26 THIRTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT

the number of gaps in the list given below that serious losses have
occurred. Some of the losses are believed to have resulted from the
seizure of the records during the Revolution by the British. A good
many of the captured records were found in New York in 1783.
Evidentally they had undergone rough treatment, for it was found
necessary to transcribe practically all of the Land Records in 1795.
The transcripts are now in use at the courthouse in Elkton. The Land
Records listed below are the discarded originals which were stored in
the basement. We had hoped to be able to repair them and use them
here, but they are not indexed. For this reason we shall eventually
transfer the transcripts, which are indexed, it being more economical
to replace the transcripts with photocopies than to make an index to
the originals.

During the year we also completed the transfer of the Land
Records up to 1788 from Queen Anne's and Dorchester Counties.
Another important accession is the eight volumes of Baltimore County
Marriage License Records received from the Clerk of the Superior
Court of Baltimore City. The value of this acquisition is immeasurably
enhanced by the card index which accompanied it. This index com-
prises approximately 120,000 cards and would have required several
years to make.

A beginning was made in transferring the original papers of the
Register of Wills of Frederick County. The original plan was to
transfer the Wills up to 1790 and all other papers up to 1825. In
making the transfer we noticed large and inexplicable gaps in several
series; for example, the complete absence of any Administration Ac-
counts for the period in question. The search thus stimulated led to
the discovery of a large quantity of Register of Wills papers in the
courthouse attic, which also contains records of the Clerk and several
other offices. Negotiations are now in progress to secure the permission
of the Judges of the Circuit for a member of the Hall of Records
staff to sort out the Register's papers and transfer them to Annapolis.
Some of the papers are dated as late 'as the middle of the nineteenth
century, which is far beyond the original deadline. In all probability
the terminal date will be advanced to about 1850 or 1860.

A somewhat similar situation was found to exist in Somerset
County, where the only early original papers located in the Register