No time for a detour to Cranbrook, where the Rev. William Eddy was vicar at St. Dunstan’s during the time of Shakespeare. Made a pit stop in Oxford, but too short to look up the Rev. Stephen Batchelder. Saw Westminster Abbey, but the line was too long to… Read More
With Valentine’s Day nearly here, I’ve been admiring a beautiful wedding certificate at the Bangor Museum and Center for History at 6 State St. Adrian R. Staples of Bangor and Carrie A. Wilson of Bangor “were united by me in holy matrimony according to the… Read More
Schoolteacher Nettie Collins Rowell Bemis was a romantic at heart. Her 1877 essay about teaching in Harmony concluded with the story of how pupils Mary Dana and Calvin Moss – competitors in the classroom – ended up getting married. The piece is just one of… Read More
What kind of artifact looks like an odd vase with leather trim around the top? Let’s suppose that the front of the vessel reads: Calais F. Club googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var slot_sizes = [[300,250]]; var new_slot_sizes = []; var has_banner = false;… Read More
Many towns in the 1930 Census didn’t have street numbers, so of course those numbers don’t show up on the census microfilm, released earlier this year by the National Archives. Cities such as Bangor, however, do have street numbers listed, and a check of the… Read More
My great-great grandmother was born this day in 1859 in Greenville, and in 1913 she started recording the birthdays of friends and relatives in her Emerson Birthday Book. Often, she would put in the year of birth, as well. Printed in the book was a little verse for… Read More
In 1915, a foreman named LeClare earned $15 a week at The Monson Slate Co., while foreman Jones was paid $12.50 “plus rent.” Drillmen and ledgemen earned $13.50 a week, and various quarrymen $10.80. It says so in the November issue of the Monson Historical… Read More
Recently we mentioned in passing the Web site for Ellis Island in New York, 1892-1924, at www.ellisislandrecords.org. On a much smaller level, we have a bit of an “Ellis Island of the North” type of resource at the University of Maine in the form of… Read More
It was nice to see the Burnham Tavern featured in the November-December issue of American Spirit, the Daughters of the American Revolution magazine. Considered one of the 21 homes with the “most significance to the Revolution,” the building where patriots met in Machias is owned by Hannah Weston… Read More
As Charlie Campo can tell you, immigrants could be “loath to discuss anything but the life they had forged in this country, so grandchildren got little information about their heritage.” Fortunately for people like Charlie, the chief librarian here at the Bangor Daily News, there… Read More
The editor of a genealogy magazine has a theory that people aren’t getting out to meetings and conventions the way they used to because so much genealogy can be done over the Internet. That may be so in some locales, but attendance at the Penobscot… Read More
Opening a package from Connee Jellison, who wrote Family Ties for 10 years, I couldn’t guess what genealogical data there might be in a small book with a cover photo of a big rock with a hole in it. The title “Perce” brought to mind… Read More
Every once in a while someone asks me what I think of those paid Web sites, where you pay so much a month, often with a one-year commitment, to gain access to perhaps thousands of genealogy databases. I had not used such a site until… Read More
Nearly a century ago, Dr. Mary (Payne) Bray Jenks published “Behind the Bars,” an account of her experiences as Rhode Island’s first women’s police matron, stationed in Pawtucket. It’s wonderful to have that little book by my great-great-great-grandmother, but there was next to no personal information in it. Read More
Just as you don’t have to come from Maine to love Maine, you don’t have to be Franco-American to enjoy the Ste. Agathe Historical Society newsletter. I was some excited to read the six-page “Le Magasin a Gerard” by Jacqueline Chamberland Blesso in the fall… Read More
There are new Web addresses for the marriage and birth indexes offered by the state of Maine. When you go to the Archives site at www.state.me.us/sos.arc, you will be asked to bookmark these addresses: . Marriage Index for 1892-1966 and 1976-1996, at http://thor.dafs.state.me.us/pls/archives/archdev.marriagearchive.searchform googletag.cmd.push(function ()… Read More
Michelle Thomas is a busy woman – you could look it up. Between her family, including five children, and her many activities at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Bangor, I figure she doesn’t have much extra time for genealogical pursuits. But… Read More
