Erin Cayce Work Log

31 July 2007

4.00pm


I managed one (almost) complete title search on a property that traces back to John Eager Howard and is in the near vicinity, at least, two where George Howard's second ground rent (GH_gr_021 on the Howard Estate transcripts, his listing of ground rents at the end of his allotment) is situated.  The procedure for determining this seems to be by first searching forward from the ground rent listing as far as is readily possible, and then searching every property near the spot on that particular block.  It was a clumsy thing and is made more so by the difficulty with the scale issue, discussed on 30 July.  In this my first case, there fortunately seems to be a ground rent on only one of the properties near where I was looking, and I turned up two land records that mentioned it, including one that extinguished the ground rent.  I do worry that, given George Howard does not seem to have left a will, and Prudence Howard's will is unaccounted for, that I may in fact find it impossible to trace any of his ground rents, unless they stayed in the Howard family through the grandchildren and appear in THEIR wills.  It may be more beneficial at this point to move on to Benjamin Howard or James McHenry.
 

30 July 2007

4.00pm


Jean visited today with the news that we had been misinterpreting the spreadsheet called 'Ground Rents'-- assuming it was a listing of ground rents and not an indication that ground rents were mentioned in the description as adjoining the real property listed.  It led us to re-evaluate how to proceed in conducting searches on the ground rent.  I attempted one for George Howard and managed to track only two steps: one before George Howard, and one after.  The forward searching is ridiculously laborious.  However, we had difficulty in figuring how to proceed on in creating a scale for the Bromley maps, which would obviously give us greater ability to search backwards as we were doing before.  There is a scale on one of the pages, but there is some question of whether it applies equally throughout the book.  If we could be sure it did, we would be able to proceed quite easily.  As it is, we've been rather set back by this revelation.  It will mean reworking our html indices.  It will require some experimentation with the Bromley.
 

26 July 2007

4.00pm


Morning walking tour of Annapolis State House and Governor's mansion.

Afternoon, continued working on the completed title searches of Lot 43 to add in details for the abstracts, and noted a possible previous transaction for 15 Eager Street, which has always been listed as a fee simple property, noted only in the mortgage following the deed between George Presbury and Juliana Spencer.  It will require more thought than is possible at four on a Friday, however.
 

25 July 2007

4.00pm


Intellectual victory.  Jen provided us with the Black's Law Dictionary, and over the course of an hour, Elizabeth and I did manage to clarify a number of concepts and achieve a much clearer understanding of The Ground Rent and the various legal terms attendant thereon.  It involved a lot of charts and careful thinking, but we did feel that we reached a new level of facility with the project.  It also, perhaps unfortunately, clarified an important point which we had not before appreciated, but which contextualised yesterday's meeting.  If the goal of the project is to discover the identity of the original ground rent owner, we are not working the right direction, because our title searches have essentially traced the transfer of property, not the transfer of ownership of the ground rent.  If the goal is to discover whether the ground rent on the properties in question is still extant, then we are working in the right direction, but will likely be unable to uncover to whom the ground rent is being paid.

Tasks for tomorrow: print a list of definitions and our interpretations thereof for use in our shared workspace.  For good or for ill, we did come up with a short-hand between legalese and our basic understanding of it which uses terms of very shaded meaning, and in an effort not to confuse the two, we ought to have the clarification at hand at all times.

Given the difficulty of today's process, we really did not move on to Probate in any significant way.  I did begin to go back through my completed title searches and add in the missing detail, and to note where possible where a search of the Register of Wills may yield more information.
 

24 July 2007

4.00pm


Spent two hours in the morning trying one final time to fill in the cracks for Lot 43, without any success.  The trail seems to be cold.

Mid-morning meeting with the ground rents project group, clarifying any questions that had come up in the meanwhile.  We discussed adding to our html abstracts the meets and bounds of all lots described in any transaction, as well as detailed notes on any wills or court cases mentioned in the land records, in an effort to trace how individuals are related.

