Category Archives: Geographic Genealogy

Faces from the Past – Meserve, Moulton, & Poland

Five cabinet card portraits from the SHS Photo Collection offer a glimpse into the lives of Scarborough families and their descendants in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Three Scarborough subjects — Charles Moulton, Hannah Libby Meserve Moulton, and (probably) Rosile Dolley Poland of West Scarborough — are joined by Portland physician Dr. Willis Bean Moulton, grandson of Charles and Hannah, and an unidentified young man from Lewiston whose identity remains a mystery. Continue reading

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Amanda Taft Whitney (1798–1872): An Ancestor Sketch

Born in Massachusetts in 1798 and carried west as an infant by her migrating family, Amanda Taft Whitney spent her life in Broome County, New York — raising ten children and outliving most of her generation. Her story is unusually well-documented. Read on to meet a woman the census records refused to forget. Continue reading

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Unidentified Faces – Dyer, Libby, and Six Unlabeled Women

Linwood Dyer Collection, Part 097By Don Taylor IntroductionThe Scarborough Historical Society maintains several important photographic collections documenting people, places, and events. In this installment of Faces from the Past, I examine eight more photographs from the Linwood Dyer Collection. Sadly, … Continue reading

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Lurancy Taft (1796-1870)

Luransa Taft (1796–1870), Ahnentafel #41, was the daughter of Asa Taft and Sarah Whitney and spent most of her life in Triangle, Broome County, New York. Married at seventeen to Luman Olmstead, she raised a large family and appears regularly in state and federal censuses. This profile confirms her maternal line and helps clarify confusion surrounding similarly named women in the Taft family. Continue reading

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Taylor – Surname Saturday

The Taylor surname traces an occupational origin rooted in England and extends through multiple generations of my family from 17th-century New England to 19th-century Michigan. This article examines three documented Taylor ancestors—John Taylor, Rhoda Taylor, and Fanny Taylor—highlighting their place in early colonial settlement, frontier warfare, Atlantic migration, and American industrial expansion. Continue reading

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