32 EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT

period 1800-1920. Typewritten copies of these cards were filed in the library
of this Department. The original cards were given to us. We completed the
alphabeting, interfiled where the alphabetical arrangement ran only for a
limited period of years, checked and edited the cards.

For several technical reasons we decided that it would not be possible to
use the cards as they were. Therefore, we arranged them in groups of twelve
and photostated the whole collection of 69,135 cards. The resulting photo-
stat pages were bound into six volumes. This index has proved to have many
uses: it is invaluable for private laws — changes of name, divorces, adoptions,
relief; it is a great time saver in checking charters and amendments to char-
ters during the period when the General Assembly handled such affairs; it
gives easy access to local laws and to laws which were both passed and re-
pealed between Codes. Since this index also includes Resolutions, it fills the
gaps left by many indexers of the annual printed Laws of Maryland.

Among the microfilm records listed elsewhere in this report you will
find an Index to Wills of Allegany County. Our collection now contains
many microfilm copies of such county-made indexes.

CIRCULATION

The number of searchers who came to the Hall of Records during the
year was not quite equal to that of the previous year but it was up to the
high average which has been set over the last few years. The figures for three
fiscal years are given here below:

Fiscal year 1951 .................. 1,050

Fiscal year 1952 .................. 1,183

Fiscal year 1953 .................. 1,133

Perhaps a truer estimate of the growing usefulness of our records is to be
found in a comparison of the number of documents circulated. In this re-
spect we far exceeded our work of last year, and last year was the busiest
until then, in the history of the Hall of Records. The totals for the last
three years are as follows:

Fiscal year 1951 .................. 6,961

Fiscal year 1952 .................. 7,600

Fiscal year 1953 .................. 8,225