Funeral home records will be topic at meeting

We know about birth records and marriage records and death records. Now it’s time to learn about “Funeral Home Records” from Gary Smith, funeral home director at Brookings-Smith in Bangor.

His talk will be offered during the meeting of the Penobscot County Genealogical Society at 6 p.m. Wednesday, April 18, in the Lecture Hall at Bangor Public Library.

The Lecture Hall, on the third floor of the library, is accessible to all. Enter the ground-level Children’s Department entrance on the right side of the library, and take the elevator to the third floor. Turn right, walk down the hall and you’ll come to the Bangor Room. Turn right and walk through the room and that route will take you right to the Lecture Hall.

Here are some funeral home records you can find in libraries. If you know of others, let me know. Next week we’ll write about the new Marble Monument Records, which are now available in the Bangor Room at Bangor Public Library. Genealogists will find that very exciting.

. “Funeral Records of the Harvey Funeral Home, Carmel, Maine,” three volumes, edited by Thelma Eye Brooks, Bangor Public Library, Maine State Library, University of Maine Fogler Library Special Collections.

. “Lawry Bros. Funeral Records, Aug. 11, 1885-Nov. 26, 1923, Fairfield, Maine,” nine volumes, Maine State Library.

. “Records of the Scholl Funeral Home, Calais, Maine,” 1907-1934, indexed by Thelma Eye Brooks, five volumes, Maine State Library, University of Maine Fogler Library Special Collections.

. “Burials of the Alfred Roy and Sons Funeral Home, Worcester, Massachusetts, 1904-1994,” two volumes, Maine State Library.

. “Burials of the Auclair Funeral Home, Fall River, Massachusetts, 1944-1992,” Maine State Library.

. “Burials of the Hickey-Grenier Funeral Home, Brockton, Massachusetts, 1911-1987,” Maine State Library.

. “Burials of the Lamoreux Funeral Home, New Bedford, Massachusetts, 1930-1980,” Maine State Library.

The Sarah Elizabeth Palmer Tent, Daughters of Union Veterans, will sponsor a genealogy workshop 9 a.m.-noon Saturday, April 21, in the Piscataquis Room at Mayo Regional Hospital on Route 15 in Dover-Foxcroft.

I will be presenting the workshop, so I can tell you that it will be about half basic genealogy, and half lineage research on the process of joining groups like the DUV and the Daughters of the American Revolution.

Refreshments will be served during the break.

Hope to see you there.

Historian-author Bill Sawtelle is working on a book about Malcolm Buchanan, who was principal at Brownville Junction High School and then Penquis Valley High School in Milo, and a longtime basketball coach and member of the Maine Principals Association.

Mac was born Dec. 21, 1922, to William and Jenny (Spinney) Buchanan, and the family lived in Milford in the 1920s.

Bill Sawtelle is hoping to hear from people who knew Malcolm in his childhood. If you did so, or can help him locate people who knew him then, call Bill at 965-3971.

Gary Mason of Edmunds, a student of the Viking era, will speak on “The Vikings – Did They Make It Beyond Newfoundland?” at 6:15 p.m. Wednesday, April 18, during the Trescott Historical Society’s monthly Speakers Forum at Lubec Memorial Library.

For centuries the conquests and explorations of the Vikings have been a fascinating topic. Young and old alike have been intrigued by the Norsemen’s boat-building abilities and their seafaring exploits.

One Viking longboat, dating to before AD 900, ended its career as a tomb. It was disinterred – intact – in Oseberg, Norway, in 1904, and is now displayed at Oslo’s Viking Museum. The high-prowed boats often exceeded 140 feet in length and were propelled by a single sail or, in light air, by as many as 32 pairs of oars.

Teachers, parents and especially pupils in grades five through 12 are welcome to attend the free program. Refreshments will be served. For information, call 733-5548 or go to www.trescotthistory.org

The Whiting Historical Society will sponsor a talk by Vicki Reynolds Schad of North Vassalboro at 3:30 p.m. Saturday, April 21, at the Whiting Community Building on Route 1.

Schad’s talk will be on her recently published book, “Remember the Children -1936,” about the 12 Lubec schoolchildren who drowned in a tragic boating accident on June 19, 1936, at Gardner Lake.

The program is free, and refreshments will be served. For information, contact Bonnie Healey at 733-5548.

The Washington County Genealogical Society will hold a business meeting at 3 p.m. Saturday, April 21, at the Whiting Town Hall. Afterward, they will join members of the Whiting Historical Society at 3:30 p.m. for the program by Vicki Reynolds Schad.

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