At the C. Burr Artz Public Library, Frederick, MD
The Maryland Room at the far end of the second floor of Frederick, Maryland’s C. Burr Artz Public Library is a research room specializing in history and genealogy resources for the Frederick County and Maryland State region. I was able to review indexes of historical names dating back to at least the mid-1700s to find transcriptions and images of the original church records containing two Plaster (Plasterer) individuals considered to be family ancestors. The name was not generally found elsewhere in the indexes but the surname of their wives were found and may provide some further information about those families and the community.
The location of the two marriages in Frederick (John Plesterer – m. 1777, and son Joseph Plesterer – m. 1970) motivated me to make a special 24 hour visit to Frederick and to the Maryland Room, in particular. An internet search provided the location and contact information about the library and I also discovered the series of genealogy videos, “Genealogy Moments,” created by The Maryland Room librarian, Mary Mannix. She started them during the COVID shut-in time and continued to record them after returning to the libary, as one can see from the background of each video. The episodes are no longer than 10-15+ minutes but are packed with research advice and valuable library resources to study.
Mary Mannix, recording thon the first “Genealogy Moment” video, and Dan (yours truly) taking a selfie in The Maryland Room.
Mary was at her desk in The Maryland room when I first visited the library the in the evening after arriving in Baltimore and driving to Frederick. After disucussing my goals for the visit (that evening and the following morning) and checking in my backpack, she brought out some indexes to check and transcriptions of the church records where my 1700s likely ancestors were reportedly married.
Although I didn’t discover any new information about Plasters in the area in the 1700s, it was very rewarding to have identified sources of the marriage information, see surnames of the spouses in the indexes of that time, and eventually download scans of the original manuscript records of the two marriages from microfilm scans (for Joseph P.) and original document scans (for John P.). This sort of source identification and documentation is the sort of evidence that I hope to find and share on web-page timelines. Hopefully, others will be able to see what I have collected and share other information that they might have.
Behind the library, which is tucked behind a large Methodist church and a sizable parking garage,, runs the Carroll Creek. The static display of decorated boats is apparently a seasonal festival of some sort. I am sure it is very pretty at night, as well. (I guess the stream doesn’t generally freeze.) It’s a beautiful small city with a great variety of old and new architecture. At the City Hall Square, there are markers noting that Francis Scott Key (writer of The Star Spangled Banner verses) was baptized in the city and returned to practice law after his military and government service. It’s not a long drive north from Dulles, VA, and I recommend a stopover there is you have the chance!