I don’t know the name Horace Frisbie, but the “Vital Records of Bangor, Maine: Volume 2: Death Records” tells us he died in Bangor at age 31 on Aug. 20, 1831.
Compiled by Michelle B. Thomas for a 2003 publication by Picton Press, the listing also includes an important notation — that Horace was “of Guilford Conn.” Without the information about which state he was from, a goodly number of Mainers would assume he was from Guilford, Maine, I’m sure.
I do love it when published records include information about someone’s “someplace else.” A few months ago I mentioned that Bangor City Directories of a century ago included the names of many residents who had moved — and their new state or even city of residence.
But back to death records. Mr. Daniel Gale, age 25, who died Sept. 2, 1827, in Bangor, was formerly of the state of New Hampshire. Joseph Halls, a student at the Theological Seminary, died November 1821. Daniel McIntire, age 23, who died April 11, 1832, was “late of Kennebunk.”
An 1832 death that describes the deceased as “Child of N.G. Norcross” references “Bangor Vital Records Volume 1: Birth Records” as listing birth records for 1828-1839 for children whose parents are Nicholas G. and Sophronia P. Norcross. This is additional information that is included because the compiler, Michelle Thomas, took the time to make the connection.
The death records cover 1777 to 1892, the year Maine started to centralize its vital records. This volume for Bangor also includes death records for St. John’s Episcopal Church, First United Methodist Church, Columbia Street Baptist Church, First Congregational Church and Hammond Street Congregational Church.
The deaths for Hammond Street Church included Moses Patten, native of Amesbury, Massachusetts, died Nov. 27, 1864, age 92, a merchant. Several death listings also included cause of death.
I remember a larger collection of Hammond Street Congregational Church records that had been compiled by two members of Frances Dighton Williams Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, for the DAR Miscellaneous Records series. Maine State Library has the whole series of Maine records submitted by DAR. More recent volumes are available at Bangor Public Library, which is closed until early January, and at the Maine Historical Society. The whole series for Maine, as well as miscellaneous records for other states, are at the National DAR Library in Washington.
According to “Index of the DAR Miscellaneous Records” compiled by Ann Pease Thomas in 1987 for the Maine series, the Hammond Street Church Records are in Vol. 50.2 of the DAR Miscellaneous Records, which are available at the libraries I mentioned, or you can wait until Bangor Library reopens. I remembered these records because the volume was the first thing I indexed for the DAR when I joined in 1979, and I remember the records included the names of people who had been issued letters of transfer so they could join another church when they moved.
In the Roman Catholic Church, marriage records are the focal point of many genealogical records compiled by priests or religious brothers from original records in Quebec dating to the 1630s. In Maine, the late Rev. Youville Labonte of Lewiston compiled marriage records for several Maine parishes.
The URSUS database online at ursus.maine.edu can be used to locate volumes of church records that are available at the various University of Maine campuses as well as Maine State Library and Bangor Public Library.
Also from URSUS, you can gain access to MaineCAT, which can tell you the names of local libraries that have a resource you want to check. Keep in mind that not all libraries are on MaineCAT. It also is worth looking up a library or town online to see whether the library’s card catalog may be online individually.
Last week I mistakenly wrote that I had once interviewed a 104-year-old veteran of World War II. In fact, Everett McKenney of Waterville who resided in Farmingdale when I met him, was a World War I veteran.
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.