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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
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If you would like submit data for our webpage,
please email
Nancy.
State Bird:
Baltimore Oriole
State Flower:
Black-Eyed Susan
State Tree:
White Oak |
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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