Happy 2014 Year to all of you who are digging around in records that are dusty, dirty, and hard to read and they are 100 or more years old. Therefore, you probably could care less about the current year.
Our first meeting of the year will take place on Monday, January 27th, and Heather Feuerhelm will give a talk on how to simplify your computer operations. It will include such items as how to cut and paste, the functions of other items in your tool bar, how to use and what function keys will do for you, internet protection from viruses and other shortcuts we can do to make our computer research life easier. I also understand that she will have handouts.
The first of December, Dennis and I took a day trip to Fredericton to the Archives as well as the Irving Library. As is the usual, not enough time, but we did come away with information as well as more questions. If that wasn’t enough, I talked him into going to Bangor with me right after Christmas and it was not to hit all the post-holiday sales.
We went to the Bangor Library. Again, we found more discoveries as well. Near the end of the afternoon, the lady in the genealogy area, Elizabeth Stevens, took us into the depths of the library looking for someone who might be able to help us. We did not find him but, while there, she pointed out that they had received old copies (or the originals) of the valuation books of the City of Bangor. Dennis looked in one dated, I believe, 1834 for William Savage. Sure enough, he was listed as having been charged and paying his poll tax for that year.
This is a great way to find a male if you have an inkling of where he might have been living because all males over a certain age were required to pay a poll tax in order to vote. I believe that this goes back to Colonial days and was repealed in 1978 in the State of Maine.
Frances Heales gave me a heads up on a “free” internet magazine called “Irish Lives Remembered”. I did a quick look through of the magazine and was impressed. In order to be able to read the articles, I had to increase the page size to 200%. And I also signed up to have the monthly magazine emailed to me, for FREE. The site is www.irishlivesremembered.com
Hope to see many of you at our next meeting.