In Maryland there exists a considerable body of data only now being investigated as a source for identifying a large group of colonial immigrants - indentured servants and convicts. For a long time this group was overlooked by genealogists because no one realized the importance of these humble folk as potential ancestors. At least one historian stated categorically that modern Marylanders need not worry: these "undesirables" could not possibly have been ancestors of people living today. Nevertheless, several recent studies have begun to examine individual convicts and indentured servants and ascertain just what they did during and after their time of servitude. 

Indentures may be found in published source books, and recorded in land records and court proceedings of provincial and county courts. For example, on 17 October 1700 Dorothy Manly of Newton Bushnell, County Devon, age 19, and single, bound herself to serve John Smith of Biddeford, County Devon for 4 years in Maryland or Virginia. She evidently ended up in Anne Arundel County where her indenture was recorded in (Land Records) WT 2, p. 62 [MSA C97]. On 29 November 1703 she witnessed a deed (Ibid.: 110). 

Indentures of servants are recorded in the land records of other counties as well, including Baltimore, Dorchester, and Talbot. Published abstracts of the land records of Dorchester and Talbot counties contain references to these entries. References to convicts in the court and 

County court proceedings are filled with references to the activities, legal and otherwise, of early Marylanders, and since the clerks were anxious to identify individuals properly, servants were usually so designated. Servants appeared when they petitioned for freedom, had been captured after running away, or were accused of bearing baseborn children. Minor servants were brought into court in order to determine and record their ages. 

(Land Records) [MSA S552] and (Judgment Record) [MSA S551] of the Provincial Court contain a number of lists of convicts who were transported to Maryland. The index to the land records includes the transportees, designated as "conv." [convict]. 

Once a settler has been identified as a convict the researcher can consult The King's Passengers to Maryland and Virginia by Peter Wilson Coldham. If the convict is listed, the passenger list may indicate which jail in England the prisoner was taken from. This same book includes transcripts of (Convict Record) found at the State Archives. One pertains to Anne Arundel County [MSA C57 and CM952] for 1771-1775 and the other to Baltimore County [MSA C309 and CM154] for 1770-1783. There is also a Talbot County (Convict Record) for 1727-1733 [MSA C1855]. 

While doing research for the book British Roots of Maryland Families, the author found 

Hanna Szczepanowska, Head of Conservation for the Archives, has been awarded a Fulbright scholarship to teach and do research in the field of museum and archival collections in Egypt. The award was granted by the USIA Fulbright Scholar Program, Council for the International Exchange of Scholars. The award is for four months and her work in Egypt will include lectures and workshops. The lectures will be held at the Archeological Department of the University in Cairo, Alexandria, and possibly in Jordan. The workshops are designed to teach museum staff how to assure the long-term preservation of their collections through proper display and handling. She will be working with a variety of ancient objects in Egyptian collections and assisting the staff in solving problems in all areas of collections
care, including environment, storage, and display. Objects on display date from 7000 BC. 

The research component of the grant will focus on collecting data on the history of ancient writing materials, such as Coptic parchment and papyrus, inks, and pigments, as well as the biodeterioration of archival material. Collected information will be compared with data obtained from medieval archival material, including parchments which Ms. Szczepanowska studied in Malta during previous research projects which were supported by scholarships from the Fulbright Program and the Samuel H. Kress Foundation. The results will then be placed in the context of contemporary archival material. She has 

several pages in the Provincial Court land records that contained information on the family of Richard Carter, who died childless in Maryland. Depositions from neighbors who knew him in England and notarized copies of English parish registers gave a thorough picture of Carter and his parents, siblings, nephews, and nieces. One niece married a man named Samuel Cokayne, and they settled in Talbot County. 

Newspapers contained many advertisements for runaway servants, often giving a physical description, age, and place of origin. Richard Cox abstracted many of these advertisements found in the Maryland Gazette. A more complete source is a book published in 1990, The Maryland Gazette, 1727-1761 by Karen Mauer Green. Kenneth Scott and Robert K. Headley in abstracting records of Pennsylvania and Virginia newspapers respectively have included many references to Maryland runaways.  Newspapers also included notices of arrivals of ships carrying redemptioners or convicts. These can be compared with lists of ships published in Coldham's book in order to obtain some idea of the possible destination of the convicts. 

Merchants engaged in shipping servants to the colonies often kept lists of convicts. The Cheston-Galloway Papers, at the Maryland Historical Society, contain many references to the sales of indentured servants and convicts.