So many questions, so little time. Genealogy is all about finding the answers, and the best way is to use all your resources. You, my fellow questers, are one of the best resources. It is important to have other people in your bag of genealogy tricks. Other people can look at the same document you have read,
and find new information in it. Other people can give you hope when your spirits are flagging and share in your joy when you find a gem. It’s nice, and often helpful to have someone along when you visit a library, cemetery, or the old homestead. If it’s a relative who shares interest in the same family lines, so much the better. Sometimes, a total stranger can hold the clue for which you have been searching.
Most of my readers know so much more than I do about the people who helped settle this beautiful territory. I sometimes think half the population is related to each other through those early settlers. It is odd, but common around here, how many times the paths of Fred’s and my family crossed each other long before we ever met. Today I am asking for your help in finding answers to local genealogical history questions, if you have any information please email or snail mail me at the contact addresses below.
I will start with a quest for a photograph. I have a North Guilford reader who would like to track down a photograph, if one exists, of the Nathan Hale Smith farm in North Guilford, which burned down around 1905. We do not know of any living descendants. We have checked with the Guilford Fire Department and Historical Society with no luck. Mr. Smith has no known living descendants. Perhaps one of siblings has? The 1850 census shows them as: William, Thomas, Amanda, Ann and Henry, perhaps one of their descendants has a photo of the old family farm kicking around somewhere?
The rest of my searches are for people about whom I was contacted, but have been unable to find answers in the records. I am also looking for: proof that Luther Kinney is the son of Aaron Kinney who was in Dover around the 1830s.
I need several maiden names. I am looking for the maiden name of Rachel who was born about 1815. Rachel had a daughter named Francena Wagner in 1845 or ‘46, then Rachel married Richard Labree in Guilford in 1850. Rachel and Richard had a daughter named Rosilla Labree, born in Parkman in 1852. In 1870 and ‘81 they were living in Dover, but Rachel died in Michigan in 1891.
Looking for the family of Dolly G. Stevens (1819-1885) from Grafton, N.H. Dolly married John Gray Butler and died in Blanchard. We’d love to know about her parents. Finally, trying to find the origins of Jacob Jenks (probably N.H.) who lived in Atkinson in the 1820s, and also those of his wife, Ann Levensailor of Sebec. I would really appreciate it if anyone can shed some light on these mysteries.
Thanks and happy hunting.
Columnist Nina Brawn of Dover-Foxcroft is a longtime genealogy researcher, speaker and teacher. Reader emails are welcome at ninabrawn@gmail.com. Her semimonthly column is sponsored by the Aroostook County Genealogical Society which meets the fourth Monday of the month except in July and December at Cary Medical Center’s Chan Education Center at 6:30 p.m. Guests are always welcome. FMI contact Edwin “J” Bullard at 492-5501.
