BEFORE THE FIRE

Genealogical records are hard to find in this Dorchester County town on the Eastern Shore of Chesapeake Bay thanks to a midnineteenth century courthouse fire This researcher was able to find microfilm copies of a few disparate issues of the local newspaper thus filling in some of the gaps These precious newspapers also shed a bright beam of light on nineteenthcentury Dorchester County life its economic ups and downs politics Methodism dependence on the steamboat and cultural aspirations