A fascinating entry in the May issue of The Maine Genealogist, the journal of the Maine Genealogical Society, is Robert Carver Brooks’ “The Artificers and Inhabitants Who Built Fort George, Penobscot, 1779-1780.”

The accounts, Brooks explained, were kept by the Engineer Department at Majabigwaduce, now Castine.

The volume itself, interestingly enough, is located at the Public Record Office in Great Britain’s national archives at Kew in Surrey. But there is microfilm of the book at the National Archives of Canada.

An artificer, Brooks noted, was “the military term applied to the skilled civilian and off-duty military craftsmen employed by the engineer department.”

The lists of inhabitants were gleaned from various payrolls found throughout the book, except for those identified as military personnel. In many cases, a name is accompanied by a pay rate, skill and number of days served.

Skills listed included laborer, mason, teamster, well digger, carpenter and brick maker.

One group enumerated was described as “Dutchmen from Broad Bay.” Another was “Suppliers of Materials of Services Who Did Not Work Building the Fort.”

Other articles in this issue include Priscilla Eaton and Lennard Lemmon’s “The ‘Worn’ Entry in Master Tate’s Diary: Sarah (Roberts) (Hall) (Cushing) (Lord) of Somersworth, N.H., and Berwick”; Donald Robinson’s “Samuel Bailey of Rowley, Mass., and Penobscot County, Maine”; and more entries from a typescript by Dr. John Eldridge Frost of “Kittery, Maine, Second Parish Baptisms 1721-1831.”

You can get this issue and others and newsletters by joining the Maine Genealogical Society for $20 a year, sent to MGS, P.O. Box 221, Farmington, ME 04938. Add $5 for first-class postage of society mailings.

New membership is $29 for Canadian residents and $34 for residents outside the United States and Canada.

Edited by Joseph C. Anderson II, The Maine Genealogist is well worth the membership. So is the newsletter, edited by Marlene Groves.

You also can find The Maine Genealogist in some libraries.

New from Picton Press is “Vital Records of Corinna, Maine 1797-1894” by Angela M. Foster.

The cost is $26.50 postpaid, plus $1.13 state sales tax. Write Picton Press at P.O. Box 250, Rockport, ME 04856-0250, or call with a credit card, 236-6565.

In its continuing lecture series, the Trescott Historical Society will offer a presentation by Dr. Normand Laberge, “Water Power from Haycock Harbor to Straight Bay.” It will focus on how the 1930s Passamaquoddy tidal power project would have affected the towns of Trescott and Lubec.

The talk will take place at 6:15 p.m. June 9 at the Lubec Memorial Library.

The Aroostook County Genealogical Society will meet at 6:30 p.m. June 8 in the Caribou Room at Caribou Public Library. Topics will be planning the cleanup of the Cochran Cemetery and a presentation of the Family Tree Maker program. Queries and donated material may be sent to P.O. Box 142, Caribou, ME 04736-0142.

I suggest calling the University of Maine’s Fogler Library before traveling to use its vital records and census records on the first floor, Special Collections on the third floor and other offerings. The automated number for hours is 581-1664.

Summer is a particularly beautiful time of year to visit the University of Maine campus in Orono. In addition, facilities are much less busy than during the school year.

3267. BONNEY-NORCROSS. Dorothy Scott Muirhead wrote me several years ago that Grandpa Barton’s mother was a full-blooded American Indian. She may have been a Norcross who married a Bonney. Muirhead would like to correspond with people who are descendants of Thomas Bonney, who came from Sandwich, England, to Duxbury, Mass., on the Hercules in 1653. Bonney descendants include Hannibal Hamlin, Lincoln’s first vice president. Write to: Richard Whiting Bonney, 373 High Rock St., Needham, Mass. 02492-1539.

3268. LEWES-LEWIS. Jeany Hanscom would like to obtain a copy of Barbara L. Williams’ “400 Years with a New England Lewes-Lewis Family.” Write to: P.O. Box 449, Southwest Harbor, ME 04679, or jeanhanscom2@prexar.com.

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