Towsons and Townsends in the Baltimore City Death Index

Available through the Maryland State Archives is the Vital Records Indexing Project, which contains digitized death record indices from 23 counties for 1898-1944, and for Baltimore City 1875-1972. Baltimore City was the first to start recording records of deaths on a large scale. The periods of 1875-1880 and 1943-1949 can be searched, but for dates outside of these ranges, you must look at PDF scans of the original paper death record indices.

introducing the towsons

I feel like genealogists often have a "main family" that spurs their interest, that family name that they always come back to. For a lot of folks that main family seems to be the surname that they were born with. For me, my interest lies in my mother's family name.

finding the von niedas

A few weeks ago, my friend Chanel and I were shopping on the Avenue in Hampden. For those who haven't visited, Hampden is a bit of hipster heaven in Baltimore. Along West 36th Street, also known as the Avenue, is home to a variety of restaurants, boutiques, and my favorite, antique shops.

the union orphan asylum in baltimore

In addition to fashion and photography, I'm a big fan of genealogy. Late last night I was going through some unfiled records that I retrieved during my last visit to NARA in DC, and I rediscovered mention of a distant relative spending time at a Baltimore orphanage in the 1870s.