To Todd Z, The official date for State certificates of birth and death for all counties in Maryland started in 1898, and for Baltimore City in 1875. So, the only register for births prior to 1898, is though church records. Do you have an idea of what denomination your ancestors were? The earliest published Lutheran records, that has been translated from German to English, are the Maryland German Church Records that has been translated and edited by C.T. Zahn and Frederick S. Weiser and they published and sold by Historical Society of Carroll County, 210 East Main Street, Westminster, Md. 21157 http://www.carr.org/hscc/ Go to http://www.rootsweb.com/~mdcarrol/church/html to get a outline of the churches, their time period and areas each volume covers there are 4 volumes for Carroll County Lutheran records so far. For Methodist records, they have not been published, but some of the Methodist Churches has allowed for their records to be photocopied and there are copies in the Carroll County Genealogical Society collections and at the Historical Society of Carroll County research library collections. Carrol County Genealogical Society homepage http://www.carr.org/ccgs/ccgs.html Catholic records has not been published, but you can contact them and they will look through their records for you. If you need the addresses and phone numbers for these Catholic Churches, there are 2 that was here starting in 1789 and 1796, please let me know and I will send you that info. If you can let me know what area you are looking into; I might be able to give you specific churches for that area. Sue Bundy MDCARROL-List list manager/volunteer