Frequently Asked Questions
- How much stuff do you have, anyway?
- Images are a bit cumbersome to view in a browser.
- What are all these "Series?"
- What is in the subfolders, and why?
- I'm seeing "Sorry, this record is outside your Instance search area."
- There are no images in a record I want to see.
- What's with all these letters and numbers like X1, B2 and K1W?
- How can I determine the correct Map and Grid?
- About those Keyword searches.
- When I click on the "Generate pdf file" button nothing happens.
- When I click on a fieldbook and page reference nothing happens.
- When I click on a fieldbook and page, sometimes the wrong page comes up.
- What's with books 1 through 12? The pages seem to be from another book.
- These early books aren't really fieldbooks, are they?
- I've seen "B.P." references in a fieldbook reference. What's that?
- Some of the Series 5 rolls have geo references, but many do not. Why?
How much stuff do you have, anyway?
To be blunt, we're not sure. We have acquired the records of other firms and absorbed them into our retrieval system, and we've been scanning right along, so the entire collection has never been in one building at the same time. (Once it is scanned, it is transferred to the Maryland State Archives.) However, we can give some hints at the enormity of the pile: There are 194,363 directories (as of July 2009) comprising the digital collection. For a couple of reasons, it is not easy to get an accurate count of the number of images, but the whole archive tree now consumes about 400 gigabytes. An average of 300 images are added each day. And we estimate that somewhat less than half of what we control is now online.Images are a bit cumbersome to view in a browser.
It's easy to see that this site is all about images. Big ones, small ones, and in all shapes. Browsers tend not to handle images in a way that serious researchers need. Features like panning and zooming, printing to large format printers, etc., are cumbersome from within browsers, if they are possible at all. Since this site has been active inside our shop for years now, we have had some experience overcoming browser limitations. Here's what we have found:
We have a mix of Linux and Windows workstations in our office. (We can offer no advice for Mac users, at this time.) All of the major browsers on each OS platform surf the site adequately. But we have found that the Opera browser has the best combination of speed and friendliness to helper applications. It's a free download, and it runs on anything.
Those helper apps are the key to happy SJM surfing. You will want to set your browser to launch an image viewer for downloaded .jpg and .tif files. There are a number of free viewers floating out there that can serve as the helper app. Most Linux distros come with "eog" or "gwenview" (and a bevy of others) preinstalled. For Windows, ACDSee works well, but it is not free. Irfanview looks promising, although we have not tried it. Prior to XP, the Kodak image viewer came standard on Windows.
In our experience, Firefox doesn't pay attention to helper application settings concerning .jpg images, and thus, will make your life miserable when viewing our stuff. (The vast majority of our site is comprised of .jpgs.) Internet Explorer is, well, better left alone, for a gazillion reasons.
Those are our experiences; we'd be happy to hear yours.
What are all these "Series?"
Because we had so much material to organize, it made sense to subdivide it into logical groups. (This is standard archival procedure.) If we had to do it all over again today, we likely would re-arrange some of the series designations, and fold some series into others, but, what's done is done.
Here is what is now in each series:
| Series | Name | Description | This series actually does not contain any records itself. It "points" to parts of records in other series. Here's why: some of our records contain pieces of information widely disbursed from one another geographically. Estate files (series 7) are a good example. Each "record" consists of one estate, but that estate may contain properties all over the region. Geographically indexing the entire estate would result in widely disbursed results, many of which being of no use to the researcher. To determine which images are relevant, the researcher would have to examine the entire estate. We chose instead to create this series which "groups" selected images and geographically indexes that group. The holders of those groups live in Series 0, and are arranged in no particular order. | For years the firm kept track of Mayor and City Council of Baltimore land transactions. In this series are ledger books describing each one. Also here are Water Department records concerning watershed land and the conduits from it. | Recently we decided to organize architectural drawings of notable buildings, if the drawings came through our hands. This series is where they rest. | Here are the records for which the firm is famous among non-surveyors: the wall maps and atlases produced in the second half of the 19th century. | This is the big one. Here are all of the base survey files for the 56,000 or so surveys conducted by the firm over the years, and also the records returned to us from other surveyors who have used our data in their surveys. | The oversized material that couldn't be folded up into a packet was rolled and stored here. Note that we lost all the extant rolls in the Great Baltimore Fire of February 7-8, 1904, so for the most part this material has been generated since then. | This series holds both the actual field notebooks carried on-site by the surveyors and the "Survey Record" books, maintained until about 1909, which document the final results of the surveys. | For a time, the firm was actively engaged in settling the estates of prominent Baltimoreans, such as John W. Garrett, William Wilkens and John S. Gittings. This series (which is not scanned yet) contains land title