Caroline County, Maryland Genealogical Records Information

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Caroline County History and Information

Caroline County Facts

Caroline County was created in 1773 from Dorchester and Queen Anne's counties (Chapter 10, Acts of 1773). Lady Caroline Eden gave her name to the county. She was the wife of Maryland's last colonial governor, Robert Eden (1741-1784); the daughter of Charles Calvert, Fifth Lord Baltimore; and the sister of Frederick Calvert, Sixth Lord Baltimore. The County Seat is Denton. See also County History for more historical details.

Counties adjacent to Caroline County are Queen Anne's County (north), Talbot County (west), Dorchester County (south), Kent County, Delaware (east), Sussex County, Delaware (southeast).

Caroline County Towns Include Denton, Federalsburg, Goldsboro, Greensboro, Henderson, Hillsboro, Marydel, Preston, Ridgely, Templeville.Communities Include American Corner, Andersontown, Baltimore Corner, Burrsville, Choptank, Gilpin Point, Grove, Harmony, Hickman, Hobbs, Jumptown, Ninetown, Oakland, Oil City, Tanyard, Tuckahoe Neck, Two Johns, Reliance, Whiteleysburg, Williston. (Unincorporated areas are also considered as towns by many people and listed in many collections of towns, but they lack local government.)

The Caroline County Official Government Website
The History of Caroline County, Maryland, From Its Beginning - 1920
Caroline County, Maryland History Books at Amazon.com
Family History Library - The largest collection of free family history, family tree and genealogy records in the world.

There are free downloadable and printable forms to help with your research. These include U.S. Census Extraction Forms, U.K. Census Extraction Forms, Research Calendar, Ancestral Chart, Research Extract, Correspondence Record , Family Group Sheet , Source Summary Form.

Records at the Caroline County Courthouse

See Also Maryland Land Records, Marriage Records, Court & Probate Records

PLEASE READ!! Please call the clerk's department to confirm hours, mailing address, fees and other specifics before visiting or requesting information because of sometimes changing contact information.

Government records of Caroline County are available in original, microfilm and digital formats from the Maryland State Archives The Official County website is located at http://www.carolinemd.org/governmt/.See also Courthouse History. NOTE: The record dates below are from the earliest date to present time.

Caroline County Register of Wills/ Clerk of Orphan's Court has Probate Records from 1774 and is located at the courthouse 109 Market St. Room 108, Denton, MD 21629 - 0416; (410) 479-0717
The Register of Wills is responsible for appointing personal representatives to administer decedents estates and for overseeing the proper and timely administration of these proceedings. We also perform the following duties: assist and advise the public in the preparation of all required forms; maintain and preserve the permanent record of all proceedings; serve as the Clerk to the Orphans Court; track estates and refer delinquent matters to the Court; determine and collect inheritance taxes and probate fees/court costs; audit accounts of personal representatives and guardians; and, verify compliance with court orders.

Caroline County Circuit Court Clerk has Land Records from 1774 and Marriage Records from earliest to 1919 and is located at 109 Market Street, Denton, Maryland 21629; 410-479-1811
The Clerk's responsibilities include supervising Clerk's office personnel in the civil, criminal, courtroom clerks, business license, marriage license, land records, and juvenile units.

There are a few online databases for Court, Land and Probate Records which include: Maryland Calendar of Wills, Maryland Marriages, 1655-1850 and Maryland Marriages, 1667-1899.

Click Here to Search Maryland Court, Land, Wills & Financial Records! - Researchers often overlook the importance of court records, probate records, and land records as a source of family history information.

Below is a list of online resources for Caroline County Court Records. Email us with websites containing Caroline County Court Records by clicking the link below:

Bureau of Land Management (BLM)
Caroline County, Maryland Court Books at Amazon.com
Maryland Immigration & Emigration Records - Immigration records help the family historian to understand the movements of their ancestry as they relocated to different parts of the world.

