MDLandRec has the capability to search by block number or street address for Baltimore City only. To do an address search for any other county, visit the Maryland State Department of Assessment and Taxation (SDAT) Real Property Data Search website. Follow the directions on the Real Property Data Search page to search for the address of the desired property.

The SDAT Real Property Data Search provides a land record "deed reference" in the Owner Information section of most property listings. This is formatted as Book/Page. A deed reference appearing as 6535/240 would be entered into MDLandRec as book 6535 page 240. Once you have obtained the deed reference, go back to MDLandRec, choose the appropriate county, and enter your book and page numbers.

All mortgages recorded by the Maryland County Circuit Courts in the land record books are available on MDLandRec. However, while you can sort by instrument type, the Circuit Courts do not generally delineate among different types of mortgages in the indexing process. You may need to view the mortgage to determine if it is privately held.

You can use the SDAT tax account number on MDLandRec for Montgomery County only. If the tax account number is written with zeroes at the beginning, remove the zeroes when entering the number into an MDLandRec search.

To do a tax account ID number search for any other county, visit the Maryland State Department of Assessment and Taxation (SDAT) Real Property Data Search website. Follow the directions on the Real Property Data Search page to search for the tax account ID number of the desired property. The SDAT Real Property Data Search provides a land record "deed reference" in the Owner Information section of most property listings. This is formatted as Book/Page. A deed reference appearing as 6535/240 would be entered into MDLandRec as book 6535 page 240. Once you have obtained the deed reference, go back to MDLandRec, choose the appropriate county, and enter your book and page numbers.

The process of determining ground rent can be complicated, and we suggest that you contact the real estate professional or attorney who managed your real estate settlement, your mortgage holder, and/or a professional title searcher. The first means of establishing whether you pay ground rent is to examine your deed. The deed should establish whether there is ground rent, and will commonly be termed as a "deed of assignment;" if it is a deed in "fee simple," there is no ground rent. Since a ground rent can be a perpetual lease, usually in 99-year terms, it can be difficult to determine the current leasehold owner.

The State Department of Assessment and Taxation provides instructions for the Maryland Ground Rent Redemption System, which may be helpful.

The State Department of Assessments and Taxation Real Property Data Search may also be useful in providing information about the property such as most recent deed reference, block number, ground rent registration, etc. based on property address.

In using MDLandRec to search for relevant instruments, please note that for Baltimore City instruments can be searched by block and/or address, grantor/grantee, or book citation. You may wish to view the MDLandRec user's guide for Baltimore City for more information.

Multiple name search options are available to a user. While the default search option for is an exact search (IS search), a user has the option to change it to a "Begins With", "Ends With", or "Contains" search when searching by first and middle names. A last name search is given these options as well, along with the option of a "Fuzzy" and "Soundex" search. All of these search options are available to choose from individual drop down menus.

While the MDLandRec system does not allow you to limit your search to one kind of record, you are able to sort by instrument type when doing instrument searches. To do this, change the "sort by" box to "instrument ascending" or "instrument descending" when using the electronic indices. This will group records of the same kind together.

The MDLandRec system provides the capability of viewing and printing out an entire instrument for records indexed electronically. In order to print an entire instrument, you will need to use an electronic index search feature such as instrument by book and page, individual, corporation, or Soundex. These searches will retrieve an entire instrument as a pdf file.

Single page search options, such as "Jump to New Volume," display a single page regardless of the number of pages in the instrument. However, users have the option to display as many as ten pages at one time in these search features. Records not electronically indexed are only accessible through single page searches.

The MDLandRec system provides electronic index searches for any documents indexed electronically. Each county has a date range listed for its electronic index. The "Jump to New Volume" search can access any record on MDLandRec, including those that predate the electronic index.

Each county page shows you the date range for the electronic index searches (such as the instrument, individual, corporation, or Soundex searches). If you want to view a land record that predates this date range, use the "Jump to New Volume" search fields to enter the clerk's initials (optional), book number, and page number. If you don't know the book and page of a land record that predates the date range covered by the electronic index, use the Historical Indices or Retired Indices link to search the old paper indices.

Indexing on MDLandRec is derived from the Courts' mainframe indexing system. If you believe there is an indexing mistake, please click on the "Contact Us" link located at the top of website. This will redirect you to a comments form that will be sent to our Archives' Help Desk. Please include a description of the suspected mistake and applicable county, year, book, and page number. The Archives and the appropriate Circuit Court will research the issue. If a correction needs to be made, the Clerks' office will make a correction to the Court's indexing.

When you come across an image that is illegible or incorrect, you may contact us by clicking on the link to the right of the images that is marked "Send Image Feedback." By filling out the feedback form, your comments will be emailed to the Archives' Help Desk for review. You can also send a comment using the "Contact Us" link located at the top of the website. This will redirect you to a comments form that will be sent to our Archives' Help Desk. Please make certain to include all pertinent information about the images, such as county, book, and page.

Prince George's County Agreements, Assignments, Notices, and Releases from 1966-1994 are indexed in a separate index series, MSA CE411. This index series is available on MDLandRec among the historical indices. Prior to 1966 releases are indexed only on the instrument to which they relate.

If you are using tabbed browsing and you want the image of the document to appear in a new window rather than a new tab, you can do so by changing your browser settings. Check your browser's help menu for further information.

Adobe Reader also has settings that allow you to determine whether images open in the browser or in a new window.

If you are doing an electronic index instrument search, the document will open in a new window if you click on the instrument type. You can also have documents open in a new window when doing an electronic index search by right clicking on the instrument type or the book and page number and selecting "Open in New Window" from the pop-up menu.

The date range feature is available for searches of the electronic index. The years covered by this index are displayed on each county page. If you want to limit your instrument search to a certain date range, select "Specific date range" from the date range menu and enter a beginning and ending date. For example, if you only want documents recorded in 2008, you would enter 01/01/2008 to 12/31/2008. If you only wanted records from December of 2008, you would enter 12/01/2008 to 12/31/2008.

You can also choose "Before this date" or "After this date" if you want only a beginning limit or an ending limit for your search. If you only want documents recorded on a specific day, select "On this date." If you select "All dates" the search returns will include all years covered by the electronic index.