902 LAWS OF MARYLAND. [CH. 435

481, be and the same is hereby amended as follows, that is to
say: Section 1 of the Act of 1856, Chapter 67, is hereby re-
pealed and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

Section 1. The Maryland School for the Blind is hereby
authorized to increase its Board of Directors to a number not
exceeding eighteen persons. The Board of Directors may pro-
vide by its by-laws that any number not less than seven shall
be a quorum of the Board of Directors for the transaction of
business.

Approved April 18th, 1918.

CHAPTER 435.

AN ACT to purchase from Mrs. George W. Hodges a list of
marriage references prior to the year 1777, and to deposit
same in the Land Office of Maryland in card form.

WHEREAS Mrs. George W. Hodges has accumulated a vast
number of marriage references, which have been extracted from
the early records of the Land Office and of the various coun-
ties; and

WHEREAS the State of Maryland has never compiled such
a subject, or subscribed in any way for such a compilation;
and

WHEREAS the value to the State of Maryland of such a com-
pilation would be inestimable in saving the original records
from the effects of constant handling and in prolonging their
usefulness to the public; and

WHEREAS greater facilities would be afforded thereby in the
study of Maryland history on genealogical lines, not only to
resident Marylanders, but to residents in every State in the
Union, inasmuch as Maryland lineage exists throughout the
United States either directly or collaterally; therefore,

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Mary-
land, That the Commissioner of the Land Office of Maryland
be and he is hereby authorized and directed to purchase in
the name of the State ten thousand marriage references prior
to the year 1777, collected by and now in possession of Mrs.
George W. Hodges. And it shall be the duty of the said Com-
missioner of the Land Office to receive said marriage refer-