Category: Research Resources

Havre de Grace Provides Historical Public Records Online

Local government records are essential for studying the past. These primary sources document governance, along with the history of communities, institutions, and people.  

With state and federal agencies the process of accessing the items usually works efficiently. But when municipalities retain files, there are often challenges in locating the aging volumes as they rarely have dedicated archivists to keep up with the flow of old documents. Plus, the local custodians have limited resources to preserve, organize, and store files of permanent value.

Municipalities have a patchwork of approaches. Sometimes the old records have been transferred to a state archives, but frequently the town clerk has retained guardianship. Over the years, I have climbed through attics of town halls, searched through dark, damp basements, and combed through boxes stashed in out-of-the-way closets or old vaults searching for primary sources. This disarray is compounded as valuable materials are often lost to the fog of the past as decades slip by.

City Clerks do the best they can as custodians of public records, struggling with limited time and resources as they juggle multiple responsibilities.  I have been helped by many of these keepers of public records.  Plus, sometimes I find that the local bodies have digitized its archives, making them available online.  This makes my work much more manageable, increases efficiencies for agency staff, and reduces custodial and preservation problems as paper ages and becomes fragile. 

While working with municipal records across the mid-Atlantic, I recently discovered that the City of Havre Grace had established an online repository for its public records, the city minutes starting in 1800 while the ordinance books begins in 1879.  The user-friendly web portal permits a curious type to easily access the records and view digital copies of the original, primary sources.

Thank you, City of Havre de Grace for ensuring that the public records of the City are retained, organized, preserved, and made available.  Anyone studying the past in this old Maryland City will find this to be a helpful resource.

Click here to access eCode360, the repository for the public records of the City.

The Bicycle Ordinance for the City of Havre de Grace
Minutes from 1862

Draper Collection of Civil War Letters Digitized at Delaware Archives

The Delaware Public Archives (DPA) has released the following announcement about the digitization of the Abram H. Draper Collection, a holding that contains Civil War letters, poetry, and correspondence.

DPA writes: “The Abram H. Draper Collection consists of 34 unique pieces of correspondence, including letters and poetry from Sergeant Abram H. Draper to his wife Anna M. Wiley Draper during the American Civil War. The content of this collection offers a detailed description of Draper’s time while on guard and picket duty, everyday details of the life of a Union soldier in the United States Army from 1861 – 1863. The collection also includes correspondence to and from members of Draper’s extended family, as well as letters and documents to Anna notifying her of his death on January 22, 1863, from typhoid fever at Camp Gilpins, Virginia.”

Draper was born in New York City, but made his way to Delaware where he enlisted in the 1st Delaware Regiment, a 90-day unit of volunteers. Later he enlisted in Company A, 4th Delaware Infantry Regiment as a sergeant. The majority of his time was on guard duty in Virginia, according to the DPA.

Click here to view the Draper collection of Civil War letters at the DPA

civil war letters at the Delaware Public Archives
A Civil War letter from the Abram H. Draper collection at the Delaware Public Archives. (Photo Credit: Delaware Public Archives)

Old Weather Maps

RESEARCH TIP — OLD WEATHER MAPS — 1871 to the Present — Often when I’m investigating some matter I need to know something about weather conditions on some long-ago day. This was the case when I researched the Greenwood Railroad Disaster for a presentation at the town library. On Dec 2, 1903, a day that a blinding snowstorm raged across Delaware, a freight train with a dangerous cargo headed south toward Cape Charles. But with whiteout conditions occurring as the locomotive eased into Greenwood, it struck another engine standing on the tracks.

This depiction shows the forecast for the morning of Dec 2, 1903. These products have been prepared daily since Jan 1, 1871. You may find this extended series helpful when you are looking into something. Here’s the link to the digital library of old weather maps from NOAA.

Source: NOAA Central Library Data Imaging Project — available online with free access

An old weather map for Dec. 2, 1903
The U.S. Weather Bureau Daily Weather Map for Dec. 2, 1903.

1807 Gazetteer of Delaware and Maryland Helps Genealogists and Local History Researchers

Geographical description of Maryland and Delaware
Joseph Scott’s Geographical Description of the State of Maryland and Delaware. Source: Hathi Trust via the Digital Public Library of America

In the decades before state directories and similar resources appeared, there were gazetteers or geographical dictionaries.  These valuable titles, many over 200 years old, focused on geography as they examined an area in detail, presenting information about a community, its landscape, political economy, business enterprise, population, and natural resources.

Today genealogists and local historians will find these works helpful as they offer detailed insights into a county, town, or village. Since hard-to-find details, such as social statistics, are contained in the works, I often consult the volumes when trying to understand the changes that have taken place in an area over the centuries.

In this region, “A Geographical Description of the States of Maryland and Delaware,” published by Joseph Scott in 1807, is helpful.   As its nearly 200 pages focus on this region, it contains a large amount of productive information.  In addition to details on most of the towns and villages of any size on Delmarva, there is lots of text discussing the states and each county.

This title was once hard to access.  I purchased one from an antiquarian bookstore in New England decades ago to have it instantly available for my needs.  Before that, I had to travel to a distant special collections library.

But now, thanks to the Digital Public Library of America and other public domain e-content providers, we all have instant access to this and many more titles.

Click here to go to the Digital Public Library of America’s catalog item for this product.

page examines geography and population of Delaware
Delaware Social Statistics showing the population in 1800 by hundred for free persons and slaves, along with the start of the description of New Castle. Source: Hathi Trust, via the Digital Public Library of America

Delaware map in Joseph Scott's 1807 Geographical Description of Maryland and Delaware
The Delaware map in Joseph Scott’s 1807 Geographical Description of Maryland and Delaware: Source: Hathi Trust via the Digital Public Library of America