Even before you get to the articles, each quarterly issue of The Maine Genealogist is worth reading. So often I find that editor Joseph C. Anderson III answers a question I haven’t even thought of asking.

For the May issue, the question is whether it’s worth publishing genealogy for people whose lines have died out. If they have no descendants still living, do we still need to record them?

Of course we do. They are part of our history – that of our family, our community and our world.

And practically speaking, as Anderson often does, records of these branches of the family tree – the vital records and land records and wills and so on, can help us rule out possible candidates for own ancestry, as well.

The May issue of The Maine Genealogist contains a fascinating article on “Samuel Cates of Falmouth and Harrington, Maine: A Review of Current Knowledge and Discussion of His Parentage,” by Brent M. Owen, Wilfred A. Cote and Frank C. Morrone.

They disagree with Darryl B. Lamson and Leonard F. Tibbetts, authors of “Early Narraguagus River Families of Washington County, Maine,” who list Samuel’s parents as Edward and Jane (Jose) Cates.

Rather, they think it likely, though have not proved, that Samuel was the son of Joshua and Anna (Frost) Cate. Ruth Gray, the author of “The Ancestry of Samuel Braley Gray and His Wife Bessie Pendleton Benson,” also believes that Joshua and Anna were Samuel’s parents.

By the end of this fascinating article, readers will wonder, as do the authors, what became of Samuel Cates’ pigskin account book, which contained wonderful information from the 1700s.

People from all walks of life are bitten by the genealogy bug, as we know – and as the backgrounds of this article’s writers demonstrate.

Owen was a manager for the U.S. Treasury Department and attorney, Cote is an environmental issues manager in the paper industry, and Morrone is a retired physician.

To receive The Maine Genealogist and the quarterly newsletter, join the Maine Genealogical Society. Dues are $20 a year in the United States, $5 extra to have publications mailed first class. New membership is $29 in Canada, $34 outside the U.S. and Canada. Mail dues to MGS, Box 221, Farmington, ME 04938.

The former director of the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Glade Ian Nelson, wrote an interesting piece for the April issue of The New England Historical and Genealogical Register: “Identifying Mercy, wife of Thomas Hinckley of Harwich, Massachusetts, as Mercy (Bangs) (Hinckley) Cole.”

Thomas’ parents were Samuel Hinckley, born 1653/3 at Barnstable, Mass., and Sarah Pope, born about 1656, daughter of Thomas and Sarah (Jenny) Pope.

(Descent from Thomas and Sarah Pope, I would guess, is not uncommon among us New Englanders. Two of their other children are my ancestors – Isaac Pope, born 1662, who married Alice Freeman; and Susannah Pope, born 1649, who married Jacob Mitchell, grandson of Mayflower passenger Francis Cooke. Thomas Pope came over in 1630 on the Mary and John, while future wife Sarah Jenny or Jenney was born on the Little James in 1623.)

Back to Thomas Hinckley. His sister, Mary, married Samuel Bangs, and brother Shubael married 1) Lydia Bangs and 2) Mary Snow. Parents of the Bangs children were Jonathan and Mary (Mayo) Bangs of Eastham, Mass.

Another sibling to the Hinckley children was Elnathan, a first name which shows up later in my Pope line and in my Packards.

Nelson recommends two resources in particular on Hinckleys. One is Josiah W. Hinckley’s “Hinckley Manuscript” at New England Historical Genealogical Society in Boston.

The other is “Hinckleys of Maine: The Ancestry and Descendants of Samuel Hinckley of Brunswick, Maine,” by Maine author Marlene Alma Hinckley Groves, who also is editor of the newsletter for the Maine Genealogical Society.

Groves’ book is available at Bangor Public Library and Maine State Library in Augusta.

To receive The Register – and access to the New England Historic Genealogical Society’s online databases, join NEHGS for $75 at NEHGS, 101 Newbury St., Boston, MA 02116-3007, or join online at www.NewEnglandAncestors.org

What do the Children of the American Revolution do? Lots of good things. Crystal Kwon, president of Asa Redington Society in Waterville, has selected for her project to help other kids. On Saturday, June 7, the youngsters, dressed in colonial attire, will offer a supper by donation to benefit Make-A-Wish 4:30-6:30 p.m. at the Rome Grange. There also will be a Chinese auction.

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