26 THIRTY-THIRD ANNUAL REPORT

year 639 volumes were filmed, thereby completing the project to cur-
rent date. The records of the Register of Wills of Harford County were
also added to our microfilm holdings.

With the exception of the records of St. Martin's Lutheran
Church of Annapolis, all of the church records acquired last year
came from Methodist churches. This was largely due to the excellent
cooperation we received from the Reverend Alton Miller, then District
Superintendent of the Salisbury District, the Reverend Howard Amoss,
District Superintendent of Easton District, the Reverend Edwin Schell,
Executive Secretary of the Methodist Historical Society of the Balti-
more Annual Conference and Mr. Clinton Brown, President of the
Peninsula Conference Historical Society, not to mention the persistent
efforts of Mrs. Phebe Jacobsen, who is in charge of our church records
program.

The earliest record received begins in 1826, not very early by
Maryland standards, but it will be observed that many of the records
listed below fall within the period just prior to 1914, which may
make them invaluable to a person seeking to prove date of birth in
order to qualify for Social Security or Medicare benefits. It was not
until 1914 that the Bureau of Vital Statistics was established in the
State Health Department.

Although the beginnings of Methodism in Maryland may be
traced back to 1766, early development was slow and it was not until
the Revolutionary Period that formal services began to be held on a
regular basis in Methodist Episcopal Churches. In 1828 a stormy con-
troversy over doctrine eventually led to the establishment of a separate
branch called Methodist Protestant. Another dispute, this time over
the slavery question, caused the southern sympathizers to withdraw
from the Methodist Episcopal Church and organize themselves into
the Methodist Episcopal Church South. Finally, in 1940, these three
branches were reunited under the name Methodist Church.

We are always pleased to have researchers who have a somewhat
broader interest than family history use the materials in our custody
and we are grateful when they make the fruits of their research avail-
able to us, so that other searchers may benefit from their work.

Last year, James S. Van Ness permitted us to make a microfilm
copy of his doctoral dissertation, "The Maryland Courts in the American
Revolution: A Case Study." Historic Annapolis, Inc. deposited with