A lot can change in the 10 years between census enumerations. How has the family grown? Who is employed where, and which youngsters are still “at school”?
Many Bangor residents in 1900 had Irish roots, but there were those with Franco-American ancestry, as well. Millman Joseph Mutty was born in March 1843 in Canada (Fr.), as the census indicated, as were his parents. He told the census taker in June 1900 that he had come to Maine in 1844 and that he was a naturalized citizen.
Wife Mary E. Mutty, born April 1850 in Maine, was the child of Maine natives. Also asked that year was how many children the mother of the house had borne; for Mary, that number was 13, with 12 of them still living.
Ten of the children were living at home at 119 Parkview Ave. at the time of the census: Eva R., born January 1872, a school principal; Bernice L., December 1873; Arthur W., July 1876, a manager for an ice company; Adam J., February 1879, an overseer for an ice company; Edmund J., April 1882, a clothing salesman; Gertrude, March 1883, a seamstress; Frank H., May 1885, a candy maker; Raymond M., May 1888, at school; Sidney E., November 1891, at school; and Donald W., January 1894, at school.
I’ve written before about the problems with the indexing of the 1940 census, a process that involved a rushed job by numerous volunteers, some of whom misread names because of handwriting interpretation.
But even in 1900, we find indexing issues, such as the “View Record” transcription of the family that said Arthur W. was born in July 1896. This clearly was an error, as the listing of the children shows them to be in chronological order, with Arthur born after Bernice’s birth year of 1873 but before Adam’s date of 1879. Further, the census gives Arthur’s age as 23 — impossible if he were born in 1896.
We don’t have to wait until 1910 to find more on the Mutty family of Bangor, as the adult employed members of the family are listed in the 1901 directory of Bangor, Brewer, Hampden and Veazie.
This city directory lists Joseph Mutty as a laborer for Morse and Co. and living at 119 Parkview Ave. Also listed are Bernice L., a nurse; Edmund J., a clerk; Eva R., a teacher at Palm Street School; Frank H., a clerk; and J. Adam, a clerk.
And we find a listing for Arthur W. Mutty, said to have “moved to Pawtucket, R.I.” Such information is a prize, because otherwise we might wonder whether he had just moved out to somewhere else in the Bangor area later.
The 1910 Census of Bangor finds a smaller group of Mutty family members living at 119 Parkview Ave.: Joseph, Mary E., Gertrude, Frank H., Raymond and Sidney. At the end of the family is listed son Adam J. Mutty, 32, widowed, and Joseph’s 2-year-old granddaughter, Marion.
So where was Arthur W. Mutty by 1910? A man by that name, born in Maine and age 34, can be found in the census for Boston, Ward 25, living with wife Grace A., sister-in-law J. Agnes Angley and George H. Brophey.
Grace Mutty was listed as having been born in Maine, as well. If we look at Bangor’s city directory for 1901 again, we find Grace S., Angley, a teacher at Center Street School, living on Barker Street with Edward Angley, a railroad rigger, and Edward A. Angley, a photographer for Angley Brothers.
It appears, then, that Grace Mutty was not just from Maine but likely from Bangor, as was Arthur W. Mutty.
City directories are available for other individual years, and of course we have census records for 1920, 1930 and 1940, as well. There are Bangor vital records that can be consulted, and there are probate records at the courthouse on Hammond Street.
Some of the Mutty family members can be found in the Mount Hope Cemetery website at mthopebgr.com, which is well-indexed. Joseph and Mary E. Mutty each are listed in the partial records for Bangor’s Mount Pleasant Cemetery in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland listings at portlanddiocese.com/genealogy. No death dates are listed here for Joseph and Mary, but Mary’s maiden name is listed as Lambert.
Several of Bangor’s city burials are included in the Mount Hope listings, but the city also has its own listings for Maple Grove, Oak Grove and Pine Grove cemeteries on its website, bangormaine.gov. Click on departments, then public works, then cemetery.
In addition, the city directory for 1901 includes death dates for several residents, among them Salome Appleton, died Dec. 15, 1899; Emily A. Ayer, died Dec. 15, 1899; John A. Bacon, died May 15, 1900; Susan Barrows, widow of Joseph Barrows, died Jan. 21, 1901; and Patrick Barry, riverman, died Jan. 26, 1900.
Many smaller towns in Maine continue to list the past year’s deaths in their annual town reports.
For information 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.