Andrew's & All Faith's Parishes, St. Mary's County - Elise Greenup Jourdan. This work is a compilation of colonial records of these three counties. The very early Charles County records included here were previously published in Charles County Court and Land Records, Volume I and II, and are believed to be the records of Durham Parish. Records of St. Andrew's Parish have been taken from Lucy Harrison's transcription; they were earlier published in Volumes V-VII of the Chronicles of St. Mary's. Calvert County marriages have been abstracted by Mrs. Jourdan from the Scharf Collection. Mrs. Jourdan has consolidated these earlier published records along with the registers of Trinity Parish and the registers of Christ Church Parish and the registers of All Faith's Parish. The only other known vital records of this tri-county area are the Catholic records of St. Mary's County that have been published in Catholic Families of Southern Maryland, by Timothy J. O'Rourke, and are not included here.

St. Mary's residents played a key role in the development of the Catholic Church throughout the whole of America, providing the spearhead of the westward expansion of Catholicism. In 1785, for example, the first of many Catholic families from St. Mary's crossed the mountains to find land in Kentucky, while a few years later, driven by economic necessity, others migrated to Georgia, Missouri, Louisiana, and Texas. Mr. O'Rourke has collected many of the earliest surviving records of the Catholic families of St. Mary's County, Maryland. The most significant portion of the work contains the marriages and baptisms from the Jesuit parishes of St. Francis Xavier and St. Inigoes, which, in the case of baptisms (1767-1794), give the names of children, parents, and godparents, and the date of baptism; and in the case of marriages (1767-1784), the names of the married partners and the date of marriage.

Continuing in the format similar to her Settlers of Colonial Calvert County, Maryland, Ms. Jourdan provides an enormously helpful aid in the research of St. Mary's families. The author gives a concise listing of abbreviated abstracts taken from probate, church records, chancery records, naturalizations, the patent books, rent rolls and major publications such as the Maryland Archives series. The information is arranged alphabetically by surname and an index to full-names and places adds to the value of this work. One should use this as the primary aid for further research of primary and secondary sources which exist for the county. This is a must-have book for genealogical research in St. Mary's County.