President- Peter M. Smith is the current President and a former Director of M.G.S. He is an avid genealogist, researcher and submitter for the Maine 1790 Families series and the host of the Central Maine D.I.G. (DNA Interest Group) in Winslow, Maine. He is a member of the Mayflower Society, Kennebec Historical Society and Corinna, Maine Historical Society. He works full-time as the Night Manager at Shaws Supermarket in Augusta, Maine.
His interest in genealogy began when he was 14, on a trip to a family Cemetery in Corinna, Maine with his father and started asking who were the various people buried in the lot and how they were related to him. This led to a meeting with his great-aunt who told him family stories of his ancestors, got him started in tracing all lines of his family. His passion for DNA began in 2016 after DNA testing revealed that his maternal grandfather was actually a neighbor to his grandparents and so began a journey to find his new relatives and ancestors and share his story of discovery with others.
Peter lives in South Gardiner, Maine, but his roots are mostly in Penobscot and Piscataquis Counties and most of his family ancestors were early New England settlers and pioneers. eMailVice President – B.J.Jamieson is the Maine State Library’s genealogy reference expert and currently serving as M.G.S. Vice President. (photo and more info to come)
Terry A. Gerald
Treasurer – Terry A. Gerald was born and raised in Winslow, Maine with pit-stops in Monmouth and Rockland before graduating high school from Mount Desert Island. The Gerald side of the family is from the Clinton area, where her Civil War era, 2nd great-grandfather is buried. The Gregory side hails from Souris, PEI before her great-grandfather made Waterville the family home in 1909. Her interest in genealogy began when she tried to help a friend determine their Jewish heritage and has been hooked ever since. Terry has held various positions in her 25 years at Bank of America and currently resides in Wells.
Pam Beveridge
Recording Secretary – Pam Beveridge. It’s so rewarding to be associated with the Maine Genealogical Society and work with volunteers I admire for their contributions to genealogy and cemetery preservation. Fellowship, fun, and accomplishment – does a body good!
As a member of Maine Old Cemetery Association, Penobscot County Genealogical Society, Taconnett Falls Genealogy Library and Washington County Historical & Genealogical Society, I’ve seen the power of volunteerism firsthand. Visit the Library at Winslow or the new Heritage Center at Machias, or any formerly forlorn cemetery after a MOCA workshop, and you’ll see for yourself.
My interest in family history started when I spent childhood summers with my grandparents and went with them on their rounds to visit (i.e. check in on) older relatives in Downeast Maine and New Brunswick. Oh, the stories! I’m especially interested in people and families who once thought nothing of moving back and forth across a blurry border.
Another interest is bringing to heirlooms to light: i.e. letters, diaries, documents, Bibles, autograph albums, and photographs, particularly of hardscrabble folks who might otherwise have left little record. Toward that end, I’ve been featuring items collected over many years on my blog “Heirlooms Reunited.” eMail
Directors
Cindy Spaulding
Director – Cindy Spaulding was brought up in Vassalboro, graduated from Waterville High School and the Univ. of Maine. She is a former director of MGS, member of Taconnett Falls Chapter of MGS, Maine Old Cemetery Assn. and New England Historical and Genealogical Society. Her interest in genealogy began in the mid 1980’s after realizing she knew more ancestors of the families Morgan horse than her own. The 2 kids still tell tales of mom traipsing them through various cemeteries but now have an appreciation of their heritage. DNA testing has led to several unknown ancestors and a whole new area to pursue. She also has special interest in Waterville and Albion families. Long Maine winters usually leads to scanning and photo shopping pictures old and new to share with family. Cindy is retired and lives in Albion and looks forward to a newfound hobby of cleaning gravestones.
Her term expires December 31, 2019
Lynne Holland
Director –Lynne Holland isoriginally from the midwest but has called Maine home for over 25 years. She is a member of both the Great Portland and Pejepscot Chapters of the Maine Genealogical Society as well as the original Maine DIG. Through the years Lynne has proven to be a serial volunteer by helping out in the genealogy rooms at the Cape Elizabeth Family History Center as well as the Curtis Memorial Library in Brunswick. She specializes in Southern Italian, Mid-Western, Chicago and Early New England resources but has done research in other areas as well. Her start in genealogy began in 1996 in Massachusetts when she realized that their family had just moved to within blocks of where her husband’s ancestors landed in 1635. Nearly 10,000 relatives later she hasn’t stopped yet.
Lynne was born and raised in suburban Chicago and is a graduate of Elmhurst College with a degree in Business Administration. She worked for over 30 years in various phases of horticultural marketing including procurement and sales in the mass market floral area in the Midwest, South and New England. Currently, Lynne is a Community Education Assistant and Volunteer Coordinator for the UMaine Cooperative Extension Master Gardener Volunteer program. She serves on various volunteer boards with a focus on Food Security for all. Lynne lives in Brunswick with her husband Ward and daughter Carolyn. eMail
Her term expires December 31, 2019.
Helen Shaw
Director – Helen A. Shaw, CG® is a past president of MGS, serving in that office for five years. She is legislative liaison for the Maine Old Cemetery Association and Maine’s liaison to the Records Preservation and Access Committee.
