When visiting art museums, don’t stop with the elegant paintings and sculptures. Check to see whether the facility has samplers and other items of specific interest to genealogists.

A recent trip to the Portland Museum of Art revealed three pieces known as “mourning art,” a genre that became popular after the death of our first president, George Washington. They are located on the fourth floor in “Decorative Arts and American Paintings.”

One of the works, made of silk, chenille and watercolor, featured trees and a woman. It memorialized three members of one family: “Mrs. Chloe McLellan died June 14th, 1813, aged 31 years. Alexander McLellan died May 13th, 1812, aged one week. Joseph McLellan died May 28, 1813, aged one day.” Pictured is an urn with the letters “CM” over “AM x JM.”

The artwork was purchased partially with money from the McLellan-Sweat House fund, referring to the 1800-1801 Federal-style house behind the museum on High Street.

Another picture, done in oil on panel, is marked Waitsill Kneeland and Mrs. Lucinda Kneeland Memorial. It states: “Sacred in remembrance of Mrs. Waitsill Kneeland, who died Feb. 2, 1806, ae 20; also Mrs. Lucinda Kneeland, who died Sept. 28, 1812, ae 32, Each with a lovely babe sleeping in dust. “Beloved in life, in death lamented sore, Faithful and true, and constant all their days. Their spirits fled, will visit us no more, But in their Father’s house, they sing his praise.”

Pictured are a woman with an urn with flowers and an angel with head bowed on the monument. Mourning items made in memory of Washington include a locket with an etching of an angel leaning on Washington’s monument. Mourning jewelry, sometimes containing a lock of hair of the deceased, was common during the 18th and 19th centuries.

The third painting in Portland was marked: “Sacred to the memory of Mrs. Sarah H. Stickney, June 15, 1827. Only daughter of Mr. Joseph and Mrs. Margery Hale, she was born in Newburyport, Mass., April 27, 1803, And died in Portland, Maine, June 15, 1827.” It was reverse-painted on glass, in a gilt frame, and was the gift of Anita and Charles Stickney.

On the Mormon Web site, www.familysearch.org, we find a marriage record for a Sarah Hale to Henry Rolfe Stickney in 1822 in Newburyport. Henry apparently remarried after Sarah’s death, because there is also a marriage record of him and Ann Huntress Little in 1831 in Cumberland County.

It’s always good to hear that a family history is being updated, especially when earlier editions are out of print. Janet Candage Rourke, who with the late Charles Candage was co-author of “The Descendants of James Candage/Cavendish of Blue Hill, Maine,” is working on the book’s third edition for publication in early spring. This volume will add several more female lines to the family, whose descendants live around the country.

“I would like to hear from anyone whose family was omitted in the previous editions [1995 and 1996] or who has a lead to a missing family. Additional info on those families who were included also would be welcome,” Rourke writes.

Of course, there will be an every-name index.

The deadline for getting information to the author is Jan. 19. Send it to Janet C. Rourke, 29 Sunrise Terrace, Orono 04473.

Speaking of writers, former Family Ties columnist Connee Jellison is continuing work on the Hamor genealogy, “especially that of John Hamor and his wife Mary Rodick, who married at perhaps Kennebunkport, July 1, 1753, and came to what is now Hulls Cove in 1768. Have material to share.”

So if you have information on the Hammer, Hamer and Hamor families in this line, write Jellison at P.O. Box 58, Salisbury Cove 04672-0058.

You may be familiar with Jellison’s books, including “Amherst, Maine, Her Settlement and People;” “Along the Union River;” and “Hancock County, A Rock-Bound Paradise: A Bicentennial Pictorial.”

3056. WATSON-CASWELL. Would like to find any info on John Watson, b. Sept. 21, 1783, Poland, Androscoggin County. He was the son of John and Eunice (Caswell) Watson. Possibly he moved out of the area and went to, or toward, Aroostook County. Any information appreciated. Elaine Eddy, 422 Zions Hill Road, Dexter 04930; or e-mail lakeview@kynd.com.

3057. SPEED. Seeking ancestry for Benjamin Speed. According to a gravestone in the town of Washington, a Benjamin Speed d. May 1, 1859. Wife Priscilla, b. about 1784, d. June 15, 1870. They had a daughter, Ruth Speed. Was one of their children the David Speed, b. about 1789, d. Dec. 2, 1850, in Washington? If so, what was maiden name and ancestry for Priscilla? Danny W. Howard, DECF, Box 428, Machiasport 04655.

Send queries to Family Ties, Bangor Daily News, P.O. Box 1329, Bangor, ME 04402; or e-mail familyti@bangordailynews.net. Full name and address of sender is required even if e-mail is used.