Caroline County Vital Records

See Also Research In Tax Records

Available at the Maryland State Archives with index is a Maryland tax assessment of 1783, which is “more complete” than the 1776 or 1778 “censuses”. Robert W. Barnes and Bettie Stirling Carothers abstracted the 1783 tax list of Baltimore County, Maryland but while it has some omissions, it serves as an index to photocopies of the originals published as Maryland Tax List 1783 Baltimore County from the collection of the Maryland Historical Society (Philadelphia: Historic Publications, 1970). The counties of Calvert, Cecil, Harford, and Talbot are covered by Bettie Carothers, comp., 1783 Tax List of Maryland (Part I: Cecil, Talbot, Harford, and Calvert Counties) (Lutherville, Md.: Pub. by compiler, 1977). Furthermore, there is a two part index to the 1783 list at the state archives, one by names of property owners, the other by names of the tracts.

The earliest tax records are to be found among the proprietary papers, dating from the 1630s. Some early tax records have been published, such as Raymond B. Clark, Jr., and Sara Seth Clark, comps., Baltimore County, Maryland, tax list, 1699-1706. At the Maryland State Archives is a tax list for St. Anne's Parish, Anne Arundel County, 1764-66. Also here are the surviving 1798 U.S. direct tax records, for Anne Arundel County (indexed), Baltimore County and City, and the counties of Caroline, Charles, Harford, Prince George's, Queen Anne's, Saint Mary's, Somerset, and Talbot. Richard J. Cox edited Name Index to the Baltimore City Tax Records: 1798-1808 Of the Baltimore City Archives, (Baltimore: Baltimore City Archives and Records Management Office, 1981).

Below is a list of online resources for Caroline County Tax Records. Email us with websites containing Caroline County Tax Records by clicking the link below:

Caroline County Genealogical Addresses

See Also Other Maryland Genealogical Addresses

The Repositories in this section are Archives, Libraries, Museums, Genealogical and Historical Societies. Many County Historical and Genealogical Societies publish magazines and/or news letters on a monthly, quarterly, bi-annual or annual basis. Contacting the local societies should not be over looked. State Archives and Societies are usually much larger and better organized with much larger archived materials than their smaller county cousins but they can be more generalized and over look the smaller details that local societies tend to have. Libraries can also be a good place to look for local information. Some libraries have a genealogy section and may have some resources that are not located at archives or societies. Also, take a special look at any museums in the area. They sometimes have photos and items from years gone by as well as information of a genealogical interest. All these places are vitally important to the family genealogist and must not be passed over.

Below is a list of online resources for Caroline County Genealogical Addresses. Email us with websites containing Caroline County Genealogical Addresses by clicking the link below:

Caroline County, Historical Society, 16 North Second St., Denton, MD 21629, (410) 479-2055, e-mail: info@carolinehistory.org
Caroline County Genealogical Society, % Miss. Dora W. Mitchell, Preston, MD 21655
Local Maryland Researchers, Find a local researcher or become a local researcher.
Maryland State Archives, 350 Rowe Boulevard, Annapolis, MD 21401
Maryland Genealogical Society, 201 W. Monument Street, Baltimore, MD 21201-4674.
Publishes the Maryland Genealogical Society Bulletin Quarterly.
The Maryland Historical Society, 201 W. Monument Street, Baltimore MD 21201-4674
Has published a quarterly magazine Maryland Historical Magazinefor over 90 years
Maryland Newspapers & Periodicals Records - Newspapers and periodicals are the diaries of local communities. They are excellent sources of family history details - often recorded nowhere else. Look for obituaries, marriages, legal notices, and more found in our Historical Newspaper Archives.
Maryland Genealogical Society Books at Amazon.com

Caroline County Church & Cemeteries

Click Here to Search Maryland Obituary Records! - This database is a compilation of obituaries published in U.S. newspapers, collected from various online sources. Obituaries can vary in the amount of information they contain, but many of them are genealogical goldmines, including information such as names, dates, places of birth and death, marriage information, and family relationships.

There are many churches and cemeteries in Caroline County. Some transcriptions are online. A great site is the Caroline County Tombstone Transcription Project.