data, valuations, and sketches (or surveys) of all the real property in those estates. | This series is an eclectic collection of older data of interest to surveyors and historians, including the record books of 18th and early 19th century surveyors active in the area. Also here are the original Thomas Poppleton letters defending his approach to the 1822 survey of Baltimore. | The records of Howard C. Sutton, and of Sutton, Britcher and Associates, covering the period of 1922 through 1944. | Edward V. Coonan (pronounced coo-NAN) worked here from 1894 to 1898, associated himself with the Bouldins for a time, and then launched his own firm. Operated until the 1960's, the firm's records thereafter remained in the possession of Russell Herbert, and later his son Ron. In 1995 the oversized plats (rolls) of the firm were given to us. We broke the 1,200 or so rolls down into about 2,400 rolls, organized by location. Since Coonan had acquired the records of Thomas Disney, Disney's oversized plats are also in this series, as well as those of William Shipley, whose records Disney had obtained prior to his death. | Purdum and Jeschke was an engineering and surveying firm started in 1950 by William D. Purdum, that continued in operation until about 2001. In 2005, SJM purchased the surveying records. The engineering records remain in the custody of EBL Engineers. | This series currently has information regarding the Streets and Roads in Baltimore City, particularly McCreary's Street Index, published in 1903, which lists deeds and ordinances, etc. for all streets then within the Baltimore City limits. There is nothing else quite like it in the State. | Here are the Railroad Valuation Maps for the region produced by most railroads beginning in 1919. We do not have a complete set, but we likely have more in one place than anyone else in Maryland save the National Archives in Silver Spring (which has them all!). Also here are Port Wardens' Line plats, Pierhead and Bulkhead Plats for the Baltimore Harbor, etc. | This is a series likely to be re-used as something else. There is nothing currently in it. | Occasionally we require information from the Maryland State Archives. This is where that data is stored. | Occasionally we require information from the Baltimore City Archives. This is where that data is stored. | The Bouldins were the surveyors in the region from the late 1700's until Martenet showed up. Well, perhaps a bit longer than that! The firm finally ceased operations after the Great Baltimore Fire in 1904. The records were in the possession of the City until recently, when they were transferred to the Maryland State Archives. Later they came here for scanning and indexing. The scanning is complete, but the indexing has yet to begin. | Here are the original subdivision plats covering the earliest developed areas of Baltimore City, most of which were prepared pursuant to Acts of the Maryland General Assembly. | Baltimore City has expanded its limits a number of times, the last major one of which occurred in 1918. The subdivision plats lying within that part of Baltimore County transfered to the City were called "Annex Plats." Here they are, comprising about 7 plat books. |
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You will notice that the Martenet-generated material is largely contained within Series 3 through Series 7.
What is in the subfolders, and why?
Modern survey file folders can get pretty large. Upon reflection, it occurred to us that the same sorts of material occur in most files, and, if grouped together, could make it easier for searchers to find what they seek. So we decided to subdivide some of our larger files into subsections (called subfolders). In general, here is what subfolders contain:
 | Description | Computations concerning the survey. | Construction-support material, such as cut-sheets, etc. | Copies of earlier surveys and other data used in the survey. | Copies of recorded deeds used in the survey. | Copies of field notes or data collection print-outs. | Correspondence, legal descriptions written as a result of the survey, letters of transmittal, title commitments, etc. |
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In the "root" of the record (i.e. not in the subfolders), will be the oversized material of the survey, drawings, etc. One note of caution: our sorting has not been perfect. Although we recommend starting your search using the descriptions above, do not assume that the record does not exist if not in the correct folder. Examine the other folders before abandoning the search.
I'm seeing "Sorry, this record is outside your Instance search area."
This message appears when the record you seek lies outside of the geographic area covered by your Instance. (An Instance is comprised of
- A certain user,
- A certain timeframe, and
- A certain geographic area.)
- Subscribe to the entire site for a period of time,
- call us, and request a widening of the Instance geography, or
- call us, and request another Instance in another geographic area.
There are no images in a record I want to see.
Converting our archive from paper records to digital records is a big job, and we've been working on various aspects of it since 1991. But it is not complete. See our upload status for details on what is online and what's not. We have years of scanning ahead of us because of the sheer volume of material, coupled with our limited staff (including Maryland State Archives personnel). If the record you seek is essential to your current work, we will, for an additional fee, retrieve it and move it to the head of our queue. That will take at least a couple of business days or so (and sometimes longer, depending on our staffing abilities and on the nature of the record itself). Call our office for details. If your instance is scheduled to expire in the meantime, let us know, and we will extend the instance.What's with all these letters and numbers like X1, B2 and K1W?
