Genealogy the needle in newspaper haystack

Newspapers can be great resources for genealogists but challenging. Using them is like looking for a needle in a haystack, but first we have to find the haystack – the newspaper.

Fortunately, there are lots of ways these days we can find out where the haystacks are.

Old copies of the Bangor Daily News, for instance, are most easily accessed on microfilm at facilities such as Bangor Public Library, the University of Maine’s Fogler Library in Orono, and the University of Maine at Presque Isle Library.

The Bangor library and Fogler also have the Bangor Commercial. Most of the time, we need a date in order to find something in a newspaper.

Bangor Public Library, it turns out, has a very nice index for Greater Bangor area people in both the NEWS and the Commercial for most of the 20th century. It’s a card file, known as the Families and Individuals Index, located in a cabinet in the Bangor Room. Weddings and obituaries are among the items indexed.

Bangor Public Library has other newspapers, including miscellaneous issues. To see what the library has, check online at www.bpl.me.us/spcoll/Bangor %20Newspaper%20List.htm.

Where are the other “haystacks?”

The largest collection of newspapers I’ve seen in the state is held by Fogler Library at the University of Maine in Orono. Many of these are on microfilm as well. Check out http://libraries .umaine.edu/spcoll/newspaperslocation.htm.

As for the most sizable database on Maine newspapers and where they’re held, that would have to be The Maine Newspaper Project, covering both existing newspapers and those not published anymore, from 1785 to the present. See www.maine .gov/sos/arc/ newspapers/ mnphome.htm.

You actually can print out the listing and put it in a notebook for easy access to what’s where. Other resources include:

. Machias Republican, 1858-1920, on microfilm at the Washington County Courthouse.

. Obituary index and obituaries, 1944 on, from the Eastern Gazette, Dexter, www.abbott-library.com or dextermaine.org/library.html.

. Piscataquis Observer, 1847-1889, 1891-1944, 1946-1986, 1986-1999, Thompson Free Library, Dover-Foxcroft. Indexing for marriage and death records ongoing. Some years on microfilm at Fogler Library, Orono.

. “Abstracts of Death Notices from the Maine Farmer,” by David Colby Young. Also “Death Notices” from Freewill Baptist publications; “Index to Death Notices: Jenks’s Portland Gazette, 1798-1806.”

. “New Brunswick Vital Statistics from Newspapers,” by year, by Dan Johnson, Vital Statistics Committee. BPL, UM, Maine State Library.

In 1978, Alan Robert Miller, a professor at the University of Maine, wrote “The History of Current Maine Newspapers,” available at many libraries.

For information on current newspapers, check Editor and Publisher International Yearbook. Volume 1 covers dailies, and Volume 2 covers weeklies in the United States and Canada. Fogler Library has the 2003 edition, and the University of Maine at Farmington has 2002.

It also helps to know if a newspaper has a schedule for running certain kinds of information.

The Bangor Daily News, for example, runs obituaries daily, and birth notices as space permits. Weddings and anniversaries run Saturdays, as do probate notices and requests for name change – the last two in the classified pages.

Many daily newspapers run obits, weddings, engagements, probate notices and other legal notices as paid ads. The Bangor Daily News began running obituaries online at www.bangornews.com in 1999.

Keep in mind that newspapers do not have the staff to do personal research for the public. I recommend narrowing your date – and heading for the library.

At the next meeting of the Penobscot County Genealogical Society, there will be hands-on time to use resources in the Bangor Room at Bangor Public Library. Come to the library at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 17. Members such as Phil Getchell and Dale Mower will help you navigate sources such as the New England Historic and Genealogical Register.

At 7:30 p.m., a library program will feature local history-special collections librarian Bill Cook giving a slide presentation on history of aviation. There will be slides of civilian and military aircraft from the earliest days to present, and a display of flight clothing and gear from World War I to the jet era from Cook’s collection.

3245. JACKINS-GORDON. When and where did Christopher and Nancy (Gordon) Jackins die? Presumably mid-1800s. In Chester or Mattawamkeag? Eugene A. Jackins, 6 Franklin Ave., Houlton, ME 04730.

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