Frederick County, Maryland Land Records Abstracts, 1778-1784, Liber WR1 Through WR4

This volume includes the first four volumes, done under the supervision of William Ritchie, Clerk of Frederick County Court, and labeled WR1 through WR4, containing records from the Revolutionary War Period of 1778-1784.

Some of the more interesting records recorded include two naturalizations for former German POWs, two court martials for militia men not appearing for duty, a discharge record signed by General Anthony Wayne, information about establishing a gunlock manufactury in Frederick Town and the sales of Confiscated British property, including Frederick
Town ground rents owned by Daniel Dulaney, who left for England at the beginning of the Revolutionary War period.

Although it is becoming increasingly easy to access these records online now through the Maryland State Archives, the value that abstracts offer in locating records through their every name indexing, cannot be matched with the indexes available online. The official indexes do not always identify estate sales, bills of sale, Negro sales or manumissions, or depositions and do not index information within deeds, such as mention of neighbors, as well as other documents brought to the court to be recorded. Also, many researchers have difficulty reading the old hand written books, so this also provides a guide and finding aid for the beginning genealogist. The page numbers of the deeds in the original volume are given in the abstracts, so that when desired, the original deeds can be accessed and printed from the Maryland State Archives Web Site.

Abstracts are best used as brief guides and indexes to original records, and to find people mentioned in deeds who would otherwise be lost in the records. This series of abstracts focuses on the names of parties in the deeds. This volume contains three indices to aid the researcher: a brief index to interesting items of note; a lengthy full-name index, which includes an occupation section (occupations will sometimes help distinguish a man); and an index to place names, town lots and land tract names.