Genealogy conferences offer variety of speakers

The Maine Genealogical Society turns 30 this year, and quite a celebration is being planned. Dale Mower of Bangor is lining up some wonderful speakers, so do plan to attend the anniversary conference on Saturday, Oct. 14, at Verrillo’s in Portland.

Joseph Crook Anderson II of Texas will give talks on “Problem Solving and Analysis (Brick Walls)” and on “Deed Research.”

Anderson is the editor of The Maine Genealogist quarterly, editor of the Maine Families in 1790 project, and editor or co-editor of 16 of the books MGS has published with Picton Press.

In addition, he is an FASG – Fellow of the American Society of Genealogists, a designation which places him among the top genealogists in the country.

MGS is very fortunate to have him involved in so many of its activities.

The beginner’s track of workshops at last year’s conference, which Dale Mower presented, was very popular. This year’s three “newbie” sessions will be led by Howard Faulkner, a professor emeritus from the University of Southern Maine who has taken genealogy courses at William and Mary College and at the National Genealogical Society.

Faulkner has done research at more than 70 libraries, archives and courthouses from Virginia to Maine. He also has taught genealogy courses through Senior College at USM since 1999.

We will keep you posted on this conference, which has a Web site at www.maineroots.org

Silence Howard Hayden Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, will sponsor its fifth annual Genealogy Conference at 9 a.m. Saturday, May 20, at Williams Elementary School in Oakland.

Confirmed speakers include: Ann Thomas, DAR, Mayflower Society and Daughters of Colonial Wars; Michael Denis, Computer Genealogy; Robert Chenard, Franco-American Research; Nancy LeCompte, Native American Roots in Northern New England; and Roxanne Moore Saucier, Resources in Bangor and the University of Maine.

The chapter is in the process of lining up speakers on Family Tree Maker, Acadian Research, the Maine Historical Society and the Sons of Union Veterans in the Civil War. We’ll keep you posted as speakers are added to the list.

Registration begins at 8 a.m. The fee is $15 at the door, $12 if preregistered, $10 for DAR members. Lunch is $6. You may send registrations to Beverly Kelley, 91 Tukey Road, Oakland, ME 04963.

There will be a variety of vendors.

A new chapter of the Maine Genealogical Society is the Wawenoc Chapter, which meets at 2 p.m. the third Wednesday of the month in the reference-special collections room on the third floor at Belfast Public Library.

For information, contact Mac Young at mayoung@direcway.com, Betsy Paradis at bparadis@belfastlibrary.org, or call 338-3884, ext. 25.

Fifty-four years ago, I was in a five-generation picture with my dad, Gayland Moore Jr.; my grandmother, Ione (Bennett) Moore; my great-grandmother, Rena (Bennett) Bennett of Abbot; and my great-great-grandmother, Mary (Cummings) Bennett Lord of Greenville.

So I was intrigued when I found out that Susan Lawton Leture, my coworker here at the Bangor Daily News, had been in not one but two five-generation photographs.

The first one she showed me pictured her with her father (and our coworker), Wayne Lawton of Bangor; her grandmother, Lurlene Folsom Lawton of Florida; her son, Steve Leture of North Carolina, and her granddaughter, Elizabeth Leture of North Carolina.

So of course, I asked to see the earlier photo as well. In that one, taken May 10, 1965, Susan Lawton is a young girl pictured with her great-great-grandmother, Flora Folsom of Millinocket; her great-grandfather, Clyde Folsom of Millinocket; her grandmother, Lurlene Folsom Lawton, then of Millinocket; and her dad, Wayne Lawton of Bangor.

Those two photos spanned seven generations. Nifty.

“If Stones Could Talk,” a program on gravestone restoration with John Wedin, will be held at 7 p.m. March 29, in the Center Drive School cafeteria in Orrington. For information, contact the Orrington Public Library at 825-4938.

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