When Jack Battick started by saying that dentists and barbers were licensed before physicians ever were, I knew it would be an interesting evening.

I always enjoy hearing Jack speak. As a retired history professor from the University of Maine, he is always most informative. So I certainly didn’t want to miss his talk on “Morbidity and Mortality” during a recent meeting of the Penobscot County Genealogical Society.

I learned about tuberculosis being the No. 1 cause of death in Maine during the last half of the 1800s, and I was fascinated when he talked about the flu epidemic of 1917-18. Now I’m reading the book he recommended, “The Great Influenza” by John W. Barry.

Of course, there’s nothing that gets genealogists excited like a “new” Web site, and Jack came up with one I’d never heard of, Rudy’s List of Archaic Medical Terms at www.antiquusmorbus.com.

I knew some of these. Bright’s disease is a kind of kidney disease, and the grippe is influenza.

But phthisis? Turns out that’s TB.

And I’d long wondered about locomotor ataxia, a term I once saw on the 1894 death certificate of an ancestor. Obviously some kind of mobility problem.

Well, I guess! Rudy’s List tells me that locomotor ataxia is a late form of syphilis, also known as tabes dorsalis.

The moral of that story (or one of them, at least) is, if you don’t want to know the answer, don’t go looking for it.

Rudy’s List is enlightening – to say the least!

Here at the Bangor Daily News, our library staff frequently gets requests to do genealogical research.

So this is a reminder that we don’t have staff who have time to do that. Our staffers are kept more than busy assisting reporters and editors in putting out the NEWS.

Nor do we have space for genealogists to browse the BDN here.

You can find the BDN on microfilm at facilities such as Bangor Public Library, Maine State Library, the University of Maine’s Fogler Library in Orono and the University of Maine at Presque Isle.

Moreover, the best index for the BDN and the Bangor Commercial throughout the 1900s is the Families and Individuals index on cards in the back of the Bangor Room at Bangor Public Library. It covers primarily those from the immediate area.

The Buzzell-Drew Reunion will be held 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday, July 14, at the Guilford Masonic Hall on the corner of Park Street in Guilford. Bring your own lunch and something to share. For more information, call Norman Buzzell at 942-7998 or Jeanne Cookson at 876-3276.

3397. CORNEAL-CORNEIL-CURTIS-BURTON. Family seeks picture of Mildred Hazel Corneal-Corneil of the Bangor-Brewer area. Mildred married John P. Curtis in 1917, and Emile J. Burton in 1947, all of Bangor area. John Curtis and Mildred Hazel Corneal, both deceased, have one child living in California who is ill. He would love to have a picture of his mother, who died in 1972 in Bangor. Does anyone have a picture they would be willing to copy? Due to unfortunate circumstances, the son only saw his mother once in his lifetime when he was 9. If you knew Mildred Hazel and can help locate a picture, please call Arlene Russell at 827-2673 or e-mail russell@maine.edu.

3398. HILTON-PARSONS-FOSS-BENNETT-CUTLER-MANTER-WARD. Searching for any and all living descendants of John Hilton and Betsey (Parsons). I am descended from their son, William Hilton, who married Betsey Foss and lived in Kingsbury. William and Betsey had sons Phineas Parsons Hilton, married Edna Bennett; Augustus Leonard Hilton, married Hellen Cutler or Cutter; William Sylvester Hilton, married Laura Manter; and possibly Leonard Hilton, married Addie M. (?). William and Betsey also had daughter Hannah, who married Artemus Ward. They had two children who died young. Denise D. Davis, 198 Fourth St., Old Town, ME 04468; 827-4035; mollyjd@adelphia.net

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