A search for church records should begin with Directory of Maryland church records (Westminster, Md.: Family Line Publications, 1987), arranged by county and giving a range of dates of available records for over 2,600 churches with mailing addresses. Also helpful are The First Parishes of the Province of Maryland (Baltimore: The Norman, Remington Co., 1923).

The largest collection of church records is at the Maryland State Archives, with a consolidated index, and many are at the Maryland State Archives, which has various original and microfilmed records, many with indexes. Some church records have been published in the Maryland Genealogical Society Bulletin or in individual books, such as those for St. Paul's in Baltimore and for many German churches in the western counties.

Although Catholicism is very important to the history of Maryland, the disenfranchisement of Catholics after the establishment of the Anglican church in 1692 largely contributed to the lack of record keeping prior to the Revolutionary War. One source for St. Marys County in the 1700s, however, is Catholic Families of Southern Maryland: Records of Catholic Residents of St. Mary's County in the Eighteenth Century (1980; reprint, Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1985). Records of the German churches and the Society of Friends are very good. The latter were early settlers of Maryland, along with Anglicans and Catholics. Quaker records in Maryland, (Annapolis: Hall of Records Commission, 1966) is an excellent guide to the original and microfilmed Friends' records at the Maryland State Archives. Some Quaker records were published in Kenneth Carroll, Quakerism on the Eastern Shore (Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society, 1970) and other records are at the Maryland Historical Society, the state archives, and the Friends Historical Library in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania.

The Maryland State Archives has indexes to cemetery records for various time periods. Some have been published in the Maryland Genealogical Society Bulletin and other journals and in individual works covering large parts of Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Dorchester, Frederick, Garrett, St. Marys, Somerset, Wicomico, and Worcester counties. A great number of grave marker inscriptions have been transcribed by members of the Maryland DAR and will be found at the Maryland Historical Society and the DAR Library in Washington, D.C. See also Historic graves of Maryland and the District of Columbia (1908; reprint, Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1967).

Below is a list of online resources for Caroline County Cemetery & Church Records. Email us with websites containing Caroline County Cemetery & Church Records by clicking the link below:

Family Trees & Genealogy Tidbits

Click Here to Search Maryland Family Tree Records! - The use of published genealogies, electronic files containing genealogical lineage, and other compiled sources can be of tremendous value to a researcher.

When view family trees online or not, be sure to only take the info at face value and always follow up with your own sources or verify the ones they provide. Below is a list of online resources for Caroline County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information. Email us with websites containing Caroline County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information by clicking the link below:

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Sites on USGenweb: [ Caroline County ] [ Maryland ] [ Main Page ]
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Genealogical Document Search and Retrieval Service
Caroline County, Maryland Family Books at Amazon.com

County History

Caroline County has long been referred to as the "Land of Pleasant Living." This nickname is quite fitting. Whether it is the homegrown produce, historic homes and landmarks, or outings on the Choptank River, our county provides some of the best that Maryland has to offer. No wonder so many prominent Americans have called Caroline County home or have stopped by and left their mark.

Caroline was once a part of two other Mid-Shore counties: Queen Anne's and Dorchester. Residents of the area had to travel to either Queenstown or Cambridge to vote and pay their taxes. By 1773 the population had increased to the point that it could support its own local government. The Maryland General Assembly agreed and in that year passed a bill establishing Caroline County. Gilpin's Point native Col. William Richardson introduced the bill. Melvill's Warehouse was appointed as the temporary county seat until the new courthouse building at Pig Point (now Denton) was completed. After brief stops in Bridgetown (Greensboro) and the Brick Hotel, the county government moved into the courthouse in 1797.

The names of the county and its seat are connected to its colonial past. Caroline Calvert Eden was the sister of the last Lord Baltimore, Frederick Calvert - thus the name, Caroline County. She was also the wife of the last royal governor of Maryland, Robert Eden. The village that grew up around Pig Point was called Eden Town. Eventually it was shortened to Edenton, and finally Denton.