I always thought that one of the most unusual “used-to-be” names for a town belonged to Turner, the Androscoggin County town once known as Sylvester Canada. Many of us with Maine roots have ancestry from that area, which includes Greene, Livermore and Auburn. My Revolutionary… Read More
Due to space constraints, Roxanne Moore Saucier’s weekly “Family Ties” column did not run today. Her column will resume Monday, Oct. 14. Read More
One of the greatest ways to keep up on genealogy, and find out what’s new (or old), is to attend meetings of a genealogical group. Its members may include just the person you need to ask about local resources – and ancestry. I long have… Read More
Ira Wolfman’s “Climbing Your Family Tree,” just published by Workman Publishing in New York, is billed as genealogy “for kids,” but really it’s a book for genealogists of all ages. Originally published some years ago as “Do People Grow on Family Trees?,” the volume is… Read More
It was my son’s question about the history of Bangor that sent me off on a tangent, perusing various resources on this fascinating city. “Bangor, Maine: An Illustrated History 1769-1976,” edited by James Vickery, with its wonderful collection of photographs, offers much that is worth… Read More
Recently we received an interesting letter from someone at an out-of-state agency that helps adoptees in their search for birth parents. The policy of the state of Maine is to keep sealed records sealed, and not to divulge that information unless both child and birth… Read More
We know, of course, that the holdings of Bangor Public Library are amazing. Genealogists are especially fortunate to find among the half-million books the fruits of many years of wise purchasing and generous gifts. Moreover, the facility has a manuscript collection that gives us something… Read More
It was probably 1977 or thereabouts when I discovered the wooden drawer marked “Registers” at the Bangor Public Library. I was so pleased to find that the library had three volumes of “Vital Records of Gloucester, Massachusetts, to the end of the year 1849” –… Read More
If you’ve been thinking about visiting Katahdin Ironworks for lo, these many moons, a new video published by Flying Fish Video Productions may be the last little nudge you need. KI, as it’s known, is a Piscataquis County “museum” with a restored stone blast furnace… Read More
Maxwelton’s braes are bonnie Where early fa’s the dew googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var slot_sizes = [[300,250]]; var new_slot_sizes = []; var has_banner = false; for (var i = 0; i < slot_sizes.length; i++) { if (isMobileDevice()) { if (slot_sizes[i][0] googletag.cmd.push(function () { //… Read More
In the past we’ve talked about family records that had been taken out of the Bibles where they were written down, making it difficult to tell when the records were begun. Let’s look at a portion of the Hart-Roberts family record of Dexter, which is… Read More
A mourning sampler, in itself, is a wonderful historical item, but Ardeana Hamlin’s story about the sampler she did for her late sister leads us to the work that Nancy Hamlin Davis did recording gravestone inscriptions in portions of several Somerset County towns. The records… Read More
Check out the public genealogy conference to be held Saturday, Aug. 10, at Williams Junior High School in Oakland, sponsored by Silence Howard Hayden Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution. Registration begins at 8 a.m., with vendors on site from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Read More
We can spend 24 hours a day searching the Internet, libraries, graveyards and repositories, and it won’t replace that serendipitous moment that so often happens when we’re in the midst of other genealogists. Try the Sept. 28 meeting of the Maine Genealogical Society, or an… Read More
To me, she’s the countess of Salisbury Cove and Bar Harbor, an esteemed author, a talented painter and a relentless genealogist – and they’re the best kind. If you’ve never met Connee Jellison, former Family Ties columnist and a dear friend of mine since March… Read More
The piece of stationery itself is small, a little less than 5 by 8 inches. The simple typeface at the top, in blue, proclaims “House of Representatives U.S., Washington, D.C.” The very brief letter, in sweeping letters of the black ink from a fountain pen,… Read More
