Here are some names of old occupations that may give you an idea of the history of your surname: Surname Occupation Backman/Backster/Baxter/Beck/Becker baker Barker One who strips bark from trees prepares leather with bark = tanner Bauer German for farmer Beadle/Bedel/Bedell town crier or someone who keeps order Boniface innkeeper Brewster female brewer Burgess represented […]
Historical Trivia, January 2020
The Upper Crust Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or the upper crust. Orlan Smith
President’s Message, January 2020
Greeting and Happy New Years, As the New Year starts, take a minute to reflect on the past year. I hope you made some genealogical headway. Now is the start of a New Year and new plans. My plans are to try to fill in missing death dates for the many cousins I have. Here […]
This Old Tree, January 2020
“Find a Grave” has Wills!!! This column is about the value of finding copies of the wills of your ancestors. Today, on January 11, 2020, I was fortunate enough to run across a copy of the wills of a man and his wife from Culpeper County, Virginia. Both wills were found on the “Find a […]
DNA update by National Geographic
In the August 2019 issue of the National Geographic on page 94, author Andrew Curry discusses “Who Were The First Europeans?” If you have any Europeans in your DNA you will be surprised by how far back it goes now and what area most of them settled in after they left Africa 45,000 years ago […]
Archival Notes, Summer 2019
On July 20th, the Caribou Public Library presented the Hardison Collection. Project chairperson, Anastasia Weigle, told of the history of the collection arriving at the library and of the volunteers who began working to organize it. Grover M. Hardison’s grandson Robert Hardison was the guest speaker. Brent Bubar, surveyor explained surveyors’ terminology and Brenda Bourgoine […]
This Old Tree, August 2019
Patrick Connelly was from Ireland and he settled in what is now Caribou, Maine in December of 1829. Caribou was then called Eaton Grant and he was one of the early settlers. Patrick was single when he came to Eaton Grant and he would later marry one of his neighbor’s daughters, Catherine Kelley, sometime between […]
Historical Trivia, August 2019
Chewing the fat Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man could: “Bring home the bacon” They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit […]
President’s Message, August 2019
Greetings, This past week Jay and I have been using a combination of Maps, Census and City Directories to find the modern name for the old Caribou road called the Venning Road. We used the 1895 Caribou Directory that is a complete index to Residents, Businesses, Streets, etc of Caribou with other useful information. The […]
Historical Trivia, June 2019
In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get […]