"Under the English rule of primogeniture...second sons and others who could not afford to pay their passage, sold themselves into virtual slavery as indentured servants...agreeing to serve their master for at least four years and often six or seven, on the plantations in the West Indies, or on the mainland in Maryland or Virginia. Upon completion of servitude and grant of freedom, the servant typically received a grant of fifty acres of land, a suit of clothes, corn for a year, and the tools of his trade. Millions of us are descended from these hardy adventurers." And so begins William Hurley's twenty-eighth quest to document the lineage of another local name, the Baker families, primarily of Montgomery and Frederick Counties. From Abednego Baker c. 1754, through his son Larkin Baker, his children and grandchildren, the author identifies hundreds of direct name descendants up to the present time. References to various collateral family surnames include Brandenburg, Burdette, Burroughs, Cromwell, Davis, Dorsey, Duvall, Hyatt, King, Kinsey, Mullineaux, Purdum, Riggs, Warthen, and Watkins. The second section of the book that deals with the Frederick County Bakers begins with Frederick Baker and his nine children and concludes with a chapter titled Baker Family Members of Frederick County. The volume also includes a chapter on miscellaneous Baker family members with origins other than Maryland. Mr. Hurley's signature solid research and easy to follow presentation is repeated in The Baker Families, as is an impressive bibliography and an extensive full name index.
