30 THIRTY-FIRST ANNUAL REPORT

Of the land records, only those of Baltimore City remain to be
done. Although 416 volumes were filmed last year, the project advanced
only about three years to 1927. At this rate, it will be several years
before the existing gap between 1927 and 1949 is filled.

The filming of the probate records has been completed for every
county and over 200 volumes have been filmed of the records of the
Register of Wills of Baltimore City. It will probably take most of the
current fiscal year to do the remaining records.

We have also been filming the early marriage records with the
purpose of supplementing those of the State Health Department, which
began collecting vital records on a systematic basis in 1914. During
the past year we added the marriage records of Caroline, Carroll,
Washington, Wicomico and Worcester Counties to our collection. This
leaves only Baltimore and Montgomery Counties and Baltimore City
to be done.

Influenced by a constant demand for information about corporation
charters, we have decided to add these records to the list of items to
be filmed as we go from county to county. Last year the corporation
records of Caroline, Dorchester, Wicomico and Worcester were filmed,
in each case, to a date well beyond 1916 when the Department of
Assessments and Taxation (then the State Tax Commission) began
preserving such records.

In our previous report, we listed the acquisition of 80 volumes
of Anne Arundel County Equity Records on microfilm. Unfortunately
a typographical error escaped our attention and the period covered was
given as "1951-1963"; whereas the series actually begins in 1851. The
filming, which is being done by the staff of the Clerk of the Circuit
Court, has now been brought up to date. In fact, beginning in 1965,
the Clerk discontinued the practice of recording equity cases in bound
volumes and began recording the original papers directly on microfilm.
A positive print is made for use in the Clerk's Office and the negative
is deposited with us.

Other counties have also indicated an interest in doing something
to protect their equity records from further damage or loss. These
records are often very useful in searching land titles and tracing family
history and for other research purposes, so we are encouraging the
counties to film them whenever facilities are available. We shall prob-
ably have our own photographers do some of the filming when our other
projects have been brought up to date.