Maine Archives, Libraries, and Societies
This entry was originally written by Alice Eichholz, Ph.D., CG for Red Book: American State, County, and Town Sources.
Contents
Maine State Archives
84 State House Station
Augusta, ME 04333
www.state.me.us/sos/arc/genealogy
Maine State Archives is the state's official repository for state governmental records, beginning with 1639 court records and including many war and genealogical records for the state. It is the only central location in the state for vital records before 1892. In addition it holds all census records, adjutant general's records, most court records, Maine land office records, a few county marriage returns, and the updated microfilm collection of extant Maine town records. Researchers will find the Maine Historical Records Repository Guide on the Maine State Archives website.
Maine State Library
64 State House Station
Augusta, ME 04333
www.state.me.us/msl
Located at the Maine Cultural Center. The east wing of the building houses the Maine State Library, which has the largest collection of town histories and family genealogies in the state, microfilm holdings of newspapers, town reports after 1902, and the two collections of cemetery indexes.
Maine Historical Society Library
485 Congress St.
Portland, ME 04101
www.mainehistory.org
Open to nonmembers for a nominal fee, this superior col-lection includes extensive printed works on state and family history, and manuscripts (see Maine Periodicals, Newspapers, and Manuscript Collections). Its website includes access to an ongoing, online genealogical discussion forum to post and retrieve queries.
Maine Genealogical Society
P.O. Box 221
Farmington, ME 04938
www.rootsweb.com/~megs/MaineGS.htm
The society has local chapters in the state and statewide meetings as well as the bimonthly publication Maine Seine. Maine Families in 1790 is published in multiple volumes and sold by the society, along with vital records of Mount Desert and the records of Rev. Edward Carter. The organization's library is presently at Cutler Memorial Library in Farmington.
Maine Irish Heritage Center
PO Box 7588
Corner of Gray and State Street
Portland, Maine, US 04112
Tel: (207) 780-0118, e-mail: [email protected]
http://www.maineirish.com
Culture That Endures
In 1997, St. Dominic's church, which was built by Irish immigrants in the 19th century, was purchased by the City of Portland and gifted to the Irish American Club and Friends of St. Dominic's.
This paved the way for the creation of the Maine Irish Heritage Center. The Center has an active Genealogy Department, as well as a lending Library, Museum and Archives Collections, all devoted to Portland and Maine's Irish-American past.
University of Maine at Orono
Raymond H. Folger Library
Special Collections Dept.
Orono, ME 04469
www.library.umaine.edu
In addition to focusing heavily on Orono, the collection has state, county, and town histories as well as special collections of various Maine families.
For a complete listing of repositories in the state that offer some records related to family history, see www.mainemuseums.org/focusidx.htm.