In the afternoon, Jean gave us a demonstration of Heritage Quest Online, and Jen and Kim tutored us on the Registry of Wills.

We also passed on our debate of Hamilton vs Jefferson.  For those counting, the Hamiltonians rank at three, Jeffersonians one, with a vote for Aaron Burr and a dark horse vote for James Madison.

Amendment: We also discussed the difficulty of working within Microsoft Word to create a streamlined visual of the title searches.  The difficult seems to lie in Word creating a 'canvas' whenever I insert a text box, and the canvas is not adjustable.  We thought it might be possible to use powerpoint and convert the pages to PDF.
 

23 July 2007

4.00pm


Morning meeting of Appraisal Dept; morning session on Maryland history of cooking (very interesting if not well organised).  In the afternoon, concentrated on tracking down the holes in the Lot 43 title searches.  Not particularly successful.
 

21 July 2007

4.00pm


Finished the title searches for the odd-numbered addresses on East Eager that comprise Lot 43 for George Howard.  The difficulty of extensive computer work is making itself known particularly in terms of eye-strain and inadequate lighting; more natural sunlight would be a great aid to visibilty and comfort.  On Monday I will try to track down the dangling bits from the addresses-- attempting to match property descriptions to be sure as I can be that Presbury and Roche really do trail back to George Howard regarding 13, 19, adn 21 East Eager.
 

20 July 2007

4.00pm


Finished the search for 19 East Eager and moved on to 13 East Eager and 23 East Eager.  Quite busy property business on this lot.  I'm finding the trail runs dry for all the properties when it gets back to George Presbury and Michael Roche, where the property descriptions seem to encompass larger areas later split.  Given time I will attempt to fit all the disparate lots back to the George Presbury period.
 

19 July 2007

4.00pm


Continued the title search for 19 Eager Street, which seems to have passed through many hands in a short period of time.  I traced it back to 1848, so I must be close to finding the original transaction with George Howard, but the trail is momentarily cold and will require a little extra searching.
 

17 July 2007

4.00pm


Completed as much as possible on 7, 9, and 21 Eager Street.  The title chain for 15 Eager Street was short and to the point, but appears to have been held in fee simple from at least 1866, which is the earliest information I was able to find.  I think it at least possible that the deed holder in 1866, George Presbury and Michael Roche, may have got that property along with the rights to 7, 9, and 21 Eager Street; the property descriptions did not seem to match exactly and so it could be that 15 was included in that sale.  At present I've only made a note of that rather than attempting to thoroughly plot out the dimensions and their changes through time.  I am also conducting a title search for 19 Eager Street.
 

16 July 2007

4.00pm


The morning was occupied with the Appraisal Department meeting, followed by a seminar on George Calvert's Catholic leanings running til nearly noon.  After lunch I continued working on the title search for 7, 9, and 21 Eager Streets, attempting to fill out details by closely reading the deeds and leases.  I seem to be missing a transfer at some point, and the dimensions of the property seem to have changed over time, perhaps with the building of a wall, but I'm not sure they've changed as much as they might refer to another spot.  7 and 9 may also have transferred several times as linked lots, later separating in leases while the three spots together were sold as one unit.  It very quickly becomes a confusing tangle!  I'm wondering if we should also be attempting to write the title searches in PDF rather than Netscape Composer, where design abilities are limited and there's no way to visually link transfers.  I have emailed Joyce and Kim with the question.
 

13 July 2007

4.00pm


Continued the title search on 7, 9, and 21 East Eager for the length of the day.  Despite the apparent slowness of progress it is a very intensely engaging process requiring great concentration.  I did manage to complete the title search for these properties, all on Lot 43 distributed to George Howard, and will only need a few minutes to clarify a few of my notes in the morning before moving on to a new set of addresses.  The greatest difficulty with this aspect of the project is in comparing the description of the addresses before the date they were awarded their current numerals.  The stories continue to take somewhat misty shape; George Howard's wife Prudence appeared to leave all her properties to Charles Howard in unknown circumstances, and Charles held them in trust for a child called Eugene Howard Post.  There certainly seem to be frequent interconnections between all parties involved.  The Howards are becoming quite familiar company.
 

