Showing posts with label Maine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Maine. Show all posts

Sunday, May 23, 2010

52 Weeks of Online American Digital Archives and Databases: Maine

This is the 20th post in a weekly series of Online American Digital Archives and Databases found for free at state, county, municipal, college and university history, library, and archive websites, as well as public and private library and museum sites, and historical and genealogical society sites.


Maine Memory Network - http://www.mainememory.net/ - Maine's statewide digital museum "provides access to thousands of historical items belonging to over 200 organizations from across Maine. Search for or browse these items, explore online exhibits, or create your own collection of images from the database." Links to the Maine Historical Society, Longfellow, Maine History Online and Vintage Maine Images websites.

Maine State Archives: Researchers - http://www.maine.gov/sos/arc/research/index.html - in the left-hand margin, you'll find useful resources. The Archives Interactive is a search engine for several databases. While it gives results, no images or records are available online. Tributes, camps, and photos are available in the Civilian Conservation Corps database. There are also a state marriage (1892-1967, 1976-1922) and death (1960-1996) databases. Additionally, you can download various databases including a divorce index (1800-1891), courts (1696-1854), maps, military, photos, government documents and more.

Maine State Museum Collections - http://mainestatemuseum.org/collections/explore_the_collections/ - photo database of the museum's collections from clocks and watches to toys

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Bates College Edmund S. Muskie Library Archives and Special Collections - http://abacus.bates.edu/muskie-archives/ - includes digital collections; honors theses, transcriptions of oral histories, historic photos

University of Maine System Libraries Digital Collections - http://www.maine.edu/libraries/index.php?section=8 - includes the University of Maine at six campuses, the School of Law, the University of Southern Maine, and the University College. There are links to the libraries collections (regular, special and digital) on this page. I originally had a link to their Mariner-Gateway to Library Resources (http://libraries.maine.edu/gateway/ or http://libraries.maine.edu/mariner) but can no longer access this page. It was supposed to lead to a searchable database of all the campus libraries' digital collections. I am leaving this information in this post with the hope that it will eventually work. You can view a cached version here.

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Abbott Memorial Library Town of Dexter Obituary Database - http://www.abbott-library.com/obitindex.html - 1900-present

City of Bangor Public Works  - http://www.bangormaine.gov/cs_inf_publicworks.php - see right-hand menu for Cemetery Internment Listing, which is a .pdf file. Also see the link for the Mount Hope Cemetery website, which has a searchable database.

Curtis Memorial Library Snow Index to Brunswick Newspapers - http://www.curtislibrary.com/research/snowsearch/ - indexes microfilm of the Brunswick weekly newspapers from 1853 through December 1960

Georgetown Historical Society - http://www.georgetownhistoricalsociety.org/B%20Todd%20History.html - history, genealogical name index, photos

McArthur Public Library Biddeford Area Biographical Resource - http://www.mcarthur.lib.me.us/biddbioindex/bidd_area_biogs.htm - "The information in the Resource comes from the hundreds of index cards written and maintained by McArthur Librarians since the 1930’s. Some of the resources, especially the very early newspapers, are no longer in existence—or if they do exist may be quite difficult to obtain. Some of the resources, such as the Scrapbooks, can only be accessed inside the Library. We will continue to add to the Resource, and shall continue to add links as more resources are available online."

Penobscot Marine Museum Photography Collections - http://www.penobscotmarinemuseum.org/photo-collections/index.html - fascinating slideshows of historic photos

Portland Public Library Maine News Index Online - http://mni.portlandlibrary.com/ics-wpd/mniquery.htm - see list of titles and years covered here

Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland - Maine Catholic Cemetery Committee's Online Database - http://www.portlanddiocese.net/genealogy_main.php

Westbrook Historical Society - http://www.westbrookhistoricalsociety.org/ - photo archives with history, transcription of 1850 Federal Census and Mortality Schedule of Westbrook, and an online newsletter
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Check out my Maine Online Historical Directories and Maine Online Historical Newspapers pages.

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

What I'm Reading These Days - Part 1

I promised that one of my themes for April blogging would be to list different genealogy publications and books I've been perusing. On Monday, I received the May 2007 issue of Internet Genealogy. It was like reading a hometown paper, full of news about and written by people I know either in real life or through blogging! Starting out, Lisa A. Alzo presented "Where's Wendell? A Case Study," describing her search for an ancestor of a client using primarily Internet resources. It was through Lisa's writings that I discovered one of my favorite new genealogy sites, MyHeritage.com, and I always enjoy reading her articles with the hope of finding great new online resources. Lisa is also generous enough to share a number of her published articles on her website.

My friend and fellow EWGS member, Donna Potter Phillips, takes a look at the "Washington State Online Digital Archives," (www.digitalarchives.wa.gov) as a pioneer in the movement to not only provide access to historical records and images (a boon to genealogists), but also to preserve the digital history of the state (websites of former governors, "e-mail and electronic documents of governors, legislators, and other elected officials").

Marian Press examines the Internet's newest incarnation with "In Search of the Web 2.0." In the section of this article subtitled "Blogs," Marion mentions a number of popular blogs, including Genealogy Blog, Joe Beine's Genealogy Roots Blog, The Genealogue, Oxford County Genealogy Notebook, the Genealogy Blog Finder (the last three are all maintained by Chris Dunham), and Susan Kitchen's Family Oral History Using Digital Tools, to name a few. Marion also writes about Wikis and Podcasts in this definitive article.

Lastly, another personal friend and fellow EWGS member, Beverly Smith Vorpahl, tells how her new website, www.dbvorpahl.com, helped smash a brick wall on her Smith line. Go to her website and see who her webmaster is. ;-)

There are many other well-written and informative articles by several other authors in this issue, and I recommend you purchase a copy at your local newstand, or better yet, subscribe!