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It is wise to acquaint yourself with any repository which you might visit by writing to the appropriate archive or library in advance. Every repository has published materials that introduce its collections and research policy. State archives and historical agencies also have Internet sites that provide the same information. Some even have downloadable databases for some or parts of their collections.
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"Genealogists are generally positive and energetic, and most are ready to share their findings or research experience with anyone they can help. There are hundreds of genealogical societies at the grass-roots level. Knowledge of the genealogical community will place you in the midst of much activity, increase your productivity, and alert you to the importance of research standards and etiquette."
Sandra Hargreaves Luebking,
Editor of FGS Forum,
Co-editor of The Source: A Guidebook of American Genealogy
Because family history research relies greatly upon records found at the county level, many local societies represent counties. Organizations also form around shared interests. Ethnic or religious origins account for many groups, such as the Polish Genealogical Society of America and P.O.I.N.T. (Pursuing Our Italian Names Together). Societies also form around common locales of origin for members’ ancestors; hence, the Palatines to America and Germans from Russia societies. To locate these and other societies, consult Juliana Szucs Smith’s The Ancestry Family Historian’s Address Book. It lists addresses, telephone and fax numbers, and Internet addresses of thousands of organizations throughout the United States.
For almost every state there is a state genealogical society, a state genealogical council, or both. In addition to their own work, state-level groups sometimes help coordinate the efforts of local societies within the state. Their publications, newsletters and quarterlies, supplement those produced by the local societies.
- Maine State Library,
State House Station 64,
Augusta, ME 04333
Located at the Maine Cultural Center, both have been granted additional support for extending and organizing their already diverse collections. Maine State Archives is the only central location in the state for vital records before 1892 and is the permanent "repository" for state documents. In addition it holds all census records, adjutant general's records, court records, Maine land office records, county marriage returns, and the updated microfilm collection of extant Maine town records.
The east wing of the building houses the Maine State Library with the largest collection of town histories and family genealogies in the state, microfilm holdings of newspapers, town reports after 1902, and the two collections of cemetery indexes.
- Maine Historical Society Library,
485 Congress Street,
Portland, ME 04101
Open to non-members for a nominal fee, its superior collection includes extensive printed works on state and family history, and manuscripts.
- Maine Genealogical Society,
P.O. Box 221,
Farmington, ME 04938
Local chapters in the state and state-wide meetings as well as bi-monthly publication Maine Seine. Maine Families in 1790 is published and sold by the society, along with vital records of Mount Desert and the records of Rev. Edward Carter. The organization's library is presently at Cutler Memorial Library in Farmington.
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Search The PERiodical Source Index
Maine has some excellent periodical sources from the nineteenth century presently in publication. Historical ones include Maine Genealogist and Biographer (1875–78), primarily for Kennebec County; The Maine Historical and Genealogical Recorder (1884–98) for Cumberland and York counties; Bangor Historical Magazine (1885–95) for Penobscot Valley, Sprague's Journal of Maine History (1913–26) published in Dover, Maine; and finally, what is known as Maine Genealogies but actually called Genealogical and Family History of the State of Maine (1909), 4 vols., which has been made somewhat obsolete by later research. Present periodicals include these:
[ see specific county page for individual county list ]
- Downeast Ancestry, P.O. Box 398, Biddeford Pool, Maine 04066; published six times a year beginning in 1977; has articles and queries.
- Maine Historical Society Quarterly, Maine Historical Society, articles on Maine history, available through membership.
- Maine Seine, Maine Genealogical Society;
bimonthly publication available through membership.
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Search Historical Newspapers
Local library and historical societies as well as the Maine Historical Society and Maine State Library have indexes to various newspaper vital statistics. The largest collection of microfilmed newspapers can be found at the University of Maine's Folger Library at Orono which has a computer printout of listings with their holdings. They also supply a typescript, “Maine Newspapers in the Smaller Maine Public Libraries.”
While records of birth, marriage, and death are the most commonly sought and the most consistently helpful records, only the genealogist’s imagination and resourcefulness limit newspapers’ usefulness in supplying clues about historical events, local history, probate court and legal notices, real estate transactions, political biographies, announcements, notices of new and terminated partnerships, business advertisements, and notices for settling debts.
Newspapers can provide at least a partial substitute for nonexistent civil records. For example, a person’s obituary may have appeared in a newspaper even when civil death records for that person do not exist. And newspapers are an important source of marriage records, particularly in those states where civil recording of marriages was essentially nonexistent until the twentieth century.
Unlike official records, newspapers are not limited to a particular geographical area. They often include reports of the weddings of local citizens (even those that occurred in a neighboring county or another state), and they sometimes report visits of geographically distant relatives or the visits of former local residents. They often published death notices of individuals who had left the area long before but who still had local family or friends as well. In each case the newspaper account can identify the date and place of an event, thus opening the possibility of turning up additional documentation in other sources.
The first step in searching a newspaper is to identify those which served the area of interest and which have survived. The three most necessary tools are bibliographies (What was published?), inventories of library and depository holdings (Where is it?), and indexes (How do I find what I want in it?).
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