We have several family reunions to tell you about this week. The Bubar Family Reunion will be held July 28 at the home of Paul Wintle on Phillips Corner Road in Pittsfield. Dinner will be held at 12:30 p.m. Bring food, dishes, utensils and lawn… Read More
The wait for the 1930 Census is over. Fogler Library, located on the University of Maine campus in Orono, has received the microfilm reels for Maine and keeps them in the drawers with other census records in the first floor government documents and microforms department. Read More
The real value in my dad’s dog tags now, of course, is in their continued existence. I can hold the gently curved pieces of metal between my hands and remember so well the father I knew for 50 years, knowing that I am holding a key to the… Read More
Countless Franco-Americans can trace their origins to the early families on Ile d’Orleans, a Quebec island in the St. Lawrence River. Near Ste. Famille Church at the northern end of the island, a modernistic sculpture with trees for arms – family trees, no doubt –… Read More
Bring old tools,” suggests Jennifer Wentz, “and various items representing life 100 years ago to add to the spirit of this 100th Hurd reunion.” Also, cream skimmers and butter churns, “but don’t limit yourself.” The descendants of Samuel and Eliza (Knowles) Hurd have been gathering… Read More
The next time someone suggests to you that genealogy didn’t take hold in America until the Bicentennial in 1976, point out that The Register rightfully marks its current edition as “Volume 156.” Yes, 156 years is the length of time the Boston-based New England Historic… Read More
If you haven’t been to the Acadian Festival in Madawaska, surely the 25th anniversary of the event would be a good time to start. Pencil in the weekend of June 27-30, and make plans to visit the St. John Valley, a very special part of… Read More
Maybe you’ve heard of John Ames, the Civil War veteran who was superintendent of schools and postmaster in Orland. The Orland Historical Society has a story about Ames in the inaugural issue of Narramissic Notebook, available for $2.50 at several businesses in Orland, Verona, Bucksport and nearby towns. Read More
Last year we told you about Roger Paradis editing “Papiers de Prudent L. Mercure: Histoire du Madawaska.” Madawaska, as you may know, refers to a region of Maine and eastern Canada, not just the town by that name. Those looking for American Indian roots in… Read More
A couple of brief stories from my dad, Gayland Moore Jr. of Abbot, tell us something about the process of gathering family history from those who have been around longer than we have. The first explains how a job he had as a teen-ager influenced the U.S. Navy… Read More
It was so nice visiting with members of the Milbridge Historical Society last week. I haven’t found Sawyers or Strouts or Ficketts in my family, so far, so I’d have told you I probably didn’t have many cousins in the Washington County town of Milbridge. Read More
We can wait a few more weeks, right? Toward the end of April, we’ll hope to be checking out the 1930 census for Maine on microfilm at Fogler Library at the University of Maine. The 15 reels actually were ordered Jan. 23, according to Frank… Read More
“The History and Genealogy of Greenbush, Maine” by Eleanor M. Crouch and Joyce M. Sanborn is a fine addition to books on Maine towns. Settled in the early part of the 19th century, the town just north of Milford was incorporated in 1834. Cardville and Olamon are parts… Read More
A couple of years ago, Carol Bishop Smith Fisher of Brewer shared with us her successful search for the connection between poet Walt Whitman and her great-great-grandfather, Civil War Lt. George Washington Bishop. It turns out that Whitman was George’s uncle. Her new search, focusing… Read More
A well-done family history is a labor of love. An updated third edition, published less than a decade after the first, is surely above and beyond the call of duty. That’s a good description of “The Descendants of James Candage/Cavendish of Blue Hill, Maine,” compiled… Read More
So there I am at the University of Maine’s Fogler Library, on the Orono campus, looking through the drawers holding census microfilm. When what to my wondering eyes should appear, but a reel labeled “New England Women and Their Families in the 18th and 19th Centuries: Personal Papers,… Read More
I hadn’t even been born when Mary L. Murray of Dexter died on March 9, 1948. But I can tell you that she lived on Free Street for 48 years, and that at 91 she was the oldest member of the Dexter Methodist Church. She… Read More
