"The main purpose of this work is to chronicle and categorize the life experiences of 519 persons who entered Maryland as indentured servants or, to a lesser extent, as convicts forcibly transported [between 1634-1777]. The text itself is composed of solidly researched sketches of Maryland servants and convicts and their descendants, including 84 that are traced to the third generation or beyond."--Amazon.com.

The parish registers of St. James Parish on Herring Creek in Anne Arundel, MD - established 1692 - have long been out-of-print. Because of this, the author has transcribed the parish records books of the St. James Parish, along with those in Christ Church, West River, and Cliffs. All are in Anne Arundel County, MD and include dates back to the middle 1600's through the 1700s. There are two (2) sections to this book. The first is an index of all the individuals, birth, marriage and death dates along WITH their spouse's name. At the center of the book is the index for Part 1. Part 2 gives basically the same information but includes the place of birth, marriage and death, WITHOUT the names of their spouses. The index at the end of the book is for Part 2. To place these names into family groups, please see ancestry.com for the family file called Anne-Arundel. Front cover photo: St. James Parish today Rear cover photo: St. James cemetery which abutts the parish church.

The major part of this work is an alphabetically arranged and cross-indexed list of some 20,000 Maryland families with references to the sources and locations of the records in which they appear. In addition, there is a research record guide arranged by county and type of record, and it identifies all genealogical manuscripts, books, and articles known to exist up to 1940, when this book was first published. Included are church and county courthouse records, deeds, marriages, rent rolls, wills, land records, tombstone inscriptions, censuses, directories, and other data sources.