This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Author: frostfreedet Surnames: Classification: queries Message Board URL: http://boards.rootsweb.com/localities.northam.usa.states.maryland.counties.somerset/849.2.2.1.1.1.1.1/mb.ashx Message Board Post: Looks to me like the source of this was a book called something like "Maryland Oaths of Allegiance". This was a pretty useless compendium, just lists of names for each County, with no specific sources given. The introduction states that the sources were juror lists, etc., where the author ~assumed~ that the person named would have to have taken the oath of allegiance at some time. That is, these are not lists of people taking the oath of allegiance on a specific date and place and signing their names with witnesses. Lists of jurors, for instance, are at best indirect evidence that the persons took the oath of allegiance before serving on the jury. Elizabeth's suggestion, to investigate court records in person, might be your best avenue for determining what the source of the reference is, since Ancestry.com declines to give a full list of what the subcontractor copied the names from. This sort of junk database can drive ya nuts. Just don't have high expectation of discovering the source-record without a lot of work, and do not expect to find a specific Oath of Allegiance record. Important Note: The author of this message may not be subscribed to this list. If you would like to reply to them, please click on the Message Board URL link above and respond on the board.