12 July 2007

4.00pm


Began backward searches for the George Howard titles.  Joyce sat with us through a practise run on Block 524 and succeeded in tracking addresses 8 - 10 Mt Vernon Place.  I then began a new search on Block 512, finding about nineteen hands through with addresses 7, 9, and 21 East Eager had passed through.  We did note that we are unable to form much in terms of a coherent chart in Netscape Composer, but careful notetaking should make it readily apparent when or if we choose to do so in PDF.  Interesting stories begin to emerge through the deeds.
 

11 July 2007

4.00pm


Briefly continued to search forward in the George Howard titles.  Afternoon meeting with all involved in the project clarified a good many points, including some technical problems, and covered the use of SDAT to facilitate backward searches, which should move more rapidly.  We all seem to feel a renewed sense of purpose with a clear eye toward the objectives of the project and are all much more confidant in the progress we have made.  The greatest difficulty is in finding legible address numerals on the Bromley.  There are also a number of repeated numerals between blocks, adding to the confusion.
 

10 July 2007

4.00pm


Continued title searching for George Howard.  Proceeding so far by comparing the spreadsheet compared by Jean for the ground rents with my charts from the MDLandRec books from 1829-1838.  Some I have not yet been able to find; others I was able to take quite far, and I feel I am beginning to get a better perspective on the land and property trade at this time period.  I've completed roughly three fourths of George Howard's ground rent title searches through at least the first transaction after the division.  I have been able to piece together some details of the Chancery Court case between George Howard and Thomas Edmonson Jr, and am beginning to notice repeated personalities, like Gustav Lurman.  It is very interesting, but time consuming.  I imagine it will be slow progress forward.  I am looking forward to our group meet tomorrow to discuss progress reports and hopefully arrive at a consensus for goals, now that we are at our half-way point in the internship.
 

9 July 2007

4.30pm


Completed chart of all transactions for all three heirs.  Began title searching for George Howard; had some good success tracking within MDLandRec site.  I am structuring the search by first using only the LandRec indices for the years 1829-1838; after exhausting those, I will move on to the next three indices.  I hope in this way to first get a thorough knowledge of the records, and also to be absolutely thorough in my use of each index.  I completed seven searches for George Howard through 1838 today; I'm tracking my progress with another chart in Microsoft Word until I've completed a full search and will then be able to construct an html in final form.  I am finding this a very interesting process, and feel like I'm beginning to see some of the underbelly of the land and property trade in Baltimore in what was obviously a very busy period of time.
 

6 July 2007

4.00pm


Began title searching for Benjamin Howard by first creating a chart of all transactions in the three MDLandRec grantor indices from which I completed the image captures.  The chart notes the following:

Index HTML / Grantee / Description / Instrument / Clerk Bk Pg

Also took the time to find the corrections for the problem pages noted 3 July.

In working on the chart, I was able to study the transactions with an eye toward the title search proper, and began to notice a pattern of familiar names involved in both receiving deeds and granting.  The Gilmor family in particular seem connected to Benjamin Howard; he appears as an executor for Wm Gilmor, dec., and grants deeds frequently to Robert Gilmor, who appears as a grantor himself.  My interest is certainly piqued and I am looking forward to starting the title search again on Monday.

Work Log and the three completed Benjamin Howard charts from today have been uploaded to ECPCLIO.
 

5 July 2007

4.00pm


Completed image capture on the MDLandRec Baltimore County grantor indices through 1838 for all three heirs and studied the Sophia Reed sample title search.  Waiting for word from Joyce on how to proceed with constructing such, or how to move on with the indices and other databases.  Had no problems today with either the server or with mistaken book and page numbers.
 

