Maine Historical Societies

This directory lists 5 historical societies, museums, and archives in Maine, including the Maine State Museum in Augusta. It is a short list for a state with hundreds of town historical societies, so treat it as a starting point and use the research guide below to reach the town clerk, county registry, or state agency that actually holds the record you need.

Maine was the District of Maine within Massachusetts until it entered the Union as the 23rd state on March 15, 1820, which means its 1790, 1800, and 1810 federal census returns are filed under Massachusetts and its earliest deeds and court papers follow Massachusetts practice. Like the rest of New England, Maine recorded births, marriages, and deaths at the town level from the start of settlement; the state did not take over registration until 1892. Land, by contrast, has always been recorded by county, and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts kept selling Maine public lands for decades after separation, so a single family's paper trail can run through a town office, a county registry, the Maine State Archives, and the Massachusetts Archives in Boston.

Featured Historical Societies

Where Maine's records live: the major repositories

The Maine State Archives, a bureau of the Department of the Secretary of State, holds roughly eight miles of permanent state records in the Cultural Building in Augusta (maine.gov/sos/arc). For genealogists its core holdings are the original statewide vital records from 1892 to 1922, copies of pre-1892 town vital records, pre-1892 divorce files from the courts, Land Office records from 1824 onward, and naturalization and military series. Its online catalog is at archives.maine.gov. Research visits are by appointment; the archives asks for at least a week's notice.

• Maine State Library, also in the Cultural Building complex in Augusta, offers genealogy search services and Maine history collections and leads the Maine Newspaper Project described below (maine.gov/msl). The building has been under renovation, so confirm the current service location before you drive.
• Maine Historical Society, Portland. The society maintains a research library and collections in Portland and runs the Maine Memory Network, a collaborative digital museum that aggregates images and documents from local societies across the state (mainehistory.org; mainememory.net).
• Special Collections & Archives, Raymond H. Fogler Library, University of Maine, Orono. A major repository for Maine-related materials, holding nearly all printed historical and descriptive works on Maine along with manuscripts covering the state's towns, counties, and institutions (library.umaine.edu/speccoll).
• DigitalMaine, a partnership of the State Library, State Archives, and community institutions, is the free online front door to digitized state documents, aerial photographs, newspapers, and local collections (digitalmaine.com).

Maine vital records: town clerks first, then the state

State registration of births, marriages, and deaths in Maine began in 1892. Everything earlier was recorded, if at all, by the town clerk or selectmen, and those town books remain the original source. Coverage before 1892 is uneven: some coastal towns have continuous registers from the 1700s, while inland towns settled after 1800 may have little before the 1850s.

• Before 1892: the originals stay with the town clerk. The Maine State Archives holds copies of many pre-1892 town records, and all pre-1892 vital records are fully public.
• 1892 to 1922: the Maine State Archives holds the original state returns and can supply copies. The archives also maintains searchable marriage indexes covering 1892 to 1967 and 1977 to 1996.
• 1892 to the present: certified copies are issued by the Vital Records office of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Augusta, or by the clerk of the town where the event occurred (order a Maine vital record). As of this writing the first certified copy costs $15 and each additional copy of the same record $6.

Access rules follow the record type: Maine restricts birth records for 75 years, marriage records and applications for 50 years, and death records for 25 years. Older records are open to anyone.

Divorces before 1892 are in the court records held by the Maine State Archives. After 1892, the clerk of the district court that granted the divorce holds the original file, and certified abstracts can be ordered from the Vital Records office.

Land, deed, and property records: Maine's Registries of Deeds

Maine is a state-land state: there were no federal land offices here, and title descends from Massachusetts grants, proprietors' sales, and the Maine Land Office rather than from federal patents. Once land was in private hands, every later transfer was recorded by the Register of Deeds in the county. Maine has 16 counties but 17 registry districts, because Aroostook County keeps Northern and Southern registries and Oxford County keeps Eastern and Western registries, each serving a defined set of towns.

The Maine Registers of Deeds Association runs a single statewide web portal that links every county registry and lets you search and copy recorded documents online (maineregistryofdeeds.com). Online coverage varies by county, and some registries require registration before you can view images, but most now reach back well into the 1800s.

• Colonial deeds: during the colonial period all of Maine was York County, and the published York Deeds (18 volumes covering 1642 to 1737) are indexed and available in print, on microfilm, and on Archive.org.
• Massachusetts-era records: because Maine was part of Massachusetts from 1652 to 1819, many early land transactions appear in Massachusetts records. The Massachusetts Archives holds the Eastern Lands Papers (1717 to 1860), which document the Commonwealth's grants and sales of Maine land.
• Maine Land Office: established in 1824 to distribute the public lands Maine acquired from Massachusetts. Its deed registrations (1824 to 1861), statewide land records (1824 to 1964), and Revolutionary War veterans' bounty-land applications (1835 to 1838) are at the Maine State Archives.

When you run a deed chain, note that Maine deeds often describe land by reference to a range and lot number from the original proprietors' survey. Finding the town's proprietors' plan (often at the town office or the Maine Historical Society) can unlock a whole neighborhood. Our guide to tracing a property's deed history covers the mechanics.

Maine newspapers and city directories

The Maine Newspaper Project, led by the Maine State Library, is a collaborative effort to digitize Maine's historical newspapers and to point researchers to titles that are freely available without a subscription. Its collection page on DigitalMaine lists digitized papers from all 16 counties, running from the early 1800s through the 2020s; examples include the Bangor Weekly Register (1815 to 1818), the Maine Palladium (1823 to 1829), and the Oxford Democrat (1850 to 1921) (digitalmaine.com/newspapers). The titles live on several platforms (institutional repositories at Bowdoin, Colby, and the University of Maine, county collections hosted by Advantage Preservation, Google News Archive, and local libraries), so expect to be redirected rather than to search one database.

The State Library has also been seeking French-language newspapers published in Maine for a large digitization project, which is worth knowing if your family worked in the Lewiston, Biddeford, or Waterville mills.

City directories for Portland, