Chadbourne descendants easy to trace

Who on Earth would name a newsletter “The Pied Cow”? Two points for you if you guessed the Chadbourne Family Association, comprising descendants of William Chadbourne of England and Berwick, Maine. The Pied Cow was the ship that brought William to New England in 1634.

Many of the Chadbourne descendants I know trace their lineage to one of two brothers who lived in the Harmony area, Hiram and Addison. There were other Chadbournes in the region, as well.

Hiram’s children, all by his second wife, Julia Augusta Libby, were: Alton, married Maude E. Witham; Plummer; Cecil, married Winnifred Oakes; Lula, married Charles Pearl Austin; Hubert Silas, married Marie Dore; Charles; Sylvia, may have married Guy C. Littlefield; Arthur; and Chester James, md. Gladys Irene Weymouth.

Addison married Betsey Libby, probably Julia’s sister, and had: Cora; Florence; Evelyn; Tobias; Angela F.; Viola Evelyn, married John Charles Fremont Bailey; Addie O’Dell, married Ora W. Willis; Blanche Natalia; Myrtle; Herbert V.; and Ivan A.

The brothers were two of the sons of James Chadbourne, whose ancestry was Samuel, Samuel, James, James, Humphrey, William. This information comes from a 1994 book I just discovered, Elaine Chadbourne Bacon’s “The Chadbourne Family in America: A Genealogy.”

The volume published by Penobscot Press presents descendants of William Chadbourne of Tamworth, England, and 1634 Kittery and Berwick, including all known male descendants for 14 generations; and female descendants’ families for five generations. As male descendants, the above-mentioned Herbert, Ivan and Plummer Chadbourne have their families explored more fully than the daughters I mentioned.

Bacon wrote the book for the Chadbourne Family Association, with help from several noted researchers, among them Joseph C. Anderson II, Emerson W. Baker, George F. Sanborn Jr., Melinde Lutz Sanborn and Lois Ware Thurston, a certified genealogist.

The Sanborns are both fellows of the American Society of Genealogists, and Anderson was recently elected to that elite group of 50.

In addition to the wonderful, meticulous research, the Chadbourne book offers facsimiles of the signatures of William Chadbourne, Humphrey Chadbourne and Humphrey’s wife, Lucia Stileman, who was born a Treworgye.

Though out of print, the book is available at Bangor Public Library, the Maine State Library in Augusta, and many other libraries, including those in Harmony and in several southern Maine towns. The Androscoggin and Bethel historical societies also have it.

If you use the Internet, you will be interested in the address for the Humphrey and Lucy Chadbourne Archaeology Site, which has been the subject of excavation for several years in South Berwick: www.salem.mass.edu/~ebaker/chadbourne.htm.

Emerson Baker, a former librarian in Maine, is an associate professor of history at Salem State College and director of the excavation. The site includes pictures of some of the items recovered.

The Web address also offers a link to the Chadbourne Family Association – the simplest way I find to get to the group’s Web site.

Membership to the association, which includes the newsletter, is $10 a year, $15 for a family membership, or $100 for an individual life membership. Write care of Linda Hanscom, Chadbourne’s Ridge, HCR 77 Box 8350, North Waterborough, ME 04087-9612. Also, ask about the book’s availability on CD-ROM.

The association has a reunion in southern Maine each August.

Are you just beginning to do your family’s genealogy? Or maybe you’ve been at it awhile, but aren’t sure you’re hitting all the bases?

It’s just the time to take an adult education class in genealogy. Phil Getchell, volunteer genealogist at Bangor Public Library, will teach a seven-week course at 6:30 p.m. Thursdays, beginning Feb. 1.

The first class will be at Bangor High School, and the rest at the library. The cost is $30 for Bangor residents, $40 for nonresidents; discounts for seniors. To register, go to the high school. For information only, call 941-6310.

3058. LITTLEFIELD-SPENCER. Seek any info on Giles Littlefield or his father, Ebenezer, who resided in the Greenbush and Lowell area. Ebenezer, b. about 1764, residence Greenbush, had marriage intentions to Sarah Spencer filed Feb. 16, 1780, apparently in Winslow. Giles married Nancy Littlefield of Orono, marriage intentions dated July 7, 1807.

Their children included Phillip, b. July 1, 1825, Greenbush. Giles was in Lowell in 1839, but neither he nor Nancy is listed by name in the 1840 census. She reappears in the 1850 census for Greenbush. Eugene Moreau, 33 Burke St., Farmingdale, ME 04344-1605; or e-mail geneiaq@aol.com.

3059. PERRY-SPRING. Looking for descendants of Florence C. Spring and George D. Perry of Machias, who md. Feb. 4, 1894. Dorene Bartlett, 270 Webberbrook Road, Oxford, ME 02470; or e-mail baabaa59@hotmail.com.

Send queries with Maine connections 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.