Ohhhh, the assumptions we make. Barnabas Baker was a Tory who went to Nova Scotia, but he came back after the American Revolution was over. So says an 1894 biographical sketch of grandson Lyman Baker, who lived in Newton Township, Iowa.
Not everyone bought that story. The Daughters of the American Revolution, for example, list Barnabas Baker, 1734-97, as a Patriot who was born in Yarmouth, Mass., and died in the Maine town of Litchfield.
Yes, Baker went to Nova Scotia, but it’s important to know when, and we do, thanks to Glenn D. Nasman’s article, “Barnabas Baker of Litchfield, Maine. Patriot or Loyalist?” in the November 2008 issue of The Maine Genealogist, the quarterly journal of the Maine Genealogical Society.
Baker and brothers-in-law Thomas and Benjamin Smith went to Nova Scotia, where they lived in Barrington in 1764. Come 1774, even before the Revolution officially began, the families had moved on to Pownalborough, Maine, the area we now call Wiscasset.
In fact, Barnabas and sons Barnabas and Smith Baker joined the local militia there in 1777. So Barnabas was indeed a Patriot.
The older Barnabas, whose ancestor Francis came on the Planter in 1635, married Mehitable Smith and had Mehitable, Barnabas, Smith, Elkanah, Jonathan, Elizabeth, Judah, John, Desire, Reuben, Abner, Brown, Mercy, Rebecca and Rebecca.
Nasman used census records, military listings, vital records and town histories in crafting his sketch of the Baker family.
This issue of The Maine Genealogist also offers another fine article, “Some Descendants of Robert Mills of York, Maine,” by Helen Schatvet Ullmann; the very interesting “From New Orleans to Bremerhaven. The Voyage, Cargo and Crew of the Barque Nimrod, June-September 1841,” by Kenneth W. Heger; Bible and family records for the Williams Bassett family in Winslow, the John Ward family in Gorham and the William Allen family in Robbinston; and more marriage intentions for the Maine city of Portland, 1814-37, copied by editor Joseph C. Anderson II.
The quarterly is well worth the annual dues of $20 a year sent to MGS, PO Box 221, Farmington, ME 04938. Add $5 for first-class mailing of publications. New membership is $29 for Canadian residents, $34 outside the U.S. and Canada.
There also is an informative newsletter included in the price of membership.
Moreover, membership in MGS entitles you to discounts on dozens of “special publications” which are joint projects of MGS and Picton Press.
For instance, MGS members can save $8 on the price of “Vital Records of Norridgewock, Maine,” by Marlene Groves; and $4 on “Vital Records of Wayne, Maine,” also by Groves.
Buy yourself a few of the special publications, and the membership will have paid for itself in what you save.
Give a new membership or renewal in MGS as a Christmas present to the genie in your life, and certainly for yourself.
The Maine Genealogical Society has a great new look for its Web site at www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~megs/.
Do take a look. I found it very user-friendly and informative, from news on the chapters to suggested links and a connection to the MGS blog.
Save the date of Saturday, Sept. 26, 2009, for the MGS conference, which will be held in Bangor.
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For someone with Franco-American ancestry, you can honor that heritage with a subscription to Le Forum, published by the Centre Franco-Americain at the University of Maine.
Each issue offers some genealogy listings by Robert Chenard, with the Guerette dit Dumont family treated in the spring-summer and fall-winter issues this year.
In the fall-winter issue, Pearley A. Lachance has an interesting piece, “A French Foreign Legionnaire in Waterville, Maine?” The answer is yes, and his name was Louis A. D’Argy, 1875-1933.
Michael Guignard wrote a nice tribute to six Franco-Americans from Biddeford who were killed in Vietnam: Norman Poitras, Roger “Eddie” LaBonte, Renald LePage, Robert Dechene, Herve Guay and Raymond Borduas.
Chip Gagnon, an associate professor at Ithaca College in New York, wrote “Native Peoples in the Upper St. John River Valley” about the arrival of the Acadians.
There are many more items in each issue of Le Forum. Some are in French, many more in English, and a few things are in both languages.
Individual subscriptions are $20 in the United States, $25 elsewhere. Organizations and libraries pay $40.
Send check to Le Forum, Centre Franco-Americain, Orono, ME 04469-5719.
I wish you a merry Christmas, and many blessings in the new year.
Send genealogy queries to Family Ties, Bangor Daily News, P.O. Box 1329, Bangor, ME 04402; or e-mail queries to familyti@bangordailynews.net.
