VOLUME 66, NUMBER 2, 2025
MARYLAND GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY JOURNAL Vol. 66, No. 2, 2025 (In stock - $15.00 members/$17.00 non-members)
FEATURE ARTICLES - 2025 Writing Competition
- Who Was Mary Covington, Widow of Phillip Covington?: Proving Identity Using Land Records, by Emalu Myer SImpson
- Was Clarissa Fox of Anne Arundel County, Maryland, the Daughter of Sgt. Anthony Fox, a “Meritorious” Revolutionary War Soldier in the 6th Maryland Regiment?, by Gene R. Major
- Jacob S. Perry (1827–1914): Carpenter, Cabinet Maker, and Undertaker of Frederick County, Maryland, by Annette Burke Lyttle
- A Wyatt Legacy: Bridging Two Halves of a Maryland-Delaware Family, by John C. Carter
- Children of a Lesser Blakiston: Connecting Maryland’s Prominent Blakiston Family to Ohio’s Little-Known Blackstone Family, by P. Ross Gorman
- The Curry and Fitzgerald Families in Bibles and Mausoleum Records: A Potential Treasure Trove of Vital Information, by Mike Sapp
REVIEWS
- Little, A Researcher’s Guide to Virginia’s Historical Records, by Allender Sybert
- Morton, Searching for Sisters: A Guide to Researching Catholic Nuns in the United States, by Allender Sybert
- Dobson, Irish Soldiers in Colonial America (ca. 1650–1825), Part Two, by Allender Sybert
- Muhn, Genealogy at a Glance: Acadian Genealogical Research, by Allender Sybert
OVERVIEW OF ARTICLES
This issue of the Journal is a special one: It contains some of the excellent articles we received as part of the 2025 MGS Journal Writing Competition. The first-, second-, and third-place winners as well as an honorable mention selection are included here along with two additional entries. More of these competition articles will be featured in upcoming issues. We hope that the research methods and storytelling demonstrated here will be useful to you in your own genealogy work and that these articles will inspire you to tell your own story.
The first-prize winner is Emalu Myer Simpson who has made use of land records to tell the story of Mary Covington, the widow of Phillip Covington of Somerset County. Although married women could not hold title to land without their husbands, they could purchase and inherit land, and widows had a “right of dower” to lands owned by their deceased husbands. Mary petitioned the general assembly to sell lands from her husband’s estate to satisfy his debts, and that petition contained a wealth of information, including her maiden name, information about her family, and many details of her early life.
Second prize went to Gene R. Major for his article tracing Clarissa Fox of Anne Arundel County. Using family bibles, Sons of the American Revolution applications, census records, and pension petitions, the author proves with indirect evidence that Clarissa was probably a daughter of Sgt. Anthony Fox, Revolutionary War soldier.
Our third-place winner is Annette Burke Lyttle, who documents the life of Jacob S. Perry, a carpenter, cabinet maker, and undertaker in Frederick County. Census records, newspaper articles, gravestones, and wills help to paint a picture of Jacob’s life and that of his family.
John Carter was given honorable mention for his article on the Wyatt family in Maryland and Delaware. Although the family of Noah Wyatt has previously been well documented, this article suggests that he had a second family with an enslaved woman who bore him six children.
Ross Gorman’s article connects the well-known Blakiston family of Maryland to a less-well-known branch of the family—the Blackstones of Ohio, tracing the families from their common origins in Durham, England.
And Mike Sapp uncovers a wealth of new information concerning the Curry and Fitzgerald families by examining the Loudon Park mausoleum records, which provided maps, names, and dates for the ancestors buried there.
As always, we keep you informed about recent publications in genealogy with reviews from Allender Sybert, including in this issue a guide to researching Catholic nuns.
We hope that reading this issue of the Journal will prompt you to write your own story. We are always looking for well written and well researched articles to include in the Journal. Articles are posted on the MGS website on publication, so that all members have access to them.