The Archives of Maryland is pleased to announce the addition of phrase searching to our search engine. Although this is still being tested we felt it was important enough to announce immediately. Phrase searching can be employed by using quotes around the search terms. However, words which are not indexed, that is words smaller than three letters, can not be used in a phrase search. Example: a search for "loaf of bread" would be shortened to "loaf bread" and that would be the phrase searched.
The following error:
Error - 403
Failed to read headers returned by server.
Headers were invalid or incomplete.
Means that the search engine took too long to perform the search. You can re-submit the search but some searches will not execute due to the complexity of the search. We are working to correct this problem.

There are several ways to approach searching the Archives of Maryland Online:

• Search - The search box at the top of every page will conduct a search across the entire website. When you are looking at an individual volume it will give you the option of searching only that volume or the entire site. The search engine only works on volumes that have been converted to text. If you are looking at a volume that is showing you images of the page rather than text you will not be able to search.
• Boolean searching - Boolean searching allows you to specify terms to be excluded from your search. Example: a search for Coleman not Robert will find all pages with the word Coleman, and without the word Robert.
• Advanced Search - The advanced search allows you to search within defined date ranges or within a topic. However, if a volume has material that cuts across the defined date range, the entire volume will be searched. Note: this page is not always up to date.
• Topical List - The Topical List is located on the left side of every page. We are working on descriptions for each of these topics to give researchers a better idea of the type of materials they will find.
• Guide to Government Records - The guide is composed of agency histories and descriptions of record series created by the agency. It is arranged alphabetically by name of the agency or government entity that generated the records or transferred them to the Archives. Each history is followed by an alphabetical listing of series, or types of records, created by the agency (in capital letters). If the material is available online it will be listed with a link to the Archives of Maryland Online.
• Government Publications Database