3 July 2007

4.00pm


Finished transcribing and image capture of the Howard and McHenry heirs' ground rents listing and created a new html page for each pending a decision on how to integrate that information onto the main indices for the heirs.  Began the title search PDF captures, completing the first round of 1829-1831 for George and Benjamin Howard from the Maryland LandRec site, and saved to the individual's folder on the E drive, again pending further integration.

Some of the clerk's book and page references were not immediately decipherable, as follows:

Html pg / heir / street description / clerk's initials, book and page #

251 / GHo / Forrest Str, Lexington, Lexington & Liberty, Eutaw, Lexington, Park / WG 201 145
251 / GHo / Saratoga & North, Camden, York, Hill, Pratt, Hanover, Sharp / WG 201 145
252 / BHo / Hanover / WG 201 693
253 / BHo / Lee Str, Guilford Alley & Goodman, York & Goodman, Barre, Conway, Cowper Alley, Brandy Alley, Lee Str, Wm Hughes / WG 202 145
254 / BHo / Branton 261 acres, Belfast 10 1/8 acres / WG 204 82
255 / BHo / Chatsworth 2al, Newington 2al / WG 205 325
255 / BHo / Calvert / WG 206 15
255 / BHo / Baltimore / WG 206 100
256 / BHo / Commerce / WG 206 305
259 / BHo, WmHo, ChHo / Washington Sq, Washington Place, Monument Str / WG 211 73
262 / BHo / 4' alley / WG 214 435
263 / BHo / St Paul's Lane / WG 215 498
 

30 June 2007

4.00pm


Continued work on the Howard Distribution Transcripts, completing James McHenry's transcripts and commentaries for html pages _220-30, _252, _293 and _497.  Heard a seminar by the collector/donor of the Maryland Rye Whiskey Bottle Collection; charming man and informative lecture.  Will begin the title search phase Tuesday morning, and if the net traffic becomes too insurmountable, I will concentrate on transferring the ground rent transcripts to the heir's htmls.
 

29 June 2007

4.00pm


Continued work on the Howard Distribution Transcripts, transferring all of Benjamin Howard's transcripts and most of James McHenry's to their respective htmls and transcribing Benjamin Howard's and James McHenry's lists of ground rents.  Also adding to the commentary of the heir's lot descriptions the Bromley Atlas Block No., and continuing to standarise the format of each transcripted page.

Work completed today: Howard html pages 152-162 and 214-219.

Problem: James McHenry seems to have two Lot #8s; and in the Benjamin Howard sequence, a file designated solely by the lot number, 408, and with no listed Bromley Atlas block number, seems to be on the Bromley block 496.  Is it no longer extant?  I have temporarily included an image capture and link to the block on the Bromley in that file, shown in my Benjamin Howard folder as -_-_-408.
 

28 June 2007

4.00pm


Continued work on the Howard Distribution Transcripts, transferring the rest of George Howard's transcripts to his html, and transcribing his list of ground rents on pages 149-151.  Will begin the other heirs tomorrow.
 

27 June 2007

4.00pm


Continued on the Howard Distribution Transcripts, and began transferring transcripts to the Howard heir htmls.  Am also trying to restructure the transcripts I wrote earlier that were different in form from later ones.

Met with Kim and Joyce on the title searches and covered how to conduct them, as well as the Land Recs.  Once I have finished with the transcripts, I will start on the title searches.
 

26 June 2007

4.00pm


Spent most of the day on the Howard Distribution Transcripts, completing as follows:

MSA_S512_8863_0155-160, _215-223

Also spoke briefly with Jean regarding the title searches and will meet with Kim for a more extensive introduction tomorrow.

We identified a problem with one of the Sanborn designations-- lots not properly on Plate 8 but named as such will be re-named Sanborn: Key with an appropriate image capture.
 

