I was fascinated by Ed Payne’s article in the November issue of The Maine Genealogist, “From Maine to Mississippi: The Odyssey of Civil War Veteran Llewellyn M. Maddocks.”

Descended from Henry Maddocks, who came from Wales to Watertown, Mass., in the 1600s, Llewellyn is of the line that came to York, then Hancock County and Eddington.

He claimed to be 18 when he joined the 2nd Maine Infantry in November 1861, but in truth was but a boy of 14. Less than a year later, he was injured in the hand by a rifle ball at Groveton, Va., and discharged.

But Maddocks went back into the army in July 1863 in the Invalid Corps, later referred to as the Veterans Reserve Corps, for those who could not serve in combat. He was injured again while loading a cannon that went off too soon.

I’m sure that the Invalid Corps is familiar to some Civil War aficionados, but I hadn’t heard of it. Maddocks returned to Eddington and received a three-quarters disability rating for $6 a month.

Payne researched his forebear’s war service thoroughly, but found no evidence of his traveling south of Virginia.

“Yet within five years Llewellyn Maddocks would marry Clarissa Catherine Garraway in Perry County, Mississippi, and on 26 November 1870 she would give birth to their first child, Solomon Prentiss Maddocks,” Payne wrote. (The author’s ancestor was Solomon’s younger sister, Mary Elizabeth.)

But how and why did Maddocks go to Mississippi, maybe between 1866 and 1869, and marry a woman whose father and brother both served in the Confederate army? You don’t have to be related to this family to share the hope that Payne will find the connection that explains it all.

Next he writes a sentence that is so very pertinent to genealogy: “But there is an adage that nothing is more tragic than the destruction of a beautiful theory by a gang of ugly facts.” Doesn’t that happen all too often in our research?

And so it was for Payne – he couldn’t find Llewellyn or Clarissa anywhere in the 1870 census of Mississippi.

Using Ancestry.com – available by subscription, or for use free at libraries such as those in Bangor, Ellsworth and Oakland – Payne found one Llewellyn Maddock, 24, birthplace Maine, enumerated on June 20, 1870, in Santa Clara County, Calif. According to the census taker, he was not married within the year prior to the census day.

Maddocks died in Mississippi in 1888, survived by Clarissa and five children. The 47 documents she submitted in three years of applying for a widow’s pension included affidavits by her brothers that the couple had married in Mississippi in September 1869. (Courthouse records had been lost in a fire.)

Yet pension ledger records for San Francisco list Llewellyn M. Maddocks “of Bangor” with the same wounds as the one from Maine for September 1866 through September 1869.

A goodly number of young men from the Northeast were living in California in 1870, Payne found. For those born 1837-1847, more had come from Maine – 2,223 – than any of the other New England states.

Payne thinks it unlikely that Llewellyn married Clarissa in 1869, returned to California in 1870, than came back to Mississippi later that year. Maybe he met Clarissa in California, or maybe the marriage took place in 1870 rather than 1869.

Whatever the answer, Payne’s search brings up many ways to look at a genealogy problem and various resources to add to one’s knowledge.

One source which helped him round out the picture of his Maddocks and Garraway families was the 1880 U.S. Census Agricultural Schedule. The schedule listed the number of acres each farmer tilled, what he raised for crops and animals, and the value of the output.

I hope someday there will be a “part 2” in The Maine Genealogist, the quarterly of the Maine Genealogical Society.

The membership year for MGS runs Jan. 1-Dec. 31, so this is the time of year to renew – or to sign up for a new membership for yourself or as a gift.

The cost for either is $20 in the United States, $25 if you’d like publications sent first class. Mail to MGS, Box 221, Farmington, ME 04938. For Canadian residents, membership is $29, and for those outside the U.S. and Canada, $34.

John Nelligan’s Irish soda bread? Ginny Davis’ tuna casserole? Phil Getchell’s chicken and peppers? Barbara Brown’s holiday meatballs?

You’ll find these and much more in the new “Penobscot County Genealogical Society Family Cookbook.”

The recipes are simple, and what’s more, all proceeds benefit a very special friend of the society – the Bangor Room at Bangor Public Library.

Each book is just $8, plus $2 if you need it mailed.

Look over the sample copy at the library and put your name on the sign-up sheet for orders. You can save mailing costs by picking up your book on a specified date. Or order by mail by sending your check to PCGS, c/o Bangor Public Library, 145 Harlow St., Bangor, ME 04401.

Place an order by e-mail at pcgscooks@amsn.com, or call Hugh Hastings at 862-4785. Or purchase a copy at a meeting of PCGS at 6 p.m. the third Wednesday of the month in the Lecture Hall, just down the hall from the Bangor Room.

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