This time of year, you shouldn’t need an excuse to visit Greenville, the lovely town at the foot of Moosehead Lake. But if you do, I’d suggest a tour of the Eveleth-Crafts-Sheridan House, home of the Moosehead Historical Society.

Tour guides gave me a fascinating look at this 1893 building on Pritham Avenue in Greenville Junction, a gift from the estate of Julia Crafts Sheridan years ago.

Julia’s story is both amazing and sad – that of a strong woman from the turn of the century, knowledgeable in her family’s business affairs. But times dictated that such a woman had to be married to be accepted in the business world, so she entered a contract marriage with Philip Sheridan in order to live her chosen life.

The museum itself is worth the visit – the beautiful old furniture and appurtenances, the pantry and kitchen, the pictures of the Eveleth and Crafts family members, the medical collection that includes Doc Pritham’s musical horn, the lumbering items and bateaux.

Offices for the society are located in the carriage house, where you also can see Indian artifacts such as arrowheads.

The society’s collection includes scrapbooks and a file on people buried in the town cemetery. Give staff the names of your ancestors, and they’ll also check the growing collection of vertical files to see what the society has on them.

The carriage house is open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesday through Friday through September. Guided tours are available 1-4 p.m. the same days through September.

Appointments to use the society’s collection also may be made year-round by calling Executive Director Everett Parker, 695-2909.

Membership to the society, which includes the quarterly newsletter, is $5 individual, $10 family, or $100 lifetime for an individual.

You may join by writing Moosehead Historical Society, P.O. Box 1116, Greenville 04441-1116.

Two questions to ask when you visit a historical society or museum in the area where your family lived: What do you have on my family? What do I have that I can share with you?

For instance, I’m going to make copies of genealogy and pictures of my great-great-grandmother, Mary Alice (Cummings) Bennett Lord, an artist who was born in Greenville in 1859.

The Moosehead Historical Society also is looking for issues of The Northern magazine, and for certain copies of the Chrysalis yearbook, Down East magazine and Greenville town reports.

If you go to Greenville, do stop by the Shaw Library, as well.

There’s really good news in the decision of Piscataquis County genealogists to restart the Wassabec Chapter of the Maine Genealogical Society.

Meetings will be held every other month – Sept. 13, Nov. 8, Jan. 10, March 4, May 9 and July 11, at 6:30 p.m. in the Penquis CAP building in Dover-Foxcroft.

Dues are $5 a year. Estelle “Tootie” Bennett is president, Nancy Battick is vice president, and John Battick is secretary-treasurer. Send dues in care of John at 117 Foxcroft Center Road, Dover-Foxcroft, ME 04426.

For information, call Tootie at 876-3073 or the Batticks at 564-3576.

A couple of weeks back, we told you about Maine GenWeb, and some of the links to on-line resources. Nancy Porter, who coordinates the site for Franklin County, urges a look at that site.

You will find it at www.rootsweb.com/~mefrankl/start.htm. Of particular interest are topics such as Farmington Marriages, Farmington Military Information – circa 1850, and Marriages Found in the Probate Office in Franklin County Courthouse.

On another subject, when will the 1920 Census be released on microfilm? The answer is April 1, 2002, and that’s no April Fool. Do encourage your favorite repositories to obtain it promptly.

It’s a good thing I have so many of you to keep me on my toes. After I wrote about an article based on columns from Dexter’s Eastern Gazette in the 1930s and 1940s, Kaye Sakahara of Abbot wrote to ask where one might see these columns, “Old St. Albans Families” and “Local History Column.”

According to John E. D’Anieri, who wrote the piece on Jabez Rose Bates for The Maine Genealogist, bound collections of photocopies of these columns are available at the Maine State Library in Augusta and Maine Historical Society in Portland. Original issues are in the Abbot Library in Dexter.

3137. EATON-WILBUR. Seeking information on the family of Francis Sheridan Eaton, b. Jan. 18, 1896, Lamoine, son of Frank W. Eaton, a farmer born in Troy. Mother’s name was Ethel V. (Wilbur) Eaton, b. in Waltham. Other children of Frank and Ethel: Jennie Florence, b. July 26, 1889; Arthur Wilson, b. July 2, 1891; Helen Millie, b. Oct. 6, 1894; Georgia Lea, b. May 15, 1898; Bernard Leroy, b. July 3, 1901; Butha b. May, Feb. 5, 1906; and Hope Ethel, b. Aug. 12, 1911. Frank Wilson Eaton was adopted and raised by Hall family, I think mother’s name was Ida Hall. She had children John and Doris, and lived in Bangor. My father, Francis, joined the Navy and relocated to Baltimore. Janet Mary (Eaton) Hyson, 167 Seagull Drive, Pasadena, MD 21122.

3138. PACKARD-JACKINS. Need death dates and places for Shepherd and Polly (Jackins) Packard. They md. 1816 in Guilford. Polly’s name appears three times in “Martha Ballard’s Diary.” Eugene A. Jackins, 6 Franklin Ave., Houlton, ME 04730.

Send queries to Family Ties, Bangor Daily News, P.O. Box 1329, Bangor, ME 04402; or send e-mail to familyti@bangordailynews.net.