Maine Plantations

United States Maine  Maine plantations  In Maine a plantation is a form of local self-government intended to help a town-sized area with a low population to transition toward full town status as they increase their population and government services. Plantations do not have their own representative in the Maine legislature. Most have meetings and keep records of meetings. Prior 1892 when statewide registration started, plantations also maintained records of their citizens' births, marriages, and deaths.

Some of Maine's populated coastal islands outside the borders of a town are organized as a plantation. However, most of Maine's 34 plantations are in sparsely populated forests inland.

Plantations that increase in population may become a town. Also, some plantations have lost population and been changed to unincorporated townships without meetings or record-keeping. If an ancestor lived in a plantation that became a township look for the plantation records in a nearby town in the same county.