ARCHIVIST OF THE HALL OF RECORDS 21

records revealed that a few of them, such as the minute book and ledger,
were of permanent value. Some of the other records were of doubtful
value; but, as all of them were less than three years old (the Commission
was created in 1947) and therefore not eligible for destruction, the
Archivist agreed to accept all of the records. They are listed in the section
on accessions.

MICROFILMING OF COUNTY RECORDS

In my last report to you I pointed out that the microfilming project of
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints had come to an end.
Some of the film had not yet been reeled and this was done by our staff
in the course of the fiscal year covered by the present report. We con-
centrated our efforts this year, too, on the task of cataloguing this great
collection of film—over 130,000 feet—and in the course of the cataloguing
we found some omissions in the various series that we could be sure of and
some others which we suspect. The work of finding the gaps and filling
them is still going on.

The interest of the Mormon group extended only to the year 1850.
For the period after that year there are few security copies of our county
records. The abstracts of deeds, mortgages, and releases of mortgages in
the Land Office would be useful if the originals in the counties were lost,
but they are by no means complete or full enough to recreate the records
exactly. Beginning this year, however, the abstract system has been aban-
doned and all these county records are being microfilmed and the films de-
posited in the Land Office. This is a great step forward in record keeping
and while the administration of this filming project is a function of the
Land Office, I thought it worthwhile to mention it here because of the long
sponsorship of such a program by the Hall of Records culminating in the
passage of the necessary legislation in 1949.

Much still remains to be done to insure our records against further
loss. We have had many courthouse fires in Maryland resulting in serious
losses of records. I need call your attention only to the burning of the St.
Mary's County Courthouse in 1830 with the loss of many records and to
the Calvert County Courthouse fire of 1880 when no records were saved.
At the present time only a minority of our courthouses are fireproof or
have vaults which might be considered fireproof. Somehow these records
should be protected and the filming of insurance copies is by far the cheapest
and most effective way to do this. At the last meeting of the Hall of