Don’t you just love those romantic old names some of our ancestors have? If I were from the South, I’d just have to have a Beauregard in my family tree.

How about General George Custer Pums? And his consort Lady Pepper Francis? They are the honest-to-goodness great-grandparents of a little fella born Jan. 10, 2003, named Holyoke’s Domino Pudge.

Pudge, as you might guess, is a dog – a black-and-white English Springer Spaniel, to be exact. His parents were Stonehaus Domino, also black and white; and Ms. Nichole of Babbs, who’s listed as liver and white on Pudge’s certified pedigree.

That’s right, certified, as in “The Seal of The American Kennel Club affixed hereto certifies that this pedigree was compiled from official Stud Book records on January 17, 2004.”

You might guess from reading the Bangor Daily News sports pages that Holyoke’s Domino Pudge would belong to outdoor writer John Holyoke, and you’d be right.

With a surname like Holyoke, John has his own pedigree going back several generations to Edward Holyoke, who came to Lynn, Mass., in 1636 or so from Tamworth, England.

John’s dad is Vaughn Holyoke, and from there the line goes through John Harris Holyoke, John William Holyoke, Charles Holyoke, John Holyoke (I think) and the rest of the clan.

Suffice it to say the Holyokes are longtime Brewer people, and there’s even a Holyoke Street right off North Main Street. That’s what you call having a pedigree as good as your dog’s.

The February 2004 issue of Family Chronicle: The Magazine for Families Researching their Roots, has an interesting article, Erika Dreifus’ “French Connections: Twenty-One Homes for Franco-American Heritage.”

One of the sites mentioned is Robert Chenard’s The French Connection, found at http://users.adelphia.net/~frenchcx/

We’ve mentioned this site before, but it has grown since last I looked at it. Its 87 Web pages are the equivalent of 500 typed pages of material, and well worth the look if you have Franco-American ancestry.

The home page is divided into categories: books, cemeteries, census and other civil records, church records, genealogy, history and culture such as the King’s Daughters, Internet links and others.

Other familiar sites referenced in the magazine article include:

. Franco-American Studies at the University of Maine, www.umaine.edu/francoamericanstudies

. Maine’s French Communities, www.francomaine.org

. American-Canadian Genealogical Society, www.acgs.org

We have a correction on the genealogy workshop of the Brooklin Keeping Society. It will be held 1-4 p.m. Feb. 12, not the 10th, and it’s at the society headquarters, the Little Red Schoolhouse.

The Wellington Historical Society meets at 1:30 p.m. the second Wednesday of the month (Feb. 11) at the home of Marc and Dolores Pomerleau on Huff’s Corner Road. All are welcome. The 2004 Wellington calendar is $7. Membership is $5 a year, or $9 with The Wellington Crier. For information, call 683-2713, or e-mail whs@tds.net.

The Aroostook County Genealogical Society will hold its next meeting at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 10, in the Caribou Room at Caribou Public Library. Paul Flick will talk about personalizing your genealogy. Also, if you have queries or material to donate, write to the society at P.O. Box 142, Caribou 04736-0142.

Norma Stewart, executive director of “St. Croix – 2004,” will give a talk about the coming 400th anniversary of Samuel de Champlain’s settlement on St. Croix Island at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 11, at the Lubec Memorial Library. The program is part of the lecture series of the Trescott Historical Society and Social Club. Refreshments will be served, and all are welcome.

3250. HODNETT- DEERING-COLLIER-LESURE. Seeking info and descendants of these families who lived in area of Orient, Weston and Danforth. Also Aroostook families Brackett, Brannen, Butterfield, Ellis, Fifield, Foss, Gellerson, Gerow, Gilpatrick, Golding, Harding, Irish, Kinney, Lambert, Lee, Maxell, Moody, Neal, Peters, Rollins, Russell, Springer, Williams and Van Wart. I am happy to share my information with others in exchange for new leads. Allan L. Hodnett, S84 W17573 Woods Road, Muskego, WI 53150; or Ahodnett@wi.rr.com.

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