An article in “The Maine Genealogist,” the quarterly journal of the Maine Genealogical Society, doesn’t need to involve a family of ours in order to be both interesting and very, very useful.
Take, for example, Carole Gardner’s “Clark Drew of Maine and Vermont” in the February 2015 issue. Her theory is that Clark, born about 1751, likely in the Durham, New Hampshire, area, was the son of Clement and Betsey Drew. In pursuing who Clark Drew is, she also works on the problem of who he isn’t.
Gardner cites Betty D. Post’s “The Founding Families of Craftsbury, Vermont” as a publication linking the Clark Drew who came to Craftsbury as the son of Sylvanus and Mercy (Clarke) Drew of Duxbury, Massachusetts. But that Clark Drew was too young, Gardner points out, being born in 1765, not to mention that he stayed in Duxbury while the Clark Young in question was living in Coxhall, Maine; Corinth, Vermont; and then Craftsbury, Vermont.
Clark Drew probably was married several times, first to Abigail (?), second to Molly (Drew), and later to Comfort (Drew) Clark Smith, daughter of Zebulon Drew. Comfort’s previous husbands were Samuel Hill Clark and Noah Smith. In fact it was Comfort’s application for a widow’s pension based on Noah Smith’s Revolutionary War service that listed Clark Drew’s death as Sept. 13, 1836.
Daughters for Clark Drew possibly included Sobriety, born 1772; Elizabeth, born 1799; Sally, born 1790-1800; and Mary/Polly, born about 1775 in Maine. Census records indicate Clark also had sons, and Gardner proposes that these may have been Elijah, Joseph and Samuel.
This Clark Drew, if a son of Clement, would be from the Quebec clan of Drews, Gardner explains. Not the Duxbury-Plymouth area in Massachusetts? Nope.
In fact, Gardner has DNA on her side when she claims that Clement is definitely from the Quebec group.
For more information on Clement Drew and his proven son Daniel, Gardner writes in a footnote to her article, “see the author’s Drew tree at http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/6921621/person/-385949719. Male descendants of both this Elijah Drew and of Elisha Drew, born Barnston, Quebec, 1806, have a perfect 67 marker yDNA match. These men both have unidentified fathers at this point. Descendants of Isaac Drew, born New Hampshire, 1752, and George Drew, born Quebec, 1806, are only one marker different in 67 marker tests. These matching Drew descendant tests are completely unrelated to the Drews of Plymouth, Mass. See the yDNA Drew Project website www.worldfamilies.net, surnames/drew.”
See why I find The Maine Genealogist so fascinating? Also in the February issue are Brent M. Owen’s “A Tidbit from the Massachusetts Archives: Lucretia Larrabee, First Wife of John Owen, (died 1753) of Falmouth, Maine;” Edward G. Hubbard’s “Assembling the Pieces of the Puzzle: The Family of Ebenezer Day Jr. of Wells and Kennebunk, Maine;” Joseph C. Anderson II’s “The Parentage of Solomon Bray of Poland, Harrison and Monson, Maine;” and more “Nineteenth Century Records of the First and Second Congregational Churches of Wells, Maine,” submitted by Priscilla Eaton.
To receive The Maine Genealogist, the MGS Newsletter and discounts on special publications of MGS, join the Maine Genealogical Society for $25 in the United States, $34 in Canada or $39 outside the U.S. and Canada. Send checks to MGS, P.O. Box 2602, Waterville, Maine 04903.
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The Brewer Auditorium is certainly a facility with deep roots in eastern Maine. All are welcome to attend the meeting of the Brewer Historical Society when Parks and Recreation Director Ken Hanscom, speaks on “75 Years of the Brewer Auditorium” at 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 10, at First United Methodist Church, 40 South Main St., Brewer.
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If ever you get the opportunity to hear Marlene Groves speak, take it. Groves, who is the editor of the Maine Genealogical Society Newsletter, will present “Tips on Interpreting Town Clerks’ Handwriting” at 2 p.m. Thursday, March 12, in the Wilson Museum’s Hutchins Education Center on Perkins Street in Castine.
To assist researchers as well as transcribers of early vital records, Groves’ talk will illustrate, with a Power Point presentation, some examples of handwriting used by several early Maine town clerks. Not all clerks followed the same set pattern in their writing, some using a flowery style that can often be nearly as difficult to read as a more standard style written in a poor manner. Most of the illustrations used in this presentation cover the period from the mid-1600s to the later 1900s, the period most commonly researched by genealogists in Maine.
Groves has been a member of the Maine Genealogical Society since 1976 and a member of its board of directors since 1988. A certified genealogist from 1997 to 2007, she has published three books covering her own ancestral lines of Clark, Malbon and Hinckley, and she has transcribed many books of early Maine town vital records, which have all been published by Picton Press.
The Hutchins Education Center also will be open for genealogical research 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Thursday, March 10. Bring a bag lunch if you like. Research sessions and talks on Thursdays during March are free and open to all.
Also, join fellow researchers on March 12th and every Thursday in March at Wilson Museum’s Hutchins Education Center from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. to peruse some of the resources available from the museum’s collections. Come to either the research session or the talk. Better yet, bring a bag lunch and attend both. All March sessions and subsequent talks are free and open to the public.
For more information, call the Wilson Museum at 326-9247 or email info@wilsonmuseum.org.
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.