Benjamin Ellingwood came first. Benjamin Merrill was second, but returned to North Yarmouth. That makes my Deacon Lemuel Comins the third settler, but the second “permanent pioneer” in the Androscoggin County town of Greene.

My Comins and Cummings ancestors – two lines back to Lemuel and Rachel – moved on to Parkman and Greenville, and certainly other communities became destinations for people from the Revolutionary-era town of Greene.

So it was quite nifty to find Greene vital records transcribed and available on the Web. The town didn’t do the transcribing – Carol Buzzell is the contact person for the link.

But you can get to the vital records by starting with the town’s Web site at www.townofgreene.net, then clicking on “genealogy.” Then pick the category you want to view by years:

. Births: 1730-1839; 1764-1891; 1768-1855; 1819-1904; 1892-1939; 1940-1955.

. Deaths: 1730-1839; 1764-1891; 1768-1855; 1819-1904; 1892-1940; 1940-1955.

. Marriages: 1768-1855; 1842-1891; 1871-1891; 1892-1939; 1939-1960.

Now, if you can find a transcription of a town’s vital records, is it still worth going to the Maine State Archives to look at the actual records on microfilm? Absolutely, for a number of two reasons.

Early town records can be difficult to read, so you may want to look at the microfilm yourself to see if you interpret the old handwriting the same way as the transcriber.

You also may learn something from the actual records by how the individuals born, died or married are grouped in the records.

And of course, for records 1892-1955 – which are also available on microfilm in Orono at Fogler Library, University of Maine – there is often additional information on the certificates.

The town’s Web site also gives information about Greene Village Celebration 2006, scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 9.

Before there was a Web site – or even a Web, there was Walter Lindley Mower’s “History of the Town of Greene,” also known as “Sesquicentennial History of the Town of Greene Androscoggin County Maine 1775 to 1900 With Some Matter Extending to a Later Date,” published in 1938.

My treasured copy was presented to me by my husband on my 29th birthday (not this year).

Families treated, ranging from a few paragraphs to several pages of information, are: Alden-Gilbert, Allen, Adams, Additon, Andrews, Ayer, Brown, Bates, Berry, Briggs, Bailey, Barrell, Beals, Beal, Blaisdell, Bradbury, Bigelow, Comins, Coburn, Cutter, Curtis, Crossman, Caswell, Crocker, Clark, Chadbourn, Coffin.

Daggett, Doan, Deane, Eames, Ellms, Fogg, Farwell, Furbish-Furbush, Gray, Greenwood, Goss, Herrick, Harris, Hill, Hodgkins, Howe, Haskell, Hatch, Hammond, Hooper, Hackett, Jennings, Jordan, Keene, Keyser, Larrabee, Longley, Lamb, Lander, Lane, Merrill, Moulton, Mower-Jackson, More, Moore, Morse, Manson-Nichols, McKenney, Murray, Mendall.

Parker, Phillips, Pratt, Pettengill, Patten, Pierce, Philbrook, Quimby, Robbins, Rackley, Richardson, Richmond, Ricker, Robinson, Ray, Rose, Sprague, Stevens, Stetson, Sylvester, Sawyer, Shaw, Stafford, Starbird, Sanderson, Sedgley, Thompson, Thomas, Wilkins, Washburn, Wiggin, Wing, Weymouth, Winslow and Wiley.

Wonderful news comes to us from Estella Bennett, president of the Monson Historical Society, in announcing that the society has received a grant of $7,000 from the Piscataquis Fund of the Maine Community Foundation.

The grant will be used to process prints and permanently archive in electronic format 280 glass plates and negatives from the 1909-1919 period, many of them made by Monson photographer Frank H. Sherburne.

Included in the glass plates are “many portraits of Monson residents as well as local street scenes, quarry workers, lumbering, ice cutting, Lake Hebron Hotel, hunting and fishing scenes and many other historically significant events in our town,” Bennett said.

“The family of the late Frank Sherburne was delighted to learn that these plates were still in existence, and thanks to the generosity of the Maine Community Foundation, these will be made available to the public,” she said.

Todd Watts of RadioRain Fine Art and Film in Blanchard will be working with the society to ensure these historical glass plates can be enjoyed by all in years to come. Information on the Maine Community Foundation is available by phone at (877) 700-6800 or www.mainecf.org

“This is a very exciting project for the Monson Historical Society, and we look forward to having these prints completed,” she said.

The Aroostook County Genealogical Society will meet at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Aug. 28, at the Lions Building, 111 High St., Caribou. Those who have queries or materials to donate may write ACGS, P.O. Box 142, Caribou, ME 04736-0142.

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