Helen has been doing family history for over 40 years and is the keeper of her family’s documents and artifacts. She holds degrees in anthropology from Ohio State University and the University of Michigan. As an anthropologist, her approach to genealogy is that of a community-wide study. Her particular areas of genealogical interest and expertise include the federal census, Ohio, New York, and West Virginia.
Helen is married to Maine native William “Bill” Chapman; they have two sons. Since retiring to Maine Helen has become active in legislative issues concerning vital records access and cemetery preservation and access for family members. She also compiled an inventory of the records vault at the Lincoln County Courthouse where she was delighted to find original federal population and non-population censuses for most Lincoln County towns for 1850-1870.
Her term expires December 31, 2020. eMail
Marlene Groves
Director – Marlene Groves, a member of the Maine Genealogical Society since 1976, has served as a Director at various times and has edited the MGS Newsletter since 1995. From 1992 until 2016 Marlene worked for Picton Press, a genealogical and historical book publishing company. While at Picton, she began transcribing vital records of Maine towns as MGS Special Publications. She has completed vital records for several towns in Knox, Kennebec, Somerset, Lincoln, and Sagadahoc counties.
She first became interested in genealogy while still in high school after hearing her grandmother say that her own grandfather had been in the Civil War and was buried down south. She has published three books on her ancestral families of Clark, Hinckley, and Malbon, and also published a book on her “adopted” Oliver family from the Georgetown/Phippsburg region. Prior to this change of career, she worked for law firms in Bath as a legal secretary, and in Rockland as a bookkeeper.
In her leisure time, Marlene transcribes images from early church records for the Congregational Library Archives in Boston. She has served on various Councils at her local church and is a member of its hand-bell choir and prayer shawl group. During the warmer months, she enjoys gardening, nature and taking morning walks. eMail
Her term expires December 31, 2020.
Ralph Harris
Director – Ralph Harris is the President of Hancock County Genealogical Society for 2018. He is also a member of 4 Maine Genealogical Societies; Penobscot County Genealogical Society, Taconnett Falls Genealogical, Lee County Genealogical Society in Florida and the Utah Genealogical Society. He is a lifetime member of Carmel Historical Society and has digitized Carmel Town Reports from 1884 to 2017 and other documents dating back to early 1800’s. He retired in 2008, and currently lives between Fort Myer, Fla. and Carmel, Me. He started doing family genealogy and history about 2006, on Harris, Damon, Patten and McGown families, with James Patten one of Hermon’s early settlers. Most of the genealogical and historical questions that come into the Carmel Town Office are transferred to me for research. eMail His term ends December 31, 2021.
Charlene Fox Clemons
Director – Charlene Fox Clemons grew up in Ellsworth, Maine and spent many happy hours as a young child exploring cemeteries with her aunt. In 1992 she joined the staff of the Ellsworth Public Library and became the staff genealogist and three years later Assistant Director of the library. During her 20 year career, she had the privilege of creating the Alvin S. Whitmore Memorial Collection for Genealogy and Local History. After retiring in 2012, Charlene began work as the volunteer curator of the Lois C. Johnson Historical Museum of the Hancock (ME) Historical Society. In 2015 the Ellsworth Public Library Board of Trustees asked Charlene to return to the library, where she continues to work three days a week as the staff genealogist. Charlene is a member of Maine Genealogical Society, the Hancock County Genealogical Society, Washington County Historical and Genealogical Society, Hancock Historical Society, Maine Old Cemetery Association and on the Board of the Woodbine Cemetery Association in Ellsworth. She is also the facilitator of the Eastern Maine DIG in Ellsworth. She lives in Hancock with her dog and three cats, all rescues. She has three sons all of whom tolerate her ramblings about the newest “dead person” find! Her term ends December 31, 2021.
Appointed
Deborah Nowers
Membership Secretary – Deborah Nowers received her BA degree from Skidmore College, an M.Ed. from Boston University and an Ed.D. from the University of Massachusetts. She served as a special education administrator for 20 years before retiring in 2006. She moved to Maine in 2014 and retired from her post-retirement college teaching gigs. Being afraid she would be bored, she volunteered to be the MGS Membership Secretary, having no idea there were 900 members!
Her interest in genealogy began during her college years when she inherited a silver spoon that had passed to her as the seventh generation of youngest daughters. She and her mother set out to discover the identities of those women. She has been researching ever since. Having just about exhausted work on her own family, the move to Maine opened a new avenue to research her husband’s Waldo County ancestors. She has published articles in The Essex Genealogist, The NEHG Register, American Ancestors, Mayflower Descendant and The Maine Genealogist. eMail
Theresa Davis
Corresponding Secretary – Theresa Davis was born in St Louis, MO and moved to Maine in 1972. Maine is where her parents were from. She has a bachelor’s degree in nursing and was an Emergency Room and Critical Care Nurse for over 30 years. Her interest in genealogy began when her mother started compiling the family tree for both sides of my family. She helped her get everything put into the computer, so she could print books on the Caron/ Lebel and Brooks/Belyea Families. She began inputting the information on ancestry several years ago and found some errors in what her mother had found. She loves the hunt of being able to find out who her ancestors are and where they were born, lived, died and are buried. She also enjoys helping others whenever possible with their research. Her greatest finds were discovering my great-grandparents’ graves, the 2 axes forged by our ancestors in 1719 at the Acadian Village and discovering a half-sister to her husband’s father that had been looking for him for some time.
