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Welcome to this Maryland Genealogy Trails website
Our goal is to help you track your ancestors through time by transcribing genealogical and historical data and
placing it online for the free use of all researchers.
This website is in need of a dedicated host!
This is a continuation of our original
Illinois Genealogy
Trails project and we are excited about this opportunity to
expand into other states. We welcome your feedback and comments, and of course, your data contributions.
We're looking for folks who share our dedication to putting
data online and are interested in helping this project grow.
If you think you might be interested in hosting a county
website such as this one, please view the Volunteer Page for further information
and contact
Kim.
If you would like to be kept informed of our state and county
website updates, subscribe to our mailing
lists
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State Bird:
Baltimore Oriole
State Flower:
Black-Eyed Susan
State Tree:
White Oak
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State Nicknames:
The Old Line State - The Old Line
nickname was given during the Revolutionary War, when 400 soldiers in the First Maryland Regiment fought a British
force of 10,000 and helped General George Washington's army to escape. Washington depended on the Maryland Line
throughout the war, and the soldiers' discipline and bravery earned Maryland its nickname.
The Free State - The name "Free
State" was given in 1919, when Congress passed a law prohibiting the sale and use of alcohol. Marylanders
opposed prohibition because they believed it violated their state's rights. The "Free State" nickname
also represents Maryland's long tradition of political freedom and religious tolerance.
The Capital of Maryland is Annapolis
The largest city is Baltimore, which is NOT in Baltimore County - it is its own county.
A Resident is a "Marylander"
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History
In 1629, George Calvert, 1st Lord Baltimore in the Irish House of Lords applied to Charles I for a new royal charter
for what was to become the Province of Maryland. Calvert's interest in creating a colony derived from his Catholicism
and his desire for the creation of a haven for Catholics in the new world. George Calvert died in April 1632, but
a charter for "Maryland Colony" was granted to his son, Cæcilius Calvert, 2nd Lord Baltimore, on
June 20, 1632. The new colony was named in honor of Henrietta Maria, Queen Consort of Charles I.
On March 25, 1634, Lord Baltimore sent the first settlers into this area, which would soon become one of the few
predominantly Catholic regions in the British Empire. The Maryland Toleration Act of 1649 was one of the first
laws that explicitly dictated religious tolerance (as long as it was Christian).
The royal charter granted Maryland the Potomac River and territory northward to the fortieth parallel. This proved
a problem, because the northern boundary would put Philadelphia, the major city in Pennsylvania, partially within
Maryland, resulting in conflict between the Calvert family, which controlled Maryland, and the Penn family, which
controlled Pennsylvania. This lead to the Cresap's War (also known as the Conojocular War), a border conflict between
Pennsylvania and Maryland, fought in the 1730s. The armed phase of the conflict ended in May 1738 with the intervention
of King George II, who compelled the negotiation of a cease-fire. A final settlement was not achieved until 1767,
when the Mason-Dixon Line was recognized as the permanent boundary between the two colonies.
Most of the population of Maryland lives in the central region of the state, in
the Baltimore Metropolitan Area and Washington Metropolitan Area. The Eastern Shore is less populous and more rural,
as are the counties of western and southern Maryland.
[source: wikipedia.org]
Surrounding States
Pennsylvania,
Delaware,
Virginia,
the District of Columbia, and West
Virginia.
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- All Rights Reserved
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