‘Maine Families’ worth collecting

Trenton, Ticonderoga, the surrender of Burgoyne – when it comes to the Revolutionary War, Elisha Bisbee certainly did his part. General George Washington himself signed his promotion to lieutenant.

Bisbee, who had enlisted from Pembroke, Mass., later moved to the Maine town of Sumner and, with wife, Mary (Pettengell), had children Susanna, Sarah, Anna, Elisha Jr., Hopestill, Daniel, Molly, Hopestill 2nd, Thirza, Horatio and Huldah.

Their numerous descendants can be found not only in Bisbee lines, but in Bartlett, Hayford, Drew, Bryant, Howard and Reed families.

We find all this, and more, in Elisha Bisbee’s three pages packed with information in “Maine Families in 1790” Vol. 9, issued this year as a joint publication of Picton Press in Rockport and the Maine Genealogical Society.

There are 209 families covered in this volume, each a three-generation study. The result is a 600-page book with every-name index. This issue, like several of the other volumes, is edited by Joseph Crook Anderson II, who also is editor of the Maine Genealogical Society quarterly, The Maine Genealogist.

Anderson is a fine editor and himself has contributed many of the entries in the book, including the one on Elisha. The entries are what we call “well-sourced,” meaning they include excellent documentation.

This series is reconstituting the 1790 census of Maine – and adding so much to it. It’s no wonder that many Maine genealogists are collecting this series as it is published.

“With this ninth volume of the ‘Maine Families in 1790′ series, 2,471 families – or more than 14 percent of the total number of households in Maine in 1790 – have now been published,” Anderson writes in the preface. “Considering that these sketches include not only the nuclear family under discussion, but also the head-of-household’s parents, his or her spouse’s parents, the children’s spouses, and the children’s spouses’ parents, it becomes evident that a much higher percentage of the population has been documented.”

“Maine Families in 1790” Vol. 9 is $52.50 plus $4.50 mailing from Picton Press, P.O. Box 1347, Rockland, ME 04841. You also may order at www.pictonpress.com or call 596-7766.

If you are a member of Maine Genealogical Society, the price is just $42.95 from Picton (include your MGS number when ordering).

Considering that this book is just one of 50 MGS Special Publications available at discount to MGS members through Picton, you could certainly save a lot of money by joining the Maine Genealogical Society.

Membership, which includes The Maine Genealogist, is $20 a year ($25 to have the quarterly and the newsletter mailed First Class), sent to MGS, Box 221, Farmington, ME 04938.

There you have a couple of suggestions for gifts to give – or receive – for Christmas.

Cheryl Patten will speak on the Special Census taken in 1880 during the next meeting of the Wassebec Genealogical Society at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 8, in the conference room of Mayo Regional Hospital on Main Street in Dover-Foxcroft. For information or directions, call 876-3073 or 564-3576.

This Veterans Day, I’ll miss Bob Phillips, who died on Oct. 24. A Korean War veteran, Bob was one of my VFW guys, the one who always let me know what his post in Bangor was doing. It wasn’t so much the publicity he was after, though that was fine. What Bob was most interested in was having his post serve as an example for other nonprofit organizations. That they do.

I miss Tom Hardy, who died on Aug. 25. I met him a year ago on the plane trip organized by the Cole Land Transportation Museum to take veterans and community members to see the World War II Memorial in Washington. There in the Pacific Pavilion, I asked Tom, a Navy veteran, to hold up my dad’s dog tags for a picture. Now Tom is gone, too.

And always, I miss my dad, Gayland Moore Jr., a motor mac on the LCI 565, who died four years ago.

On Veterans Day, give a veteran a hug.

Go to the Veterans Day parade, which leads off at 10:15 a.m. Saturday in Brewer and proceeds to Bangor. Take off your hat when the U.S. Flag passes by, and put your right hand over your heart.

Activities at the Cole Museum, 405 Perry Road in Bangor, will continue all afternoon. Hear the Bangor Band at 2 p.m., and at 3:30 p.m. see the video of the Veterans Day 1986 dedication of Veterans Remembrance Bridge.

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