietary charter was withdrawn after the Protestant Revolution of 1689 and the first Crown-appointed governor took office in 1692. The capital moved to Annapolis in 1695.
1715–1776 Province of Maryland - proprietary restored FamilySearch

The Calvert proprietorship was restored in 1715. The Penn and Calvert grants overlapped on the northern boundary, which was disputed for about 80 years (hostilities from 1730, a ceasefire ordered in May 1738) and surveyed as the Mason-Dixon line in 1767.
1776–1861 State of Maryland FamilySearch · National Archives Catalog (NARA)

Maryland declared independence in 1776, ratified the Articles of Confederation in 1781 and ratified the Constitution on 28 April 1788.
1861–1865 Maryland - Union state, Baltimore under federal martial law FamilySearch · National Archives Catalog (NARA)

Maryland did not secede: the legislature voted 53 to 13 against secession on 29 April 1861. Union troops occupied Baltimore and declared martial law on 13 May 1861, and a new constitution abolishing slavery took effect on 1 November 1864.
1865–2026 State of Maryland FamilySearch · National Archives Catalog (NARA) · Chronicling America

Baltimore City recorded births and deaths from 1875 and the other counties from 1898; the Baltimore City vital records are held at the Maryland State Archives in Annapolis.

The rings are approximate — deliberately. They exist to shade which filing system a place fell under, not to adjudicate a border. A place near a ring's edge should be checked against both neighbours.

See the whole span, 1632–2026, on the map →

The map takes a range, and a range that crosses one of the rows above is where records get lost: the family never moved, and the archive on the far side of the handover will tell you it holds nothing.

60 places on this ground

1742 FamilySearch collections reach this ground

Ranked with the regional ones first — a collection for a province is usually a better lead than a national index, though the national index is often where a name is actually written down. A free account opens the images.

…and 1682 more.

All record regions · The map