Those of us who have spent long hours perusing census records on fading microfilm are curious about new ways to access this information quickly, and with a minimum of eye strain. A smattering of census records is available free on the Web – Aroostook County… Read More
My great-great-great-great-grandfather, Ebenezer Comins, is buried in that little cemetery near the bend in the road between Guilford and Parkman. Some of my Briggs forebears are buried there as well. Ebenezer, a farmer, served in the War of 1812, in Capt. Moses Sprague’s Company, Col. Read More
We mentioned last fall the Kalloch Family Home Page, the Web site of the Kalloch Family Reunion Association, which can be found at http://kalloch.accessgenealogy.com. I’m predicting that this site, done by Ken Kalloch of Concord, N.H., is going to become increasingly popular as time goes… Read More
It’s not only original records, family and town histories that tell us about our forebears. Often, we see them come to life in sources that have as their primary purpose something else, albeit with an historical component. One example is “Maine Remembers Those Who Served:… Read More
Don’t we love looking at old city directories? One of my favorite entries is from Bangor’s 1875-1876 directory, listing former Vice President Hannibal Hamlin as “minister plenipotentiary to Spain.” What an elegant description. I have used city directories from many Maine communities at the Bangor… Read More
One hundred twenty-eight years ago, the coldest day of the winter may have been Jan. 5, 1874. At least, that’s what Daniel Bartlett McLaughlin claimed on the day he and wife Rachel welcomed their newborn son in Levant, Cyrus Ladd McLaughlin. googletag.cmd.push(function () { //… Read More
That “oooh” you heard a few days ago was my response to the December issue of The Mayflower Quarterly, published by the General Society of Mayflower Descendants. The front cover has a picture of Fort Western in Augusta, while the back cover features a sunset… Read More
The property has long since passed into other hands, and as deeds go, it’s not really old. But I was fascinated to read the 1953 document on the purchase of the Labree Farm on Butter Street in Guilford by my great-aunt and uncle, Marion (Roberts) and C. Ford… Read More
Just above Quebec City is one of the oldest roads in America – L’Avenue Royale in the small town of Chateau Richer. On one side are the cliffs, on the other, flat farmland leading to the St. Lawrence River. The roadway marks the area where “les familles souches”… Read More
Good for the Maine Historical Society for combining efforts with other state agencies to start up the Maine Memory Network. The Web site at www.mainememory.org offers a variety of items, from pictures to diaries and other documents. googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var slot_sizes… Read More
You may know the name of Amy Bouchard Morin as someone who is involved in preserving the Franco-American heritage. Morin, whose family is from Lille in the St. John Valley, has given presentations on the Acadian needlework skills of her grandmother and mother. She also… Read More
Those of us with Pennsylvania German ancestors who settled in the Moncton area of what is now New Brunswick are fortunate that two fine authors have published works that greatly illuminate our families. The German-born Rainer L. Hempel, a professor at Mount Allison University in… Read More
A history teacher from Ohio has been sorting out the descendants of John and Rachel (McKenney) Fogg, who married at Cape Elizabeth – then Falmouth – in 1790. In the November issue of The Maine Genealogist, the quarterly of the Maine Genealogical Society, Kenneth A. Read More
It could be that Martha (Harris) Parsons was a personal friend of “Anonymous.” After all, we know she liked to quote that author, who wrote the saying: Count that day lost whose low descending sun views from thy hand no worthy action done. googletag.cmd.push(function ()… Read More
If you use Bangor Public Library for any reason, you’ll want to know about the informative Web site at www.bpl.lib.me.us. You’ll find everything from hours to events at the popular facility at 145 Harlow St. For genealogists, the site now offers additional information on local… Read More
Many of us think of Jewish genealogy as a process that’s full of obstacles, and of course that’s true in many respects. From name changes to the dissolution and reforming of countries to the killing of one-third of the world’s Jewish population during the Holocaust, tracing Jewish ancestors… Read More
