Treasury of pictures offers a bridge for family

One of my cherished possessions is a five-generation picture in which I’m the infant in the arms of my great-great-grandmother, Mary (Cummings) Bennett Lord. Also in the photo are my dad, Gayland Moore Jr.; my grandmother, Ione (Bennett) Moore; and my great-grandmother Rena (Bennett) Bennett.

Generations are more spread out now, so we could take only a four-generation picture when 6-month-old Aidan Saucier made his first trip from Minnesota to Maine. His great-grandmother Joyce (Steeves) Moore is holding Aidan, as the grandmother (me!) and Aidan’s dad, Tony Saucier, look on.

Though their visit was oh-so-brief, Tony and Heather wanted to take Aidan to places that represented his Maine roots, such as the University of Maine, where they had met.

For my part, I steered us to the Korean War Memorial at Mount Hope Cemetery in Bangor to “show” Aidan two of the stones in the walkway – one in memory of his great-grandfather Willard Saucier, who served in the Army during World War II; the other in honor of great-grandfather Gayland Moore Jr., who was in the Navy during World War II.

I reminded Tony and Heather that my parents had gone to see the stones when my dad was still alive – and I had taken their photo looking at his stone in the walkway.

Now I have pictures of Aidan stretched out on the walkway by the two stones, which are near the one for my uncle, Roderick Moore, who served during the Korean War in the U.S. Air Force in Alaska.

I took pictures of Aidan with his mom and dad on the walkway, a very powerful memento.

In my living room is a photograph of my dad in his sailor uniform. Each of us three kids have something commemorating his service.

My sister has his World War II walking stick from the Cole Land Transportation Museum. My brother has the knife he’d used to cut off a hawser that was wrapped around the propeller of LCI 565, the 157-foot ship that was his home in the Pacific. I have his dog tags, which I took with me when I visited the World War II Memorial in Washington.

I listed my dad on the World War II Memorial registry, which you can reach at www.wwiimemorial.com

Periodically I visit the site to look at his information and peruse the registry for other names I might know.

As I write this, one week before Veterans Day 2008, the 90th anniversary of Armistice Day and the end of World War I, I am remembering all the times my dad marched in the Memorial Day parades in Abbot, Guilford and Sangerville.

Lewis Page, he used to tell me. He marched for Lewis Page of Abbot, his buddy who was killed during World War II.

So today I entered information for Sgt. E. Lewis Page in the World War II Memorial registry. It will be online in a couple of weeks, I hope.

I didn’t remember enough about Sgt. Page to complete the entry on my own, so I checked “A Centeseptquinary History of Abbot, Maine 1827-2002,” which has information by Wayne Bennett on Lewis Page and Clifton Carr, for whom the Carr-Page Memorial Bridge in Abbot is named.

So it is that today, a little guy from Minnesota has got me thinking about a 20-year-old from Abbot whom I never met.

The Korean War Memorial at Mount Hope Cemetery is gorgeous, a pagoda-style monument engraved with names of 245 Mainers killed in Korea.

Tomorrow, a Korean War Veterans Memorial stone will be dedicated at 3 p.m. at the Cole Land Transportation Museum, 405 Perry Road, Bangor. The addition of the monument means that in future years, the memorial will join the World War II Memorial, Vietnam War Memorial and Purple Heart Memorial in wreath-laying ceremonies on Memorial Day.

The Veterans Day Parade in Brewer and Bangor begins at 10:30 a.m. tomorrow on Wilson Street in Brewer. Look for the Global War on Terrorism Veterans banner, being carried by veterans of Desert Storm, Somalia, Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraqi Freedom.

The Wassabec Genealogy Chapter will meet at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 13, in the conference room at Mayo Regional Hospital on Main Street in Dover-Foxcroft. Jack Battick will present “Coming to America, the Immigrant Experience.” For information, contact the Bennetts, 876-3073; or the Batticks, 564-3576.

The final meeting for 2008 of the Washington County Genealogical Society will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 15, at the home of Valdine Atwood, the house with the red shutters at 2 Free St., (now 17 Colonial Way), Machias.

Topics include genealogy research, projects and programs for the future. And, those who wish may inspect research books in Atwood’s collection – a wonderful opportunity, I can tell you.

Organized in 1992, WCGS collects, exchanges and preserves related documents and information, and promotes interest and scholarship in genealogy and family history. Membership is open to anyone interested in learning about their family genealogy and history, especially in Washington County and neighboring Charlotte County, New Brunswick.

The group meets the third Saturday of the month from March to November, except for July and August. Dues are $10 a year, including subscription to the quarterly Weirs & Woods.

For further information, contact president Frances Raye, 853-6630; secretary, Valdine Atwood, 255-4432; or Christine Small, 255-4446.

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