ARCHIVIST OF THE HALL OF RECORDS 27

It has long been known that the Charles County Court and
Land Records were among the most ancient and the most com-
plete in the country. It was, therefore, with great satisfaction
to the Archivist that arrangements were completed last winter
for the transfer of all of these records made before 1788 to the
Hall of Records. The Court and Miscellaneous Records have
already been transferred; the Land Records are being brought to
Annapolis several volumes at a time and photostatic copies are
being deposited at the Courthouse in LaPlata.

Another important addition from Charles County was the
Proceedings of the Orphans' Court from 1797 to 1827. When
the other records of this office were transferred to the Hall of
Records several years ago, only those Proceedings of the Court
for this period which were contained in volumes partly devoted
to Wills, Inventories, or other probate materials, were included.
This was an awkward division of this record series and the re-
union is well worth noting.

Transfer of the Frederick County Land Records continued.
At the end of the year we had passed the terminus of the pro-
vincial period and had come to within six volumes of finishing
the whole series through 1788. Since the collection was almost
useless to us without an index, we borrowed the two volumes
which covered the record from 1748 to 1803 and made photostat
copies which are now available to searchers.

Finally, we completed during the year the photocopying of
the Somerset County Deed Records. This record is now at the
Hall of Records from 1666, date of erection of the county, to
1790.

There follows a detailed list of all accessions from public
sources:

ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY, CLERK OF THE CIRCUIT
COURT

Received April 5, 1945

Deeds, 1778-1789, 4 volumes (8461-8464).

Received May 30, 1945