Tucked upstairs on the third floor of the Mark and Emily Turner Memorial Library in Presque Isle is a place where Aroostook County natives can discover information about their family’s genealogy.
With patience, luck and a little help from the library’s genealogy volunteer, Ann Cushman, people can find out just how far the branches on their family tree extend throughout Aroostook County, the state of Maine and sometimes the world.
Cushman offers her services to newfound family researchers every Tuesday from noon to 2 p.m. and has a long history with genealogy herself. While growing up, she loved listening to older relatives tell stories about their past. She began researching her family’s genealogy in her early 20s to dig deeper into those stories. Her search led her to the Maine State Library in Augusta where she found many helpful historical documents.
A United States Army photo of Urban J. Legassie, father of Presque Isle resident Cathy Blalack, during his service in World War II. Blalack found the photo while researching her family’s genealogy with local genealogy expert, Ann Cushman, at the Mark and Emily Turner Memorial Library in Presque Isle.(Courtesy of Cathy Blalack)
“I grew up knowing that I had one ancestor who arrived in the U.S. on the Mayflower from my father’s side of the family. But when I did more research on my mother’s side I found out I actually had close to 10 to 15 ancestors who were on the Mayflower,” Cushman said.
Soon after she began volunteering at the library nearly 15 years ago, Cushman came across many boxes of donated genealogy books that no one at the library had ever looked through.
“The head librarian asked me to just throw out the stuff that wasn’t any good. What I threw out was this thick,” Cushman said, holding up two pieces of paper to show just how thin her throw-away pile was. “It was like Christmas.”
Today, the library’s genealogy department has expanded to include microfilms of old Aroostook County newspapers, which have been digitally documented through the 1940s. Many books contain unique information such as how townships were organized before this region of Maine became Aroostook County and where families settled during different time eras.
Computers available at the library also make it easier to search through documents such as birth and death certificates. But Cushman cautions people not to rely too much on Ancestry.com and other websites where anyone can create family trees. Many people who use those websites, she said, do not verify if family information is correct before creating a genealogy tree. Then others recognize their relatives’ names and add their own findings without realizing that the person before them did not research thoroughly.
“Many people think that everything is on the internet, but that’s not true. A lot of information is there and can be helpful, but you have to be diligent in your research and get as close to the factual information as you can,” Cushman said.
Instead of using often inaccurate genealogy tree websites, Cushman advises people to start with what they already know about their family’s history and work backward through the books and digital documents. Just by knowing their family’s name they can trace their origins back to the first known recordings of their family’s settlement.
Presque Isle resident Cathy Blalack has worked with Cushman since 2015 to piece together her own genealogy. Though she has not found enough information to know her entire family tree, she has come across many family stories that no one ever told her.
One such story is about something that apparently happened while her father, Urban J. Legassie, fought with the U.S. Army during World War II. Blalack, who is now 56, was not yet born when her father went off to war.
“My father went off to war and later my mother mistakenly believed that he had been killed. She moved on and married another man, but later she found out my father was alive. They got back together soon afterwards,” Blalack said.
Mars Hill native Ron Mullen also got to sit down with Cushman recently and discovered more about his family’s roots.
“My grandparents on my mother’s side came from Ireland. They settled in Mars Hill and became farmers. That’s where my dad was born,” Mullen said. “I have two daughters and they want to pass on the story of where they came from to their children.”
Anyone who is interested in pursuing their family’s genealogy with Cushman’s assistance can call the Mark and Emily Turner Memorial Library at (207) 764-2571.
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- A World War II era photograph of Urban and Dorothy Legassie, parents of Cathy Blalack, of Presque Isle. Blalack came across this family photo while researching her family’s genealogy with Ann Cushman at the Mark and Emily Turner Memorial Library in Presque Isle. (Courtesy of Cathy Blalack)
