Today, I’d like to introduce you to one of my favorite less common resources used in my genealogy research. On my one and only visit to Calais, Washington, Maine in the 1980s, I popped into a local bookstore and made one of the best finds of my genealogical life!
Because this was commercially printed in 1978, it is under copyright and I can’t show you the actual articles. However, this booklet had not only an article about my professional boat builder 2X great grandfather, Calvin Segee Adams, there was even a photo of him with two of his employees in front of a boat that was under construction!
There were further stories about the Chadwick Brothers, who were related to my grandfather’s cousin and my early genealogy mentor, Charles Chadwick, Nelson James Adams, brother of my great great grandfather, Calvin, Hinds & Tarbox, which was owned by Oliver Scripture Tarbox, the brother of my 2X great grandmother, Nellie Tarbox Adams, and Harry Weston Stuart, brother of my great grandmother Annie (Stuart) Adams, most of which had at least one photo to go along with the article.
The first printing of this booklet was in 1976, likely as part of the American Bicentennial celebrations and the articles look to have come from an earlier mug book – one that I’ve never come across in 40+ years. It is truly a treasure.
Although I hit the Adams-Tarbox mother lode with this booklet, it’s not the only one I’ve come across in my research.
County histories are well known and, for the most part, easily accessible because with a heyday from the 1870s to the 1920s, most of them have been digitized and can be accessed online at FamilySearch, Internet Archive, HathiTrust, Google Books or other online book collections.
Many researchers might stop digging for books at the county level, believing that their ancestral towns were too small or too remote to have locally printed town histories.
That’s actually not true. Many mid-sized towns sponsored their own celebratory history booklets while smaller towns or areas with less population joined together to have a book/booklet printed. My Calais book, above, is actually international – U.S. and Canada – with Calais, Woodland and Eastport in Maine and St. Stephen, Campobello and St. Andrews in new Brunswick, Canada.
Where can these booklets be found?
First, if they were sponsored by the town (taxpayer money), then most of these booklets are not under copyright restrictions and might be found in local library collections and online websites like FamilySearch or the other repositories with links, above.
If the booklet was privately printed, perhaps sponsored by local businesses, then they are likely under copyright if printed later than 1927. Before 1927, access varies.
Here are some of the booklets I’ve come across in my own research:
Somewhere in Time: The Way It Was Beginning in the Late 19th Century by Edith Poore Whitney, written about tiny Robbinston, Maine with about 550 residents today
Charlotte, Maine Sesquicentennial 1825-1975, Historical Souvenir Book by Jean Hatton, Population today is about 320.)
Echoes of Happy Valley – Letters and Diaries, Family Life in the South, Civil War History by Thomas Felix Hickerson, 1961
In Days Past, Calais, Maine 1896, printed by Print’n Press Ltd. St. Stephen, New Brunswick, Canada
The Story of Sussex and Vicinity, by Grace Aiton, Kings County Historical Society [New Brunswick, Canada], c1975.
150th Anniversary of Brookfield [Linn County], Missouri, 1859-2009 by Brookfield Sesquicentennial Corporation Book Committee
Story of the Glorious Past One Hundred Years: 1849-1949 Ironton, Ohio Centennial, Official Souvenir, 1949
The list should give you an idea of the kinds of booklets/books that might be available. Because many are likely under copyright, I’d check local library catalogs and local historical societies, in particular, because it would be very unusual for a celebratory booklet to be locally published with no copies being found in either the public library or historical society.
One more thought – churches also often published local booklets for church anniversaries and special celebrations. The Cathedral of St. Michael the Archangel Byzantine Rite Church in Passaic, New Jersey published its history in 1963 when it became a cathedral. Many parishioners, both early and then-current are mentioned in the book. I’m lucky enough to have a copy.
Finding these local gems takes some digging, or just pure luck like I had when I walked into the Calais bookstore at just the right time. However, they are well worth taking time to seek them out.