Worcester County MDGenWeb ABOUT WORCESTER COUNTY

Location

Worcester County is located on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. The county borders the Atlantic Ocean (east); Sussex County, Delaware (north); Wicomico and Somerset Counties, Maryland (west), and Accomack County, Virginia (south). To view a current map of Worcester and the surrounding area, please click here . To view the USGenWeb pages for the above counties, please click on their names.

Worcester Boundaries

The history of Worcester County's boundaries is very important to a family researcher. Originally, it was a part of Somerset County, founded in 1666. Worcester County itself was born on December 10, 1742, when the eastern section of Somerset was incorporated into a new county. Up until 1760, the colonies of Maryland and Delaware also both claimed the area of southern Sussex County. (Even after the boundary was surveyed and marked, many residents disputed which colony they lived in.) Finally in 1867, Wicomico County was created from parts of Somerset and Worcester. What does all of this mean to the genealogist? Well, in the course of researching a single family, records may be located in Princess Anne (seat of Somerset), Snow Hill (seat of Worcester), Salisbury (seat of Wicomico), Georgetown (seat of Sussex), or in the state capitals of Annapolis or Dover. A challenge? Yes, but that's half the fun of family research... Right?