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Archiver > MDFREDER > 2002-04 > 1017759969


From: "Gil Carrick" <>
Subject: RE: [MDFR] PA-MD Line
Date: Tue, 2 Apr 2002 09:06:09 -0600
In-Reply-To: <002801c1da53$634e4860$85c6e4d8@cumdc>


I would ask why you care. If you are trying to decide where to look for
more records then I would strongly suggest that you include MD. I have a
relative who lived on land that now includes the town of Ortana, PA. We
had looked for years in PA records to no avail.

Later we found out that until the Mason-Dixon survey line was adopted by
the Federal Government (as I recall) that area was considered to be a
part of MD. It is not quite accurate to say that there was confusion
about the border. It was just a legal decision to change it. We then
looked in the MD state archives & found several references to my
ancestor. The same documents showed him tied to two other men with the
same surname who liven in Emmitsburgh. There is no proof positive that
they are related, but at least we have more to look for. You can almost
throw a rock from Emmitsburgh to Ortana, so information about this area
is more suspect. If you are just asking what information to put on your
family group sheets, put whatever pleases you the most and add a
footnote that the legal state may be at issue.

Frederick is a little further south, so it is quite likely that any
births recorded as taking place "in Frederick" almost certainly were in
MD.

HTH.

Gil

mailto:
web page: http://home.attbi.com/~gilcarrick/
Gil Carrick, 1012 Portofino Dr., Arlington, TX, 76012


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Morris LeFever [mailto:]
> Sent: Tuesday, April 02, 2002 8:34 AM
> To:
> Subject: [MDFR] PA-MD Line
>
>
> People have cautioned me that a birth claimed as occurring in
> MD circa 1800, could just as well have been in PA, due to the
> shifting border and confusion then as to where the state line
> was. However, I do not think residents in the area of
> Frederick town and places a few miles to the north, including
> Graceham and Moravian Town had this confusion as to what
> state they were in. Is this correct? If a Frederick family
> said a birth 1805 was Maryland can I believe that?
>
>
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>

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