25 June 2007

4.00pm


Met with Jean at nine regarding the Sanborn maps and answered the questions from the week before, as well as coordinating on the Howard Distribution transcripts.  With the htmls temporarily completed barring further instruction, moved back to the transcripts.  Those completed today as follows:

MSA_S512_8863_0072-3, _0074, _0076-78, _0080, _0083, _0086, _0088, _0090-92, _0102, _0111-12, _0130, _0139-48, _0153-4

Some of the above strictly regard George and Benjamin Howard or James McHenry, while others were general court papers.  I attempted more complex html encoding for some pages, such as _0148, to better maintain the look of the original paper.  Though time-consuming, I am pleased with the result, and in the case of achieving a smaller superscript, will return to completed transcripts and replace the ungainly and large superscripts with the smaller one.
 
 

22 June 2007

4.00pm


Completed the Sanborn image captures with the exception of lots that could not be easily identified (listed below).  On Monday will check through the completed html files to ensure that everything is in order.

Troubleshooting: In addition the problem with the image captures noted on 21 June, some images are showing up saved to the wrong files.  A thorough check on Monday is in order for that as well.

Sanborn questionables:
James McHenry:
    508_all
    512_all
    894_all
   1922_all
Benjamin Howard:
    498_8_31, 32
    507_all
    508_all
    513_all
    526_all
    665_all
    1179_all
George Howard:
    508_all
    512_all
    593_all
    699_all (could be rail)
    894_all
    1179_all

Also, 534_383_7_61-- the Howard html is not correct.
 

21 June 2007

4.00pm


We realised today we were using the wrong Bromley scans for the htmls, and switched to the PDF files on editonline from the ECPCLIO scans, which did not link to individual html pages but rather the entire document.  Completed changing the images and the target links to the editonline versions, and moved on with the Sanborn maps.  The Sanborns are by far the most difficult to work with, given the changes in street names and the different orientation points, but they are crisp images and look very well on the htmls.  Completed roughly two thirds of James McHenry's Sanborn images today.

Troubleshooting: some of the image captures do not seem to be saving, or they reduce or enlarge or stretch when the files are opened again.  The reason for this is not readily apparent, nor does it occur consistently.
 

20 June 2007

4.00pm


Completed the image selections for the Howard Distribution for all three heirs in both real property and ground rent.  Waiting on the answers for a few questions regarding the Sanborn maps before using those.

Upcoming questions: are we going to be including a typed transcription of the Howard Distribution images on the individual htmls?
 

19 June 2007

4:00pm


Excepting a two-hour period during which the EC1 was used for a meeting and I was unable to use a computer with Netscape Composer, I spent the day working with the Bromley map, and completed all image transfers for both real property and ground rents for George and Benjamin Howard and James McHenry.  I then moved on to the Howard Distribution image transfers, and completed half of James McHenry's files, working on both ground rents and real property simultaneously.  During the two hours out of the classroom, I worked on the Howard Distribution transcriptions and completed several, both lots and lengthier letters or official court documents, and some pages of the will left by John Howard.  It was enlightening to see the process and the legal language, and also to learn that James McHenry was underage, an 'infant', at the time of the suit.  It was also interesting to see how long the legal process seems to have taken.  At one point, a group of signatures which included the underage grandchildren's guardians and all the Howard sons also seemed to include a signature by a 'Ms' or possibly 'Miss' Howard-- Sophia?  Without knowing when her marriage took place, it seemed a curious thing.

Elizabeth and I had some discussion regarding the aesthetics of the htmls-- headers, font characters, etc.  Regarding the link to the Bromley map document-- it does not link to html pages, as the Howard Distribution does.  We have not at this time included the html page numbers, but can easily do so.  We hope to bring up these questions at the next meeting.

18 June 2007

4.00pm


Excepting an hour and a half for a preservation and collections seminar on photography, spent the day working on transferring Bromley images to the ground rent hmtls for George and Benjamin Howard; James McHenry's remains incomplete.