Debbie Roberge
Newsletter Editor & Archivist – Debbie Roberge recently moved to Old Town, Maine from Waterville a year ago where she was a member of the Taconnett Falls chapter. Some members may remember her as the editor of the Maine newsletter called “The Pine Cone and Tassel” which she published during the years 2003 through 2007. She has also worked on many workshops and conferences with MGS over the years; she served on the Board of Directors and was the Research and Inquiry Secretary as well.
Her interest in genealogy began in the 1970s when a family story led her on the detective trail to find out whether it was true or not. It wasn’t 100% true, it had been embellished over the years but that was all it took to get her hooked. Currently a member and newsletter editor for the Penobscot County chapter and chapter representative for the new MGS chapter of Washington County. She volunteers at the Franco Centre at the University of Maine and takes classes through Penobscot County Senior College through the Eastern Area Agency on Aging. As she says you can never stop learning!
Joseph Crook Anderson II
Publications Chair – Joseph Crook Anderson II, FASG, received his B.A. degree in Spanish from Middlebury College in 1975 and his M.B.A. degree in Finance from New York University in 1978. He worked for Texas Instruments for thirty-seven years before retiring in 2014, managing the investments of the company’s worldwide retirement plans.
His love for genealogy stems from summer evenings spent sitting on his parents’ outdoor patio listening to his grandparents reminisce about the family. Since 1994, he has been the editor of The Maine Genealogist and editor of the Maine Genealogical Society’s focal Maine Families in 1790 project. Since 2000, he has been a coeditor of The American Genealogist and in 2017 was named a Consulting Editor of Vermont Genealogy.
Joe has authored or edited eighteen books on various genealogical subjects and contributed numerous articles to genealogical journals. His genealogical research and publications have been focused mainly on Maine, New England, and New York. In 2000 he was appointed a Fellow of the American Society of Genealogists (FASG). eMail
Roland Rhoades
Publications Sales Manager –Roland Rhoades is an almost retired Fuller Brush distributor in Gorham Maine. Since I was working at home shipping products around the country, I volunteered to store and ship the MGS publications in 2012.
I was born in Farmingdale, Maine, with family roots in that area, Belfast area, and the Dover-Dexter-Cambridge area. After asking my parents and grandparents family questions, I started researching my family tree in 1980, staying a week at a time with my grandparents who lived near the Maine State Archives.
I have been an officer in the French Family Assn, National Assn of Leavitt Families, Strafford County chapter – NH Society of Genealogists, York County Genealogical Society, MGS Greater Portland chapter, and still wear multiple hats, especially as Leavitt Genealogist trying to sort and compile all the Leavitt families. I have been compiling every-name genealogies for many of my families since the 1980s, mainly for finding new cousins and documenting my ancestors on my RolandRhoades.com website. I am also deeply involved in DNA research and have infected many of my cousins with the genealogy bug. eMail
Brian Bouchard
Webmaster – Brian Bouchard is an I.T. professional specializing in automation and monitoring systems. In addition to his full-time employment, he has
been merging his love of genealogy and local history with his technical skills for a number of years, serving as webmaster for several local, regional and national historical and genealogical organizations. He is the administrator of the Maine Gravestone Photo Project, which he has maintained since 2007. He also speaks to local organizations about how to get started in researching your family history and various other topics related to genealogical research.
Brian’s interest in family history research started when he heard tales of horse thieves on the Mayflower being his ancestors. No horse thieves were ever found, but he has found connections to some Mayflower passengers as well as interesting stories of adoptions, military service, and family members that “disappear” from the records. He is currently working on a book about his great-great-grandfather who was accused of murder and spent 3 years in prison while working through the court system before being set free in 1904. eMail
Emily Schroeder
Program Chair – Emily A. Schroeder was born in Augusta, Maine in the mid-1950’s, the only child of Donald C. and Marion (Miller) Herrick. Old-timers may remember the family grocery on the corner of Green and South Chestnut Streets in the capital city.
Marion’s father passed away when Emily was 5, and the decision was made to move to Thomaston and claim the home place. The “formative years” were spent there, thankfully outside the walls of the state’s penitentiary.
Emily left this idyllic setting to attend college at the University of Southern Maine (known then as the University of Maine at Portland-Gorham, or POGO), and managed to get a B.A. in Geography/Anthropology in 1978. She returned to Augusta to work, and spent the last 37 years at Maine State Library in various positions. In 1988, she earned a Master of Library and Information Studies degree from the University of Rhode Island. A co-worker retired in 2007, and she added genealogy to her job duties. Emily is a new retiree!
In addition to MGS, Emily is a board member of Kennebec Historical Society, and Secretary from 2003 to the present. She is also a Program Committee member. She lives in South China with her wonderful cats Mindy and Binford. eMail
