Place:Dorchester, Maryland, United States

Watchers


NameDorchester
Alt namesDorchestersource: Getty Vocabulary Program
TypeCounty
Coordinates38.467°N 76°W
Located inMaryland, United States     (1669 - )
source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names
source: Family History Library Catalog


the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Dorchester County is a county located in the U.S. state of Maryland. At the 2010 census, the population was 32,618. Its county seat is Cambridge. The county was formed in 1669 and named for the Earl of Dorset, a family friend of the Calverts (the founding family of the Maryland colony).

Dorchester County comprises the Cambridge, MD Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is also included in the Salisbury-Cambridge, MD-DE Combined Statistical Area. It is located on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.

Dorchester County is the largest county by total area on the Eastern Shore. It is bordered by the Choptank River to the north, Talbot County to the northwest, Caroline County to the northeast, Wicomico County to the southeast, Sussex County, Delaware, to the east, and the Chesapeake Bay to the west. Dorchester County uses the slogan, "The Heart of Chesapeake Country", due to its geographical location and the heart-like shape of the county on a map.

Contents

History

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Many residents of Dorchester County have historically been watermen and farmers. The Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries provide harvests of crabs, oysters and many fish species to both commercial and recreational fishermen. Dorchester County was the birthplace of Harriet Tubman, who escaped from slavery and afterward worked to guide other refugee slaves to freedom in the North.

Dorchester County has been hit by two deadly tornadoes. The first occurred on June 23, 1944, in Cambridge, where two people were killed and 33 were injured. The other was on May 8, 1984, in Hurlock, where one death and six injuries were reported. Both storms caused between 500,000 and 5 million dollars of damage.

Timeline

Date Event Source
1669 County formed Source:Red Book: American State, County, and Town Sources
1669 Land records recorded Source:Red Book: American State, County, and Town Sources
1790 First census Source:Population of States and Counties of the United States: 1790-1990
1790 No significant boundary changes after this year Source:Population of States and Counties of the United States: 1790-1990

Population History

source: Source:Population of States and Counties of the United States: 1790-1990
Census Year Population
1790 15,875
1800 16,346
1810 18,108
1820 17,759
1830 18,686
1840 18,843
1850 18,877
1860 20,461
1870 19,458
1880 23,110
1890 24,843
1900 27,962
1910 28,669
1920 27,895
1930 26,813
1940 28,006
1950 27,815
1960 29,666
1970 29,405
1980 30,623
1990 30,236

Research Tips

External links

  • Outstanding guide to Dorchester County family history and genealogy resources (FamilySearch Research Wiki). Birth, marriage, and death records, wills, deeds, county histories, cemeteries, churches, newspapers, libraries, and genealogical societies.
  • www.commissioners.net/


This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at Dorchester County, Maryland. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with WeRelate, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.