I could spend all my genealogy time just looking at United States Census records, and really, that’s not a bad use of researching energy.
Take one family and follow them up through the census records every 10 years, as far as you can, keeping in mind that 1940 was the most recent census that has been made public. Do you find all the children listed that you expect to see? Were there perhaps more children than you realized were born to this couple? Was the father employed as you remembered, or did he have a different occupation at one time or another? Was each family member born in the state or country that you thought?
Another approach to census records is to pick a year, and look up all your ancestors who were living at the time. In 1940, I had the Steeves family in Sangerville and the Moore family in Abbot, plus various grandparent families of my parents, such as Bennett and Roberts. In earlier censuses, there were more ancestors whose births reached farther back into the 19th century.
Censuses reveal surprises, too. As I’ve mentioned before, my great-great-grandmother Mary (Cummings) Bennett Lord was Mary Cummings in the 1880 Census and Mary Lord by 1900. The 1890 Census was burned, so no census lists her as Mary Bennett, the name by which she bore children Rena and Silas.
Sometimes I look up people in a census just for the fun of it — people such as Donn Fendler, the senior citizen who, for us Mainers, will be forever the 12-year-old he was in 1939 when he was lost on Mount Katahdin for nine days and subsequently co-wrote “Lost on a Mountain in Maine” with Joseph Egan.
Though I already saw Donn this year during the Wallagrass Summer Festival on Aug. 10, I expect to join 200-300 people who will turn out for his annual program on Saturday, Sept. 20, at Cole Land Transportation Museum at 405 Perry Road in Bangor. He will begin signing books at 11 a.m. and give a short talk at 1 p.m.
Last year, I took my mother’s 1940 copy of “Lost on a Mountain” for him to sign for my son, who in 1986 wrote Donn Fendler a letter about reading his book — and we still have the letter he wrote back.
Oh right, the census. In 1940 Donald C. Fendler, 39, and Ruth R. Fendler, 37, lived on Newbury Place in Rye, N.Y. Their five children were: Donn C., 13; Ryan D., 13; Thomas P., 11; Patricia A., 10; and Nancy, 7.
Donald C. Fendler was listed as a salesman for an “outfitter to the church and clergy.” That company was and is C.M. Almy, founded in 1892 in New York by a cousin of Donald Fendler’s.
Ryan and Thomas Fendler moved the company to Pittsfield, Maine, many years ago. Donn Fendler made his career as a colonel in the Army, including service in the Special Forces. In retirement, he spends summers in Maine, where he is one of our treasures.
Speaking of military careers, I am pleased to solve the question of why Bangor’s Carl Holden, a student at the U.S. Naval Academy in 1914, was listed in a local newspaper as visiting Europe.
BDN historical columnist Wayne Reilly sent me the original reference from the Bangor Daily Commercial in August 1914: “Carl Holden, a student at Annapolis, is with the United States warship Illinois off the coast of England on the annual midsummer cruise.”
Wayne added, “Thus he was doing more than sampling European culture at the time the war began. Of course, the United States did not enter the war until 1917, so Carl was just an observer like everyone else.”
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Sandra Burke will give a program on“DNA”at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 17, at the Family History Center of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on the corner of Grandview Avenue and Essex Street in Bangor.
This is the September monthly meeting of the Penobscot County Genealogical Society and will be held in the Relief Society Room. All are welcome to attend.
The Bangor Family History Center will be closed Saturday, Sept. 20, due to a church activity being held that day. Check the Bangor FHC page on the FamilySearch research wiki at www.familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Bangor_Maine_Family_History_Center for the latest information regarding the center in Bangor..
For i nformation on researching family history in Maine, see Genealogy Resources under Family Ties at bangordailynews.com/browse/family-ties. Send genealogy queries to Family Ties, Bangor Daily News, P.O. Box 1329, Bangor 04402, or email familyti@bangordailynews.com.