19th century map at Milbridge museum reveals connections to Hayford family

It was so nice visiting with members of the Milbridge Historical Society last week.

I haven’t found Sawyers or Strouts or Ficketts in my family, so far, so I’d have told you I probably didn’t have many cousins in the Washington County town of Milbridge. And I’d have been wrong.

How shall I put this delicately? I discovered my connections to Milbridge in the museum restroom, thanks to a copy of a 19th century map hanging on the wall.

The document contained markings indicating, generally, where people lived in town. We call such items cadastral maps.

“A. Hayford” marked one spot. Hayfords lived in Milbridge? They sure did.

Well, I thought, these would be some very distant cousins – other descendants of John Heiford and Abigail Albins of Braintree, Mass. Could it be that I’d find some reference to Milbridge in Otis Hayford’s “History of the Hayford Family,” published in 1901?

The book is not indexed, so I started at the end, browsing backward through the later generations. There, on page 237, was Hannibal Lafayette Hayford, of “Millbridge,” husband of Elmira G. Dyer, father of Walter, Eugene and Earl Hayford.

Hannibal’s father was America Bonney Hayford, born 1818 at Salem in Franklin County, moved to Steuben and then to Milbridge. America’s parents were Albert and Deborah (Bonney) Hayford.

It’s interesting that Deborah should have had a grandson named Hannibal. It turns out that Hannibal Hamlin, Lincoln’s first vice president, himself had a grandmother who was a Bonney.

Deborah wasn’t the only Bonney ancestor of Hannibal Hayford, however. Albert’s parents were my William Hayford, a Revolutionary War veteran from Pembroke, Mass., and his wife, Betty Bonney, who came to the Maine town of Hartford.

Otis Hayford’s book says that William’s six sons – that would include Albert – all were “more than six feet in height. Zeri, the fourth son, stood six feet, seven and one-half inches.”

Albert’s many siblings included my Matilda Hayford, who married Abiathar Briggs and raised a family in Parkman. And of course there were Hayfords in Bangor, hence the name Hayford Park on Union Street.

Did I say it was a small world?

Otis Hayford’s Book is available in the Bangor Room at Bangor Public Library, at the Fogler Library on the University of Maine campus in Orono, and at Maine State Library in Augusta.

And when you’re in Milbridge, do stop in when the museum is open – 1-4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday beginning in late May, and add Tuesday to that schedule in July and August. It is open by appointment also.

The group has a lovely store, and also publishes a nice newsletter. For information, write Milbridge Historical Society, P.O. Box 194, Milbridge, ME 04658.

Now, I’m not making this up. Cheryl Domina will talk about genealogy available at the hatchery. Domina, from Craig Brook Fish Hatchery, will speak at 2:30 p.m. April 20, at the meeting of the Hancock County Genealogical Society. The location is the Riverview Room, Ellsworth Public Library. The entrance is on the lower level in back of the building.

The next meeting of the Washington County Genealogical Society will be held 1 p.m. April 20, at the home of Valdine Atwood, 2 Free St., Machias. It’s not hard to find. Her home is within sight of the Burnham Tavern. Park in the Colonial Parking Lot.

The public is welcome to come see what connections they might have to families in this area of Maine.

Membership is $10 a year, which includes the quarterly newsletter, Weirs and Woods. For information on the group, contact Frances Raye, president, at 853-6630, or Valdine Atwood, secretary, at 255-4432.

The Priscilla Alden Colony of the Society of Mayflower Descendants in the State of Maine will meet at noon April 20 at Miller’s Restaurant in Bangor. I will give a talk, “All My Cousins,” speak a little about my Mayflower lines, and display the 108-year-old patchwork quilt made by my great-great-great-grandmother, Lovina Leighton Moore.

Thinking about going to the McGibbon family reunion July 5-7 in Saint Stephen, New Brunswick? The event is for descendants of William and Agnes McGibbon from Ireland. For information, contact Barb Stephens, 59 Coventry Crescent, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada E3B 4P4, or call (506) 454-3107.

3180. KNIGHT. Looking for any information on Thomas N. Night, d. 1865, buried Kneeland-Conner Cemetery, Winterport. Gerald Hughes, Box 113, Carmel, ME 04419.

3181. PAYNE-LOWELL. Need help on Judaea Payne, born about 1796, maybe Maine or Massachusetts. She md. Benjamin Lowell, 1814, in Bucksport. He was married to Susie Basett, too. I hope someone else is doing genealogy on this line. Margaret Goode, 309 Ohio St., Bangor, ME 04401; send e-mail to mag1938@aol.com.

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