It’s an intriguing question: What lies in the archives of the Ellsworth home of Col. John Black and his family? The person to ask, no doubt, would be Earle Shettleworth Jr., director of the Maine Historic Preservation Commission. googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var… Read More
Many of you will remember what a great job the Hancock County Genealogical Society did last fall in sponsoring a state meeting of the Maine Genealogical Society. The Hancock group’s local meetings and other activities are equally impressive. googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var… Read More
So where is Stow? Not Stowe, Vermont, but Stow, Maine, on the western Maine border near Fryeburg. David Crouse has been publishing history, biography, genealogy and other items about the area since 1993 in the Cold River Chronicle. googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var… Read More
Some years ago, a program on Maine Public Radio brought to my attention Stephen A. White, who was working on a mammoth project about Acadian genealogy. Generally, the term French Canadian describes those with Quebec ancestry, while Acadian refers to the French who occupied what… Read More
More than two decades ago, Otis Hayford’s “History of the Hayford Family” introduced me to some of the resources for Revolutionary War genealogy. I found my William Hayford Sr. listed in muster rolls and in the multivolumed “Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors.” Later a resident of… Read More
The Maine Old Cemetery Association had a productive meeting in Castine on July 28, and the next gathering will be Saturday, Oct. 13, at the Bethel Historical Society, 10-14 Broad St., Bethel. Registration begins at 9 a.m. – the cost is $2, and at 10:15… Read More
For the first 20 years or so of my genealogical life, my efforts at researching in New Brunswick were generally restricted to soulful sighs of regret that a portion of my forebears didn’t have the good sense to live in New England, where they could be properly tracked… Read More
In 1978, my cousin Paul E. Bennett of Freeport gave me a copy of a Cummings family record from Greenville, the Cummingses and Hildreths being two of the earliest families to settle in what was once known as Haskell Plantation. Their descendants include Waldens, as well as relatives… Read More
This time of year, you shouldn’t need an excuse to visit Greenville, the lovely town at the foot of Moosehead Lake. But if you do, I’d suggest a tour of the Eveleth-Crafts-Sheridan House, home of the Moosehead Historical Society. Tour guides gave me a fascinating… Read More
The information that fleshes out what we know about our forebears can be sad. An example is finding out that an ancestor was lost at sea – a too-common occurrence for families from coastal towns. In Gloucester, Mass., for instance, there is a statue of… Read More
John E. D’Anieri was looking for Thompsons when he found an essay on the John Bates family in bound collections of columns from the Eastern Gazette, the Dexter newspaper which published in the 1930s and 1940s both “Old St. Albans Families” and “Local History Column.”… Read More
The two kinds of genealogists are what I call the “doers” – those who actively pursue their ancestors, and the “viewers” – those who peruse query columns and maybe browse the Internet to see what pops up. There’s nothing wrong with being a viewer, and… Read More
How many Pilgrims come with a proven tie to royalty? I’d guess maybe one-quarter to one-third – and I’d be wrong. According to David J. Cade, only Mayflower passenger Richard More has such a connection – his mother Katherine was descended from Edward I, and… Read More
Those of us who hang out in libraries know the fun of “serendipity,” stumbling across just the right book you’d never noticed before. Now we find the same thing on the Internet. Instead of trying to zero in on a particular ancestor, maybe we’re just… Read More
The Maine State Library in Augusta offered a nice display of books interesting to family researchers recently. All of these are available at MSL, and some may be found at other facilities as well: . “The American Census Handbook,” by Thomas Jay Kemp. googletag.cmd.push(function ()… Read More
The first time you tried to get on the Ellis Island Web site, you probably couldn’t get there because it was busy. You’ll likely have better luck now, so give it a try at www.ellisislandrecords.org. googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var slot_sizes = [[300,250]];… Read More
Dean Scribner of Las Vegas raises an interesting question about the Bennett brothers – Isaac, John and Nathaniel – who were among the first settlers of Guilford. Because there are so many descendants of these Bennetts, who were born in Gloucester, Mass., to Isaac and… Read More
