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Welcome to Montgomery County, Maryland
Hello and welcome to the Genealogy Trails website
for Montgomery County. 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
 The area now known as Montgomery County was originally a part of Charles County. In 1696 parts of Charles and Baltimore Counties were split off to form the new Prince George's County. In turn, in 1748, a portion of Prince George's County produced Frederick County. Montgomery County was formed in 1776 by the splitting of Frederick County. The former Frederick County was subdivided into three; the central portion remained Frederick County, while the western was named Washington County in honor of General (later President) George Washington, and the eastern part was named Montgomery County in honor of another Revolutionary War general, Richard Montgomery. In 1791, portions of Montgomery County, including Georgetown, were ceded to form the new District of Columbia, along with portions of Prince George's County, Maryland, as well as parts of Virginia that were later returned to Virginia. In 1828, construction on the C&O Canal commenced and was completed in 1850. Throughout the 19th century, agriculture dominated the economy in Montgomery County, with slaves playing a significant role. In the 1850s, crop production shifted away from tobacco and towards corn. Montgomery County was important in the abolitionist movement, with slave Josiah Henson, who wrote about his experiences in a memoir which became the basis for Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852). Josiah, the inspiration for the character "Uncle Tom", was a slave in the county and a slave cabin where he is believed to have spent time still stands at the end of a driveway off Old Georgetown Road. In the 1860 presidential election, Montgomery County was one of only four Southern counties to vote for Abraham Lincoln. On July 1, 1997, Montgomery County annexed a portion of Prince George's County, after residents of Takoma Park, which spanned both counties, voted to be entirely within the more affluent Montgomery County.  The county seat is Rockville and the largest municipality is the city of Gaithersburg. Most of the county's residents live in unincorporated locales, the most populous of which is Silver Spring.
Surrounding Counties Carroll County (north) Frederick County (northwest) Howard County (north) Prince George's County (east) Washington, D.C. (south) Loudoun County, Virginia (west) Fairfax County, Virginia (southwest)
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