For those with Jewish ancestry in the
State of Maine, one of the newest collections at Familysearch will be of great benefit. That collection,
Maine, Vital Records, 1670-1907, contains over
1.8 million images of
birth, marriage and death records from Maine. Also included in the collection is a complete name index which makes it a lot easier to search for your family.
The records in the collection come from 2 sources, the
State Board of Health, Division of Vital Statistics and the
State Archives. The collection is divided into three parts,
Vital Records Prior to 1892,
80 towns,
Vital Records, 1892-1907, and
Delayed returns for births,
deaths, and marriages, 1670-1891.The records themselves, are very easy to understand. The 2 examples shown below, are a birth and death.
The marriage records are slightly different, they are actually a two part document. The first part is a simple record of the marriage. The record below is for the wedding of
Max Cohen, a 37 year old widower, and
Rebecca Povich, a 30 year old widow. The marriage took place on
16 November 1903 in
Ellsworth, Maine.
This marriage record provides very good information, however the second part of the marriage record adds even more vital information. The document below, gives the information on the parents of both the bride and groom. With that information and due to the fact most of these records are during the census years, it makes it possible to locate the families in the various United States censuses.
As with all of the collections at www.familysearch.org, these records are available for free from any computer.
