Library has early Hancock County records

How often have we organized our research around a carefully scheduled trip to look at pre-1892 town records on microfilm at the Maine State Archives in Augusta? If your ancestors are from Hancock County and you’d rather travel to Ellsworth, you’re in luck.

“Thanks to a gift from the Ellsworth Rotary Club, the Ellsworth Public Library has been able to complete a set of CD-ROMs of the ‘Original Records of Maine Towns and Cities,’ for Hancock County,” writes Charlene Clemons. “These are not transcriptions, but digitized copies of the actual town records. This, in my opinion, may be the most important addition to our collection we have seen in some time.”

Town records currently available for viewing on computer at the library are: Bar Harbor, Blue Hill, Brooksville, Bucksport, Castine, Dedham, Deer Isle, Franklin, Gouldsboro, Hancock, Lamoine, Mount Desert, Orland, Otis, Penobscot, Sedgwick, Sullivan, Surry, Swans Island Vital Records and Town Records, Swans Island-Small family card file, Tremont and Trenton.

The library is a beautiful facility, with a new room housing its local and family history collection. Let’s all applaud the Ellsworth Rotary for its gift making the new records available.

The Society of Mayflower Descendants in the state of Maine will hold its 104th annual meeting and luncheon Saturday, Nov. 19, at Verrillo’s Convention Center in Portland. Registration begins at 9:45 a.m., the business meeting at 10:15 a.m., and the luncheon at noon.

The guest speaker for the luncheon will be James Moreira, director of the Maine Folklife Center and assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Maine. Originally from Nova Scotia, he has researched traditions of New England and Atlantic Canada, and written on balladry in Scotland and Scandinavia. He has a keen interest in “crossing the line” ceremonies which some mariners observe when they cross the Equator for the first time.

The cost of luncheon is $16, and reservations are due Monday, Nov. 14. No tickets will be sold at the door. Send checks to Maine Mayflower Society, c/o Carol Gagnon, 189 Blanchard Drive, Cumberland, ME 04021-0785. For info, call 793-3535.

To join Mayflower, you need to prove your direct line from one of these passengers on the ship in 1620: John Alden, Isaac Allerton, John Billington, William Bradford, William Brewster, Peter Browne, James Chilton, Francis Cooke, Edward Doty, Francis Eaton, Moses Fletcher, Edward Fuller, Samuel Fuller, Stephen Hopkins, John Howland, Richard More, William Mullins, Degory Priest, Thomas Rogers, Henry Samson, George Soule, Myles Standish, John Tilley, Richard Warren, William White and Edward Winslow.

For information on the Mayflower, including contacts for the state societies, visit www.mayflower.org.

Should you find yourself traveling to Dover-Foxcroft on Thursday evening, you’ll find it well worth the trip.

Jeff Brown, an archivist II who has been with the Maine State Archives for 25 years, will speak on “Little Known Resources at the Archives” during the meeting of the Wassebec Genealogical Society at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 10 at Mayo Regional Hospital on Route 15.

I have attended this talk, and it’s a winner. Moreover, if you have any questions about what’s available in the archives, Jeff is the person to ask.

For directions to the meeting or information, call 564-3576 or e-mail wassebec@yahoo.com.

Maybe you intended to order the Dixmont Historical Society’s “Dixmont Tidbits,” a compilation by town historian Eleanor Toothaker, last year. Copies are still available for $9, postage included, from Dixmont Historical Society, P.O. Box 100, Dixmont, ME 04932. Or pick up a copy for $7.50 at the Dixmont Town Office.

The town will celebrate its bicentennial in 2007, so now is the time to share information, pictures and interesting stories for a book being compiled by the historical society, “Highlights from Dixmont, Maine – In Celebration of the Bicentennial 1807-2007.” Send what you have to share to the above address, and let them know if you need to have it returned. If you have questions, or if you want to share something but not send it by mail, contact Christina Graves at 257-4043, e-mail graves@telplus.net, or Judy Patterson at 234-2365, e-mail jpatterson@uninets.net

3342. GLIDDEN-BILLINGS-PARKER-PRESCOTT. Looking for ancestors of Simeon Glidden, born about 1798, Fayette, married 1) Sally Billings, 1820, Fayette; she died. 2) Lucinda W. Parker, 1824, Fayette; she died 1846. 3) Betsy Prescott, 1847, Fayette. All his children were by Lucinda. Any information about Simeon’s parentage most welcome. Paola Zinnecker, 7429 Overhill Road, Fort Worth, TX 76116; telephone (817) 377-3704.

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