Staff Writer
HOULTON — For years, Mary Henderson searched for clues.
During her lifetime, the Littleton woman discovered a passion for genealogy and spent decades digging through records and visiting cemeteries to piece together family history. When she died in 2003, she left behind reams of research.
Pioneer Times Photo/Sarah Berthiaume
WORK IN PROGRESS — Family members gather around J.R. Hayes while he shows them the process of scanning in genealogy records. Standing, from left, are: David Henderson, Rosanne Bowen, Barbara Henderson and David Bowen. Thousands of pages of locally-gathered genealogies were scanned to be part of the site www.familysearch.org. See the story on Page Six.
“It’s between 11,000 and 12,000 pages. It’s huge,” says Karen Hayes.
Hayes and her husband J.R. of Idaho Falls, Idaho, are missionaries with Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. They have been in Maine for months, finding family records and turning the documents into digital images that will be part of the church’s free genealogy Web site, familysearch.org.
For the most part, the couple works at courthouses and from public records. When they heard about Henderson’s collection, they were amazed.
“It was exciting,” said J.R. Hayes. “We don’t see private collections this huge.”
When the Hayes visited Mary’s son, David Henderson, they found genealogies that filled two barrels and seven boxes.
“She started over 40 years ago,” said David Henderson of his mother’s work. “She followed the Henderson family name back and her own family, too.”
Mary traced over 20 family lines, said Henderson, and some of her records reach back into the 1700s. They spent a couple days going through the papers before the Hayes scanned in the material.
Photo courtesy of the Henderson family
FAMILY HISTORY — The late Mary Henderson enjoyed researching her family tree and her research was recently added to a major genealogy web site, familysearch.org. Mary, at right, is pictured here with her children in a 2003 photo. From left, are: Beth Henderson Martin of Shapleigh, David Henderson of Littleton and Rosanne Bowen of Houlton.
Rosanne Bowen of Houlton, another of Mary’s children, said she thinks her mom would be happy to see the records shared.
“It’s exciting,” she said. “I think she would be thrilled to know her work is going to be shared.”
Research of this sort was something her mom enjoyed, said Bowen, adding that she had also traced the history and leaders Littleton Baptist Church, where she was a long-time member.
Leatha Sisson, a certified genealogy records searcher with the Mormon church, said she met Mary at a genealogy class.
“I first met Mary at a seminar in Caribou,” said Sisson. “We worked many lines together.”
Mary’s work is a tremendous resource, Sisson added.
“She’s helped connect us with different families back and forth across the border,” she said. “And now thousands of people will be able to tie into this,” she said.
David Henderson said he’s enjoyed working with the Hayes’.
“It’s been very exciting for me to work with these folks,” he said. “It feels like we’ve known them forever.”
Mary Henderson’s work isn’t the only private collection the Hayes have help turn digital. With help from Winifred Boutilier and Gail Suitter, they’ve also scanned extensive records gathered by Pauline Megquire and the late Donna Chambers.
“There were a pile of papers just this thick,” says Boutilier, illustrating with her hands.
The information was gathered from cemetery records in a series of area towns including Danforth, Weston, Orient, Amity, Haynesville, Linneus, Eaton, Seldon and Brookton. That two years worth of work will also be included on the World Wide Web. (Locally, the records will also be available in the Family History Center at the Pleasant Street church.)
“What she did was so neat,” said J.R. Hayes. “You could read every letter. It was as good as I’ve ever seen.”
Gail Suitter said the research was more than a hobby for her mom Donna.
“She really enjoyed it,” Suitter said. “It was something she was proud of.”
Donna died in 2006, but the material she gathered will continue to be used as a world-wide resource for anyone interested in learning more about their roots.
Pioneer Times Photo/Sarah Berthiaume
RESEARCH — Gail Suitter, at right, is holding a picture of her late mother, Donna Chambers. Chambers helped research local family records that will be part Web genealogy database. Pictured here, from left, are: J.R. and Karen Hayes, members of the Latter Day Saints church who scan the information into the computer, Winifred Boutilier, a friend of Chambers, and Suitter.
