Finding Land Records on the Maryland State Archives Website

  
Using the Digital Image Reference System for Land Survey, Subdivision, and Condominium Plats located online at the Maryland State Archives 

From the MSA Home Page click the Family Historians tab.
Then select the Plats.net link located by Find Specific Records
Choose the County you wish to research.

I am researching Prince Georges County:

Prince George's County Land Survey, Subdivision, and Condominium Plats Clicking on Advanced Search gives a Description field Here I entered a surname as the search keyword.

Below are the search results:

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Thrifty Thursday: Maryland Land Records

 MDLandRec.Net: A Digital Image Retrieval System for Land Records in Maryland 

The Maryland Judiciary and the Maryland State Archives have joined in partnership to provide up to date access to all verified land record instruments in Maryland. This service is currently being provided at no charge to individuals who apply for a user name and password.

While researching this site for Casteel land records, I came across a few non-land entries.  Below is the index referencing two Casteel entries where "Strays" are recorded. This is followed by the full records (click images to enlarge).

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If only every state had such a great resource!

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Maryland Land Records & the Liberation of Nick

    
While researching on MDLandRec.Net: A Digital Image Retrieval System for Land Records in Maryland for Casteel land records, I came across an entry in the index between two Casteel records regarding Negro Nick.
Below is the Index Record followed by the land record located in Book JRM 7, pg 0038

(click images to enlarge)

PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY COURT (Land Records)

jrm 7, 1799-1800

MSA CE 65-36

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Follow Friday - Genea-Musing and the Maryland Historical Magazine Periodical Index

                                                        
Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings shared with us a great link to the online copies of the Maryland Historical Magazine ranging from 1906 to 2005. A free resource that is available to all who register for access.
Once signed in you can quickly run a keyword search.

I ran one on the surname Casteel.  The results are shown below:

 Clicking on the fist link brought me to the issue referenced:

Then, using the 'find' function, I was able to quickly located where 'Casteel' appears:

There are two persons named Casteel listed in Moses Chaplines muster roll: John and Zachariah Casteel

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Snowy Surname Saturday - Using Google Books to find the Details

Taking some time to search in Google Books can lead to mining little genealogical gems.

 I was able to locate relevent records by using the surname plus the "&" sign with a location in the search field:  casteel & prince georges 

In the 1719 land record abstract below -  Our ancestor Edmund Casteel's wife is named.

I was then able to find a 1733 tax record for Edmund Casteel.  

Listed further down in the same paragraph of names was the above mentioned Jeremiah Perdue helping to confirm that I have the correct Edmund. You can also see that his other neighbor mentioned in the previous land record, Henry Darnell, is listed above.
This Edmund Casteel (II) had a son named Edmund (III) but did not deed land over to him until Dec.1742.
Edmund (III) had a daughter, Charity, who married a Perdew - shown in another Google Books find below.

Thomas Point Shoal Lighthouse

Station TPLM2 - Thomas Point, MD

The Thomas Point Shoal Lighthouse located in Annapolis, MD, is a National Historic Landmark - one of only ten lighthouses in the country to be bestowed this highest honor – and the only unaltered screwpile lighthouse in the United States remaining attached to its original foundation.

 

Thomas Point Shoal Lighthouse in 1885

Photograph courtesy U.S. Coast Guard

An 1821 letter from William B. Barney, Naval Officer for the port of Baltimore, to Stephen Pleasonton of the U.S. Treasury, indicates the need for this lighthouse:

Many ship owners and seafaring men of respectability have frequently spoken to me on the subject of a light to be placed at the end of Thomas' Point bar, a few miles below Annapolis; which extends a considerable distance out into the Bay, cutting the direct track of vessels bound up or down; at the end of which from four feet, you instantly deepen to six and seven fathoms water. A light placed here, would be of as great utility as perhaps any one in the Chesapeake Bay.

By 1964 the Thomas Point Shoal Lighthouse was the last manned light in the Chesapeake Bay until it became fully automated in 1986.  The United States Coast Guard continues to maintain the navigational aids.

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Created for: A Festival of Postcards (7th Edition) - Light