Those are the Martenet section numbers. Early in the life of the firm, Martenet divided the metropolitan region into sections (like zip codes) for purposes of organizing our records. This served to speed subsequent archive searches. For reasons explained below, it is not necessary anymore to understand where the sections were, but for purposes of history, we'll explain it here anyway.The Baltimore downtown area was designated K, and further subdivided into K1 and K2, Baltimore Street being the division line, and yet again K1E and K1W (east and west). South of the K's, I1 and I2 covered Locust Point and the land immediately to the west. Surrounding the K's and running counter-clockwise from the Fells Point area were A1, B1, C1, etc., to H1 in the southwest part of the inner city. These sections extended to the 1816 city limits (North Avenue, etc.). Extending those sections farther out to the 1888 city limits, radially, were A2, B2, C2, etc. Using major radial geographic features he subdivided the outer areas -- Harford Road is the division line between X1 (to the southeast) and X2 (to the northwest). X2 generally lies between Harford Road and the Jones Falls, etc. X3 is the northwest part of town, X4 the southwest. The X sections extend all the way out past the Beltway where they meet X5 which wraps completely around the others and covers the balance of Baltimore County. There are complicated division lines between X5 and the other X's. Other counties were all designated "MD." (One other anomaly: We did so much work for the Canton Company, it got its own section, "CAN." You'll find no client entries in CAN packets for that reason.)
To search, one found the relevant section, then consulted index cards (one or more for each street in the section), such as at left. The entries on the card pointed to the packet, and the packet front page contained any additional references.Both the physical packets and the oversized rolls were filed by section, and then chronologically in the case of the packets, and by roll number in the case of the rolls. All the packets have been scanned and sent to the State Archives, but the remaining unscanned rolls still are grouped in our office by section.
Our present geographic search capability largely obsoletes the Martenet-sections scheme of retrieval. It is no longer necessary to find which section contains the area of interest, because Map and Grid searches return all the records in that specific area. Moreover, as street names changed over the years, a more frequent occurance than might be imagined, the streets named on the index cards might not be the recognizable street name of today. We spent 14 years (and a pile of money!) re-indexing our archives using geo-coding, but we think the effort was worth it. The old system is now mostly a curiosity.
There is, however, one aspect of the section scheme that is still relevant: references to other papers in the files themselves will assume familiarity with the sections scheme. So, if in papers there is a reference to X2 10/24/1959, there is no way to retrieve that particular record except by entering that data on the "Martenet packets" page. Plat rolls are retrieved in a similar fashion on the same page.
Records of surveys conducted by the firm since 1988 use "SJM" as the section, and the project number as the "date."
How can I determine the correct Map and Grid?
The easiest way is to go to the Assessments and Taxation website and enter the street address. On the resulting page will be listed, among a sea of other information about the property, the Tax Map and Grid. In Baltimore City, ignore the Map listing and use the Block number (to the right on the same line), and leave the grid blank. The county designations used are as follows:
| Allegany: AL | Kent: KE | Anne Arundel: AA | Montgomery: MO | Baltimore City: BC | Prince George's: PG | Baltimore County: BA | Queen Anne's: QA | Carroll: CA | St. Mary's: SM | Cecil: CE | Talbot: TA | Dorchester: DO | Wicomoco: WI | Frederick: FR | Worchester: WO | Harford: HA | Washington, D.C: DC | Howard: HO | Delaware: DE | Pennsylvania: PA | Virginia: VA |
Occasionally Baltimore City changes block designations. We don't. Therefore, you may encounter a situation where no records appear in the block searched. As far as we can tell, we have data in every city block, without exception. If you get no hits, search by street names (front street and intersecting street), open one of the results, and see which block it is indexed within. Searching that block should yield results.
One other anomoly: the tax maps for towns, i.e. Towson, Ellicott City, Glen Burnie, are enlargements of one or more sheets of the regular maps, and are distinguished by letters added to the end of the map number. Our indexing has ignored the enlarged sheets, and instead indexed the records against the underlying, small-scale sheets. Thus, searching for map 70A in Baltimore County (Towson proper) will yield zero results; searching for map 70, grid 8 (which covers some of the same area as map 70A) will yield a bonanza of hits.
Ultimately, when we get around to it, searches will be a graphical exercise, where you merely pan and zoom to the area of interest, then ask for relevant records. Maybe next week!
About those Keyword searches:
The keyword search box will return results on single or multiple word searches, separated by spaces. You may also refine the search results by adding a "-" prior to the search term. For instance, searching for titles "pratt washington -chapel" will return all results containing pratt and washington, except any that also contain the term "chapel." Search terms must be at least 4 characters long; shorter words are not indexed, and thus will return no results.Searching for a particular client may be misleading. Often, but not always, our client was the attorney representing the landowner, not the landowner himself. The deed information within the record will reveal who the landowner was, but that information is not contained within the search fields. So a search for client "Martin Chuzzlewit" returning no results does not mean that we have no survey of his property. It just means that alternative search methods must be used to find it.
When I click on the "Generate pdf file" button nothing happens.
Our server has a number of security settings, one of which concerns the amount of memory any one "thread" can use. We have found that requesting pdfs of very large packets, or of large drawings, will exceed that memory limit. Once the threshold is reached, the operating system shuts the process down, and you get nothing. (We have increased the memory allocable to threads, but for some material that still isn't enough.) So, you'll have to generate pdfs of chunks of the file instead. In the box immediately to the left of the "generate pdf" button, enter the ranges of pages desired using dashes to describe the range limits and commas to separate the ranges. For instance, all of the following are valid entries:1-4, 6-15, 34-36
106-119,2-6,135-140