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16 ELEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT
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1945-46
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1944-45
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1943-44
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Balance Books.............................
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91
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60
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47
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Deeds, Charles County......................
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83
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6
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Deeds, Somerset County....................
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81
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7
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17
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Wills, Original.............................
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78
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46
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58
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Wills, Charles County.......................
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75
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80
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88
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Court Records, Prince George's County.......
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71
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20
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7
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Testamentary Papers, Anne Arundel County.,
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62
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155
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58
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Wills, Original, Anne Arundel County.........
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57
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35
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30
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Laws, Recorded............................
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50
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2
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Wills, Anne Arundel County.................
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43
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38
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57
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Revolutionary Papers.......................
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33
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17
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11
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Court Records, Baltimore County............
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26
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16
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10
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Comptroller's Records.......................
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22
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Accounts, Frederick County.................
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20
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15
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4
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Total circulation for 1945-46..........
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..... 5, 959
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Total circulation for 1944-45.........
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..... 3, 530
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Total circulation for 1943-44.........
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..... 3, 515
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The number of items circulated in the public Search room is not
an altogether accurate gauge of the time which the staff must de-
vote to this purpose. A scholarly, indoctrinated researcher may use
ten times as many records but require only a tenth of the time
which must be devoted to a novice, inept at using indexes and in-
capable of reading seventeenth-century clerkly handwriting. It is
easier to know how much more time was devoted to responding to
postal inquiries when they have increased in numbers, for in that
case the researcher is always a member of the Hall of Records staff
and skilled in the research techniques which our records demand. It
is, therefore, important to note that inquiries to the number of 814
were answered by mail during the year. This number, again, is the
largest in our history and compares with 711 for the previous year
which had in its turn been our busiest. It should be noted that
only those letters are counted in this group which require reference
to our records, to printed materials in our possession, or to lists of
materials and analyses of records which are to be found in other de-
positories and to which the researcher may be referred. These in-
quiries came from forty-two states, the District of Columbia, Ire-
land, Canada, Postmaster New York, and Fleet Postoffice San Fran-
cisco.
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