On a visit to the University of Maine at Fort Kent, I learned more from Lisa Ornstein and husband Nicholas Hawes than I could begin to share in one column. Ornstein and Hawes run the Acadian Archives, upstairs at the Blake Memorial Library on the… Read More
Happy birthday to “US.” The United States will be 225 years old come Wednesday. Particularly during the 25 years since the bicentennial, genealogy has really grown, to the point that it is now the second most popular hobby in the country. That’s no surprise to… Read More
Using the theme “Moving On,” the Maine Genealogical Society has scheduled a fascinating group of speakers for the Sept. 29 meeting at Skowhegan Area High School on Route 2. The keynote speaker at 9:30 a.m. will be David Dearborn, reference librarian for the New England… Read More
In the introduction to the history section of “Nos Histoires de l’Ile: History and Memories of French Island, Old Town, Maine,” Eugenie Nadeau Wollstadt recalled a time “when there still was no more pleasurable a way to spend a Sunday afternoon than in a rocking chair on memere… Read More
Got a family surname for which you can’t find much information? Wish somebody would just make a start? Go ahead and do just that, and, who knows, other people may add to it. Information has been a little sparse on the Welts family, but Melanie… Read More
Until we got into shaking our family trees, most of us probably couldn’t have come up with a Delano descendant except for President Franklin D. Roosevelt, whose mother was a Delano. But it turns out that lots of people have Delano ancestry, especially if their… Read More
The Irish surname Cullinan is not common around Maine – it appears just 17 times in the state’s telephone listings. But there are certainly more Cullinan descendants than that fact would indicate – people named Shanley, Shaughnessy, Taber and Kelly, for example. googletag.cmd.push(function () {… Read More
Face it. We are fascinated by gravestones, mesmerized by the names and dates – and the people who carve them. Doug Coffin will demonstrate the art of cutting letters in stone, and present a slide show of his work, during the June 2 meeting of… Read More
You may be aware that the Burnt Island Light Station off Boothbay Harbor has become an educational resource under the Maine Department of Marine Resources. Elaine Jones, director of marine education, has been working on the history of the facility, and would be delighted to… Read More
For many of us, the majority of our ancestors in the mid-19th century already were in Maine. But if any of yours were lingering in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, you’ll want to check the state censuses done in 1855 and 1865. The devoted compiler of… Read More
A recent bulletin from the Society of Mayflower Descendants in the State of Maine informs us that the organization has 1,200 members – two have been belonged for 55 years, four for 45 years, 13 for 40 years. I joined Mayflower as a descendant of… Read More
The search room at the Maine State Archives in Augusta continues to be closed due to a water leak, but there’s good news. Many of the microfilm rolls – both town records and vital records by surname – have been moved across the hall to… Read More
For more than 20 years, we have used the Rev. Henri Langlois’ marriage repertories, edited by the Rev. Ernest Lang, as a major resource for genealogy in the St. John Valley. The eight volumes of photocopied typescripts were indexed only by surname of the groom. To look up… Read More
Dennis T. Cullinan Jr. was shot down over France during World War II. His name, like those of other Bangor natives killed during the war, is inscribed in the Bangor Book of Honor, preserved in a glass case at the Bangor Public Library. For the… Read More
I can tell you about the Piscataquis County town of Guilford. It was settled in 1806, and because the sesquicentennial was celebrated when I was in high school, the town must have been incorporated in 1816 – two years after Sangerville. Now, if Piscataquis didn’t… Read More
A recent trip to the Maine Center for the Arts at the University of Maine inspired me to take another look at Bona Arsenault’s “Histoire et Genealogie des Acadiens.” I had been preparing for a concert of Cajun music by the Louisiana group BeauSoleil by… Read More
If you haven’t been to a Family History Center recently,it’s time to go back. It had been years since I used the Family History Center operated in Bangor by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var slot_sizes… Read More