If you Cannot use, activate or see the map below then use our alternate text table
Maine County Facts
Since Maine was part of Massachusetts for a long time, it should be expected that it would conform to a similar system for recording deeds, probates, and vital records. Such is the case. Deeds and probates were filed at the county seat and vital records at the town office. However, in Maine, marriages were to be submitted to the county clerk as mandated by the legislature in 1828, although the practice was never uniform and the results have not been completely assessed. The following chart reports what has been found regarding marriage returns on a county basis and where they are located (either at the Maine State Archives or with the county clerk). The Town Resources which follow will also have marriage records.
Town meeting records have an abundance of information about New England ancestors. Maine is no exception, although some may not be located at the town clerk's office. The on-going project for locating and microfilming Maine's town records continues under the auspices of the Maine State Archives. The addresses are published annually, free of charge, by the Secretary of State's office. Those in the chart below are as of 1990. Some towns operate out of town clerk's homes and change with annual elections. Microfilm information from the 1980 edition of “Maine Town and Census Records” and “Public Records Repositories in Maine” published by the Maine State Archives provide the dates for record sources. There are some more recent additions to their collection, but they have not yet been cataloged.
“Date Formed” indicates the year the town was organized with its present county listed underneath (see County Resources for previous county jurisdictions). Many towns have their vital records interspersed with the town meeting records while others have separate books for vital records. No distinction has been made in this chart, but both sources cited above do. The purpose here is simply to indicate what beginning year a researcher might expect to find town and vital records in either the Maine State Archives microfilm collection or the town clerk's office, which is indicated by an asterisk (*). Any vital records after 1892 will be found at the town office and Office of Vital Statistics (see Vital Records).
Unfortunately, fire has claimed many records since they were too often held in private homes. A question mark (?) suggests that information is incomplete or not certain. Dates of records earlier than formation indicate the town holds records of parent towns. Some dates are considerably later than town organization, indicating that either the records are lost or have burned. Choose from the counties below to view the county information.