Three questions arose during the day and are awaiting adjudication from someone with the proper authority to answer:

1) when creating the 'Block #' link in both the real property and ground rents lots, are we to link to the ECPCLIO Bromley or to the one in editonline?

and two specific to the ground rents pages:

2) Ground rent lot '548 7 144 Howard, Benj 155 [Little Ross] James Bull lot Franklin Andrew Patterson lot' appears with an asterisk, of which reference is unknown.
3) Ground rent lots '1921+ 17 394 Howard, George 147 David's Fancy Cross  The Harbour #393 ditto; 1921,1922,1916,1917' list several lots.  Should each be given a separate hmtl page?

In all other respects the work goes smoothly.  I forward the Bromley key to all others working on the project in hopes that it proves helpful.  It has already simplified my own searching.
 

15 June 2007

4:00pm


Devoted the day to creating a key to the 1906 Bromley map under the following rubric:

PDF Page #
Plate #
Identifying Mark in Top Left Corner
All Block or Lot Numbers on Plate
Identifying Mark in Bottom Right Corner

Completed key through PDF page 92/Plate 28.  Was able to use as early as page 30 when Joyce had trouble locating lot 1176.  Uploaded to ECPCLIO for unrestricted access.
 

14 June 2007

4.00pm


Second day importing images from the Bromley map for George and Benjamin Howard and James McHenry.  Have completed all individual lot pages for the three men and have started on the ground rent pages.  Also began a key for the blocks on each page of the Bromley map, having noticed that some pages were repeat scans, to facilitate faster searching.  Had one particular triumph when finding Federal Hill necessitated extensive searching (being unfamiliar with the Baltimore area and map) and comparison to the Sanford.  The incident highlighted the importance a compilation of sources with easy access.

Made contact with Jean and cleared up some problems with interpreting the spreadsheet and ensured we were all consulting the same sources in the same way.

The only real difficulty is in capturing the PDF images at sufficient resolution and size.  A test print ensured the images are dark enough to read, but the smallest numbers of the lots especially are hard to read, or blur when the image is enlarged.
 

13 June 2007

4.00pm


Second day of html.  Completed transferring the 1828 and the Ground Rents spreadsheets to the George and Benjamin Howard and James McHenry individual html indices.  Ground Rent pages as yet contain only the single lateral lines of information from the spreadsheets; we are awaiting details from Jean regarding individuated categories to be sure we correctly title each category.  Have also begun capturing images from the Bromley Atlas PDF for the George Howard lots.  There appear to be some inconsistencies between our data when compared to the maps, particularly as regards street names.  Again, we are awaiting word from Jean, but in general at least two streets can be matched and the image captured and saved to the lot's individual page.

12 June 2007

5.00pm


First day of html; transferring spreadsheet information on lots for George and Benjamin Howard and James McHenry.  Completed all lots for all three men in the resurvey of Mt Vernon Square spreadsheet, and completed through the 311th entry in the 1828 allocation, excepting lots deleted for the Mt Vernon resurvey.  Working with fellow intern to establish a consistent format, as follows:

Block:
Atlases html:
Sanborne:
Howard Distribution Lot Number:
Name of Heir (last, first):
Howard Estate html:
Four binding streets
Title Search (to be filled later)
Google Earth (to be filled later)

Have also established consistent pathways and folder options in the E hardrives.  We have tentatively uploaded the day's progress to the H drive as 'ground rents' folder, containing all pathways begun today.  We have linked all sub-folders to an html outline (index.html) particular to each intern, including the allocation of heirs by Jean to each of us.
 

11 June 2007

4.00pm


First day of transcription work on Ground Rents in Baltimore City: John Eager Howard's Estate project (http://mdhistory.net/msaref08/msa_s512_8863/html/index.html).  Transcriptions completed as follows:

(Our page number / book number)
 


(the following pages have no archival page number and are listed by book number; they refer to George Howard's Division Allotments)
 

During the transcription process, the following problems or questions were noted regarding specific pages: