ARCHIVIST OF THE HALL OF RECORDS 25

Theodore Roosevelt McKeldin for the biennium 1953-1954. This means we
now have all of the papers relating to Governor McKeldin's first term of
office.

The papers deposited by the Adjutant General relate to routine military
matters except for one group of fascinating eyewitness reports of militia
officers who were on duty during the Baltimore fire of 1904.

Our program for obtaining security copies of the land records for the
period 1851-1949 has been described in previous reports. It is producing large
quantities of microfilm and now accounts for the greater part of our acces-
sions. From Baltimore City alone we received microfilm copies of 643 volumes
of Block Books, which serve as a key to the Land Records. The decision to film
the Block Books before doing the Land Records was made by the late M.
Luther Pittman, Clerk of the Superior Court, who reasoned that there were
no security copies of the Block Books whereas the Land Records are protected
to some extent by the handwritten abstracts now in the Land Office.

Over 200 volumes of Anne Arundel County Land Records were filmed
last year by our own operator bringing this scries up to the year 1924. Mr.
George L. Byerly, Clerk of the Circuit Court of Baltimore County, delivered
us 106 volumes of Land Records on microfilm. This series is now complete
to 1908. The film copies of the 75 volumes of Caroline County Land Records
sent us by Mr. D. Ralph Horsey, Clerk of the Circuit Court, cover the entire
period 1851-1949. This means that Caroline along with Calvert County has
its land records completely protected by security copies.

It should be mentioned also that the twenty volumes of Prince George's
County Land Records listed below represent a very small percentage of the
microfilm delivered to us by Mr. W. Waverly Webb, Clerk of the Circuit
Court. The total was approximately 500 volumes. Unfortunately, this flood
of microfilm coming toward the end of the fiscal year caused us to fall behind
in checking. In our Annual Report we list only the microfilm which has been
checked and accessioned and is ready for use.

As the land records fer the various counties come into our custody, it
becomes necessary to provide indexes. Through the cooperation of Mr. Harry
L. Harcum, Commissioner of the Land Office, and his Administrative Assis-
tant, Mr. Malcolm W. Waring, who loaned us the negative reels, we acquired
positive microfilm copies of the current indexes to the land records of Anne
Arundel, Baltimore, Prince George's, Queen Anne's and Talbot Counties as
listed below.

Most of our effort in collecting church records has been concentrated on