Maine Biography

Biographies provide useful genealogical information such as a person’s birth date and place; names of family members, including maiden names; education; occupation; and social, political, and religious affiliation. They may also contain a physical description of the person, previous residences, and immigration information. Biographies are the product of family knowledge or previous research about early settlers and prominent citizens of a state, county, or town. Local histories may contain biographical sketches of lesser-known people.

Biographies in Local Histories

 * Biographical information is often found in state, county, and town histories.
 * Towards the end of the 19th century, began publishers soliciting short biographical/family histories from local founding families, offering to publish them in an upcoming local history. This then became an incentive for family members to buy a copy of the book.
 * Families represented were not necessarily prominent. Practically everyone living there, especially in the Midwest, counted as an early settler.
 * These biographies often start with the first member of the family to settle in the area, and detail their descendants at the time of publishing. They may tell where the family moved in from. Children's marriages often are given, with maiden names included.

Finding Biographies

 * The county Wiki page lists several county histories. It also lists local libraries, and societies which probably have copies of local histories.
 * Many histories are no longer under copyright and can be found in the following online, digitized book collections. Search with keywords "History" and "the name of your locality" (state, county, or town).
 * FamilySearch Books
 * Google Books
 * World Cat
 * HathiTrust
 * Internet Archive
 * The FamilySearch library has extensive collections of these local histories. Many are digitized. Search the FamilySearch Catalog under your locality for the topics "Biography" and "History".

Online Resources

 * American Biographical Library for Maine ($)
 * County and Town Histories with biographies
 * Maine's hall of fame : Griffith's list of men and women born in Maine who have risen to distinction, e-book
 * Biographical sketches of representative citizens of the state of Maine, e-book

Statewide Collections
There are published biographies of Maine residents. They may be found at various locations and the following are a few the you may want view.


 * American Series of Popular Biographies. Maine Edition: This Volume contains Biograhical Sketches of Representative Citizens of the State of Maine. Boston, Massachusetts: New England Historical Pub., 1903. ;
 * Hatch, Louis Clinton, et al. Maine, a History. New York, New York: American Historical Society, c1919. ; The biographies are found in part of volume 3, then in volumes 4 and 5.
 * Herdon, Richard, et al. Men of Progress: Biographical Sketches and Portraits of Leaders in Business and Professional Life in and of the State of Maine. Boston, Massachusetts: New England Magazine, 1897. ;

The Maine State Library and the Maine Historical Society has biographies for individuals as well as statewide collections.

To view all Maine biographies the Family History Library has go to.

Collections Online

 * Maine State Library Notables has a list of well known people who lived in Maine. The links give some information and take you to further places to search.
 * GeneaSearch is a free website with Genealogy to find your ancestors. The biographies have links to people with Maine ties.
 * PA Roots sponsers a biographical site where individuals write stories and registers users write comments.

Additional Sources
See the United States Biography for information on nationwide biographical collections. See also the "History" and "Genealogy" sections for additional sources. You may wish to explore biography, history and genealogy sections in the wiki at county levels also.