Internet provides easy access to marriage, birth indexes

There are new Web addresses for the marriage and birth indexes offered by the state of Maine. When you go to the Archives site at www.state.me.us/sos.arc, you will be asked to bookmark these addresses:

. Marriage Index for 1892-1966 and 1976-1996, at http://thor.dafs.state.me.us/pls/archives/archdev.marriagearchive.searchform

. Death Index for 1960-1996, at http://thor.dafs.state.me.us/pls/archives/archdev.deatharchive.searchform

You can see why we might want to bookmark them. They’re a little bit long to commit to memory.

Back to the regular site for the Archives. If you have not been there this year, you will need a new “search card,” which requires filling out a very short form and showing a picture ID. You can print out the form from the Web site and take it with you to save time.

The Archives is open 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Friday. Two Thursdays a month the search room does not open until 8:30 a.m.

While we’re on the subject of Internet sites, let’s review some other genealogical Web sites you may find useful.

. Some Maine cemetery records may be found on line. Check the MOCA Web site at www.rootsweb.com/~memoca/moca.htm.

. Records for Mount Hope Cemetery in Bangor are online at www.mthopebgr.com.

. The Social Security Death Index for the whole country may be found at ssdi.genealogy.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/ssdi.cgi.

. Books of all types, genealogy included, located at Bangor Public Library, Maine State Library and the University of Maine campuses throughout the state, are listed on URSUS at http://130.111.64.3. Find out which library has that family history before you go looking for it. Have a favorite author? See what else that person has written.

. For census records online, check www.censuslinks.com. Many of the records were provided by US GenWeb.

. For pre-1900 birth and marriage records in the United States and many other countries, check the Mormon Church Web site at www.familysearch.org. Of the resources on this site, the most accurate is the IGI, the International Genealogical Index. It includes records copied from countless towns and parishes. Very recently, the site started referencing the 1880 census as well. If you find the name you want with a census entry, you can call up the entire household and print it out for your records.

. A comprehensive genealogy site, with thousands of links to other Web sites, is www.cyndislist.com. I often check this site when I can’t remember the site for something else.

. For message boards on a particular surname, go to www.genforum.genealogy.com/surname. You don’t have to send in a question. Just browse if you want to, plugging in whatever last name you want to search.

. The Web site for Special Collections and local history at the Bangor Public Library is www.bpl.lib.me.us/spcoll/default.htm.

You also can use that Web site to find news of the Penobscot County Genealogy Society, which held its first meeting last week at the library. More than 30 people attended that meeting, a great turnout.

The group voted to be a chapter of the Maine Genealogical Society, and to elect officers: Dale Mower, president; Annette Roberts, vice president; Phil Getchell, secretary-treasurer; Shawn Weisser, program chairman; Patty Mower, newsletter editor.

Dues will be $5 a year, and may be sent to the Penobscot County Genealogical Society, c/o Phil Getchell, Bangor Public Library, 145 Harlow St., Bangor ME 04401.

Meetings have been scheduled for 6 p.m. the third Wednesday of the month, the next meeting being Nov. 20.

Local history librarian Bill Cook welcomed the group to the library, and I think it is wonderful that the library is being so supportive of the society. We will announce meeting topics as they become available – do join us.

3204. MCKAY-SOMERS-BOURQUE. Seeking sons or ancestors of Kenneth McKay and Evelyn Grace (Somers) McKay. Son Kenneth Jr. b. 1923, also another son Robert. Evelyn Grace md. Alfred Bourque in 1931. Seeking any descendants of Alfred Bourque. I am Michael Bourque York, sole survivor of a house fire on June 6, 1937, in which my mother and two brothers died. I was adopted in Rockwood. McKay, my half-brother, was born in Calais area. Michael F. York, P.O. Box 44, Charleston, ME 04422.

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