This two-volume county history contains sections devoted to the early settlement of the county and the development of its institutions--political, military, religious, and commercial. More important to the genealogist, however, is the work's standing as a genealogical and biographical record. Fully the last quarter of Volume I and all of Volume II are devoted to sketches of representative Allegany County persons. Compiled from original sources, the more than 1, 000 biographies provide compendious descriptions of the life and times of the subject.