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.

Tiernan Family

This is a guide to approximately 2,000 pedigrees as listed in over 7,000 sources of information. The arrangement of the text is alphabetical by family name, the entries providing, in each instance, the exact reference to the books and periodicals wherein the pedigree is found. This widely used reference can save the researcher many valuable hours in his investigations.