Be thankful for plentiful Mayflower resources

George Marsh didn’t come over on the Mayflower – he settled in 1635 at Hingham, Mass. But in writing “The Ancestry of Donald Webster Marsh,” author Jeffrey Davis Marsh also traced lines to Mayflower passengers William Brewster, John Howland, Edward Tilley and Richard Warren.

The book is available at the Maine State Library in Augusta, URSUS tells us. URSUS, a database found at http://130.111.64.3/, is the online catalog for MSL, Bangor Public Library and the University of Maine campus libraries.

I plugged in “Mayflower” as a keyword, and URSUS came up with 266 entries, listing them by date of publication, newest books first.

Bangor Public Library has a brand-new book in its Children’s Room, “Pilgrims: A Nonfiction Companion to Thanksgiving on Thursday.” The day I checked URSUS, the book was due back Nov. 30 – isn’t that handy to know?

Do you have a Harris line? Maybe you’d be interested in Sylvia-Lee Harris Arleigh’s “A Splendid Heritage: The Mayflower, Revolutionary War, Civil War, and other American Ancestors of Robert Beckley Harris (1905-1984), With Some Descendants of Robert and His Siblings and Some Allied Lines,” available both at BPL and MSL.

Many libraries have some of the “silver books,” the “Mayflower Families through Five Generations …” volumes, published by the General Society of Mayflower Descendants.

Here’s hoping that URSUS can help you find something wonderful to augment your family tree.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Halloween is past, but for many of us a fascination with “witches” continues year-round. Nineteen women and men were hung for witchcraft as a result of Salem Witch Trials in 1692, and one man was “pressed to death.”

The names Bridget Bishop, Sarah Good and Rebecca Nurse are familiar to many of us who have read about the trials, but men were hanged, as well, including the Rev. George Burroughs of Wells.

A good amount of information on the trials is available online at a variety of Web sites.

Visit the Web site for the city of Salem, Mass., at www.salemweb.com and check out “What About Witches.”

It’s amazing to realize that 552 original documents still exist from the witch trials, in storage at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem.

Peruse the chronology of events, and view the Witch Trials Memorial, dedicated in 1992, with markers remembering Bridget Bishop, Sarah Wildes, Elizabeth Howe, Susannah Martin, Sarah Good and Rebecca Nurse.

For transcripts of the witchcraft trials, made available electronically by the University of Virginia, visit www.salemwitchtrials.com. The site also contains a lengthy list of those accused, an interesting account of the times, the accusers, and those executed.

More than 300 years later, historians point to the hysteria of young girls as the likely culprit. It certainly is puzzling that those hanged included 71-year-old Rebecca Nurse, a kind lady who had a boundary dispute with a neighbor and whose hearing impairment prevented her from answering people who spoke to her.

One of the vocal accusers, Ann Putnam, later repented of the harm she had caused, asking a minister to read her request for forgiveness in front of her church congregation.

The Aroostook County Genealogical Society will meet at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 28, upstairs in the Lions Building at 111 High St., Caribou. Activities will include a program and election of officers. The group will not meet in December. If you have queries or material to donate, write ACGS, P.O. Box 142, Caribou, ME 04736-0142.

3344. DEROUCHE-MORAN-BELL-MULDOON. Have just begun to research my family tree on my father’s side. Looking for any information about Joseph P. and Ann (Bell) Moran Derouche (Deroches or Deroche), married Jan. 19, 1892, in Bangor by the Rev. M.J. O’Brien. Ann’s children by first husband George Moran were George J. and Ann T. Moran. Joseph P. and Ann Derouche had two sons: Joseph P., my grandfather, who died December 1929; and John F., who died in WWI. The elder Joseph was son of Mathias and Mary Desroches (Derouche or Deroche), and Ann was daughter of Patrick and Ann (Muldoon) Bell. Joseph P. immigrated from Canada, and Ann from Ireland. They all lived in Bangor according to marriage certificate. Am hoping relatives would be willing to share copies of documents or photographs. We know nothing of my father’s family. Carol Derouche Littlehale, 150 Washington St., Rumford, ME 04276; cal1@localnet.com

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