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Few church records have been published or microfilmed for Maine,
making it a major untapped source for genealogical research. No
total survey of what exists has been made, but the Congregational
church was the largest denomination and its records were usually
quite comprehensive. According to John Frost, records for over
two dozen Congregational churches are located at Maine Historical
Society, as well as thirteen Baptist, three Universalist, and
ten Quaker meetings.
Literally hundreds more church records probably exist in various
repositories or the churches themselves. The most likely genealogical
material can be found in the lists of memberships with letters
of admission or dismissal and the baptisms. It is in the nature
of the church proceedings themselves that the lives of ancestors
are vividly illuminated.
A few church records, such as those from the Church of Christ
in Buxton, 1763-1817, have been published in book form and others,
such as Wells, are in periodicals such as New England Historical
and Genealogical Register.
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As is typical of other New England states, Maine residents often
chose to be buried near their homes, making burying places difficult
to find. Principally the Maine Old Cemetery Association and DAR
state and local chapters have made numerous transcripts of Maine
cemeteries. There is a continuous indexing project of the transcripts
being conducted by the Maine Old Cemetery Association.
It is not
only indexed but microfilmed and contains upwards of 200,000 people
who were buried in Maine between 1650-1970. This alphabetical
surname indexing project is held on microfilm at the Maine State
Library in Augusta, with originals at the Farmingdale branch of
the FHL in Maine. A Revolutionary War Soldiers' graves project
and a similar project underway for Civil War Soldiers' graves
are included.
Typescripts of the DAR work have been deposited in one of four
places: The Maine Historical Society, the New England Historic
Genealogical Society, Maine State Library, or Bangor Public Library
Cemetery records and gravestone inscriptions are a rich source of information for family historians. Cemetery and other sources of information associated with death include:
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- Biographical works
- Burial permits
- Church burial registers
- Cemetery records (often several different kinds are kept)
- Cemetery indexes (often compiled by genealogical societies)
- Cemetery sextons’ records
- Cemetery deed and plot registers
- Death certificates
- Death indexes
- Family bibles
- Family burial plots
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- Funeral director’s records
- Grave opening orders
- Gravestone (monument) inscriptions
- Military records
- Monuments and memorials
- Necrologies
- Newspaper death notices
- Obituaries
- Probate records
- Published death records
- Religious records
- Transcriptions of cemetery inscriptions
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