It was nice to see the Burnham Tavern featured in the November-December issue of American Spirit, the Daughters of the American Revolution magazine. Considered one of the 21 homes with the “most significance to the Revolution,” the building where patriots met in Machias is owned by Hannah Weston Chapter, DAR.

The magazine has changed, with what I think of as the “business” stuff separated into a different mailing for DAR members who subscribe.

That leaves the renamed American Spirit as a historical magazine of interest to the public, and to genealogists. Of special note in this issue is “Forgotten Patriots,” by Diane L. Dunkley, focusing on an exhibit on African-American and American Indian patriots during the Revolution.

Items on display at the DAR Museum in Washington include a portrait of John Neptune, one of numerous Penobscots who served in the Revolution; and Skenandoa’s pipe and 18th century wampum, both on loan from the Oneida Nation. There also are portraits of blacks who served in the Revolution.

The exhibit will be on display through Aug. 2, 2003, in the DAR Museum at 1776 D St. NW, about a five-minute walk from the White House. The museum also includes several period rooms sponsored by states, including the Maine Room.

On Jan. 11, a seminar on the forgotten patriots will be held at the headquarters of the National Society, DAR, in the same building. Those interested may download a registration form at www.dar.org. Year-round, except when the library is closed to the public during part of April, you may want to visit the NSDAR library.

State DARs and chapters, and individuals from all over the country have given the library books on genealogy and family history. Also, the various state DARs submit volumes of miscellaneous records each year, such as those Maine has deposited at Bangor Public Library, Maine State Library and Maine Historical Society. Some of these records have been published nowhere else.

Other articles in this issue of American Spirit include Jean Dixon Mann’s “Celebrate Your Family Heritage,” “Scotland and the Revolution,” “Thanksgiving Myths and Realities,” and “Quilts: America’s Storytellers,” with beautiful pictures of quilts. There’s also a full page of “new ancestors” approved by the DAR – that is, ancestors for whom documentation has been accepted that they served in the Revolution.

American Spirit is available to the public as well as members. The cost is $18 a year, checks payable to Treasurer General NSDAR, sent to DAR Magazine Office, 1776 D St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20006-5303.

Last week I wrote a review of “The Diaries of Sarah Jane and Emma Ann Foster: A Year in Maine During the Civil War,” edited by Wayne E. Reilly, an editor here at the Bangor Daily News. In addition, I want to note the kind of genealogical information you will find in such a book, if it is edited by an author with the kind of interest in details that Wayne has.

Of course he included a couple of pages on the family of Moses and Eliza Foster of Gray, parents of Jane and Emma. But so many other families are brought into the mix – Humphrey, Jordan, Haskell, Coombs among them.

He also seeks to illuminate just about every person mentioned by these young ladies during their diaries of 1864 – Jane died young, but Emma is one of Wayne’s his ancestors.

Several Civil War soldiers are mentioned as well, and he gives history relating to the war, schools, churches, everything that touched the lives of Jane and Emma.

The book is available for $24.50 at bookstores and through Picton Press at www.pictonpress.com. Also, the publisher has reprinted Wayne’s first book about Jane, “Sarah Jane Foster: Teacher of the Freedmen,” at $19.95. You can write for the books, Picton Press, P.O. Box 250, Rockport, ME 04856; telephone 236-6565. Book rate shipping is $4 for the first book, $2 additional; UPS $8 first book, $3 additional books.

3208. HOWARD-SHORTRIDGE. Seeking parents, ancestors of Capt. James Howard “of” Kittery, b. 1660, d. Sept. 7, 1708; md. before 1693 Mary Shortridge, b. 1661, Hampton, N.H., daughter of Richard and Esther (Dearborn) Shortridge. James and Mary had Edward Howard, b. 1704, Portsmouth, N.H., who md. Dec. 7, 1728, in Kittery, Susannah Mitchell, b. 1708. Danny W. Howard, DECF Box 428, Machiasport, ME 04655.

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