English religious refugees were the first to settle the land. The area was also populated with transplanted Virginians and New Englanders. Maryland had passed a religious toleration act in 1649 permitting people of all religions to settle there. Most colonists chose a site near the water so their goods could be easily transported. The banks of the Choptank River were an ideal place to live. The channel was deep and the waters plentiful. The river also provided power if needed. The existence of Linchester Mill near Preston can be traced back as early as 1681. It has a valid claim as the nation's oldest free enterprise business, and even played a part in the Revolution. General Washington's troops received flour and cornmeal from the mill while at Valley Forge in 1777. The people of Linchester also provided meat and molasses for the Continental Army.

This is not the only time that Caroline County has come into contact with a United States president. In fact, two have visited the county. Andrew Jackson was once entertained at the Daffin House on Tuckahoe Creek en route to Philadelphia. It was there he met Charles Dickinson, another promising but arrogant attorney. The future president and the Harmony resident struck up a conversation about their racehorses. Later, when both were living near Nashville, Dickinson pulled out of a scheduled race between two of their horses. This infuriated Jackson to the point that he challenged Dickinson to a duel. In the much-celebrated contest, Dickinson lodged a bullet in Old Hickory's chest. Unfazed, Jackson pulled the trigger and fatally wounded his adversary.

Under much calmer circumstances, Franklin Delano Roosevelt came to Caroline County in 1938. He spoke in front of the courthouse in Denton on Labor Day; the speech was broadcast on radio to the rest of the country. Roosevelt was there to support his New Deal programs and also to win votes for his ally in Congress, Rep. T. Alan Goldsborough. The local Congressman would lose the election to Millard Tydings, but nonetheless it was an event the county would not soon forget.

Denton has seen its share of state officials as well. It holds a unique distinction as the hometown of governors of two different states. Both Harry Hughes (Maryland) and Sherman Tribbett (Delaware) grew up on Franklin Street in Denton. Even more amazing is the fact that both played baseball professionally in the Eastern Shore League. Caroline County is proud of its native sons as well as its rich baseball heritage. Ridgely has played host to several great athletes. Hall of Famer Jimmy Foxx caught for the local hardball team before going on to star with the Philadelphia Athletics. Buck Herzog, a solid player for the New York Giants, made his residence in Ridgely for many years. It should also be noted that Federalsburg supported a team in the Eastern Shore League for a number of seasons.

Caroline County has quietly built a name for itself over the last two hundred years. It has produced a number of famous Americans and Marylanders while retaining its peaceful, rural identity. It remains a successful agricultural area and an attractive location for businesses. There is no doubt that the future of Caroline County will be as bright and colorful as its past.

Courthouse History
In locating the court house the law had also provided the name Eden-town but until the erection of the building, 1791, the place remained Pig Point in local parlance. Previously, when used, the name had been abbreviated to Edenton, now the E was dropped and henceforth we have Denton.
The Commissioners at this time, 1792, were Christopher Driver, William Robinson, Philemon Downes, Thomas Lockerman and Jos. Richardson, and through their energy the Court House was begun in 1793. It was a brick building, colonial style, modeled after and much resembling Independence Hall, Philadelphia. Its builder was William Benson of Talbot County, and the total cost was £1800.
And now having secured the building after 20 years of effort, true to the perversity of mankind, the office holders, in part, were both to take up their abode there. A law was enacted by the Assembly compelling the Clerk, Register of Wills, and Sheriff as well as deputies to move into the Court House or within one quarter mile of the same before June 1, 1795, the penalty of refusal being a fine of £15 current money. Needless to say they all complied with haste.

A century run was given the first Court building and during that time, with the building withstood the ravages of time showing little sign of decay. Its permanency bore testimony to the builder as well as for the Commissioners of 1795.
However, with the growth of the County, the citizens demanded a larger and more modern building, so in 1895 the old one was razed. For the new Court House Joseph H. Bernard of Greensboro was selected as Architect and Chairman of the building commission, consisting of Messrs. Wm. E. Lord, George M. Russum, Thos. L. Day, John W., Clark, Bayard Nichols, Alex. Noble, Thomas R. Green and Henry Irwin. This Committee contracted with Slemmons & Lankford of Salisbury, Md. to erect a brick building for the sum of $21,000 which stands today (1919) on the Denton Court House Green.

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