Although the letter is estimated to be worth as much as $700,000, the Foundation does not intend to sell it but would like to make it available for the public to see at institutions like the Library of Congress and museums. 

Thanks to the generosity of Trish and Glen Surles, the State Archives has acquired the 40 reels of microfilm of the 1930 Federal Census that pertain to Maryland. The records have been added to the series (Census Record, MD) SM61. There is no state-wide index for the census. Trish Surles has created indexes for Caroline and Queen Anne's counties and donated copies to the Archives. 

Patrons can determine the enumeration districts for each county and Baltimore City by consulting the online guide on the National Archives site. The Maryland section is available in paper form in the search room. The guide describes the boundaries of each enumeration district. The paper copy includes a finding aid that correlates the National Archives reel number with the film number assigned by Maryland State Archives. 

The census takers asked the following questions to reflect facts as of April 1, 1930 and responses were placed in numbered columns: 
 

• Place of Abode: 1) Street, avenue, road, etc.; 2) House number; 3) Number of dwelling house in order of visitation; and 4) Number of family in order of visitation. 

• Name: 5) Name of each person in the family listed with surname first, then the given name and middle initial, if any. 

• Home Data: 7) Home owned or rented; 8) Value of home, if owned, or monthly rental, if rented; 9) Radio set in household; and 10) Ownership of a farm. 
• Personal description: 11) Sex; 12) Color or race; 13) Age at last birthday; 14) Marital condition; and 15) Age at first marriage. 
• Education: 16) Attended school or college any time since Sep. 1, 1929; and 17) Whether able to read or write. 

• Place of birth of each person enumerated and of his or her parents: 18) Place of birth-person; 19) Place of birth-father; and 20) Place of birth-mother. 
• Mother tongue (or native language) of foreign born; 21) Language spoken in home before immigrating.
• Citizenship, etc.: 22) Year of immigration into the United States; 23) Naturalization; and 24) Whether able to speak English. 
• Occupation and industry: 25) Trade, profession, or particular kind of work done; 26) Industry or business; and 27) Class of worker. 
• Employment: 28) Yes or no; and 29) If not, line number on Unemployment schedule  (these no longer exist). 
• Veteran of U.S. military service: 30) 

• Farm schedule: 32) Number of Farm schedule (these no longer exist). 

As with previous counties, information about roads in Cecil County appears as short entries in the court minutes, as recorded in (Judgment Record) in series C623. The series contains the administrative and judicial minutes and the recorded criminal and civil proceedings of the county court. The series dates from 1683, but minutes are not extant until 1700. After that, there are several short periods of time for which no judgments or minutes exist, and some record books contain judgments but no minutes. 

The first road entry in 1700 authorized a toll for riding or leading a horse over the bridge between the courthouse and Thomas Keltor's. Another entry listed the overseers of the roads and geographic areas of responsibility: Hermanus Shees for the lower part of Worton Hundred and James Barber for the upper part, John James for the lower part of South Sassafras Hundred and James Wilson for the upper part, Thomas Therson for the upper part of North Sassafras Hundred and Thomas Cox for the lower part, Alexander Camble for the road from his house to Bohemia ferry to Bartlett's, Richard Franklin for the road from Back Creek to Kerseys Run to New Castle Road, Thomas Yeaman for the road from Kerseys Run to Susquehanna ferry, and Samson George for the road from Susquehanna Road to Turkey Point to the head of North East River. 

The county justices appointed overseers annually and filled vacancies as they occurred. Sometimes the annual appointment record contained the names of the new officials with a notation that the rest were continued in office. In other instances, the minutes included a full roster of overseers accompanied by a list of all the public roads, or the areas of concern expressed as parts of hundreds, or a combination of the two, as done in 1700. By 1759, the number of overseers had reached 41, a figure that grew to 45 a year later. 

The roads listed in 1759 provided more geographic points of reference, even if today some of them are not readily meaningful. 
 

• Pearces Neck to St. Stephens Church and Pearces Neck to Bohemia Ferry, 

• Lower road on Bohemia Manor from Benjamin Moody's plantation along Burkles Ridge east to the upper road that leads over the head of Bohemia River, 

• Nelsons Mill to Peach Bottom, 

• Horse Head, or Spencers, Road from Little Elk River to Samuel Gilpin's mill on a branch of North East River, and 

• Elk Ferry to Doffeys Point on North East River, as follows: from upper end of James Veazey's plantation west northwest to the corner stone of Veazey's land, northwest to Quits Mountain, and south to North East River. 

Residents could file petitions concerning road matters, such as opening new ones, changing routes, and building bridges. In 1716, the court ordered Henry Ramsey to clear the old Reden 
Island Road as far as the old bridge. In 1723, several citizens requested a road from the head of Elk to New Castle and Christine Bridge to replace existing nonpublic routes that were subject to blockages

and sharp turns. In 1729, inhabitants of Susquehanna Hundred asked for a road to be laid out from the church road by the Indian town Poppemetto to the road leading to the Quaker meeting house at the west end of Nottingham. This was meant to replace an old road no longer useful for a growing population. The justices granted both petitions. 

Robert Evans, in 1759, sought a road from his land through the lands of Ellinor and Mary Campbell who refused to give him access. The court appointed three men to review the situation and make recommendations. Their report was adopted for a road from Evans' house on Duck Neck to the division fence between the lands of the two women, then along the fence to the woods. In 1760, Francis Hall, living on a peninsula on the Sassafras River below Frederick Town, petitioned for a route change on a road that he described as a path through the land of Dr. John Jackson and passing over a steep  

The county court was responsible also for the management of public ferries through the annual appointment of ferry keepers and determination of the amount to be paid those individuals. Usually these matters progressed fairly routinely. But in 1710 and 1712, the justices initially could not find anyone to operate the Elk River Ferry. Eventually, individuals did agree to run the ferry. 

In colonial Maryland, all counties were divided into administrative units called hundreds. Rarely were  descriptions of boundaries recorded. One of the few examples can be found in the Cecil County court minutes for November 1714. North Elk Parish was divided and Milford Hundred established. The boundary was described as going from the main run of the North East River as it forded by Mr. Voues along the main road to the fording place of the Elk River by Jacobs Mill, then easterly to the county line (defined as the "exterious" parts of the county), then with the county line to the main branch of the North East River.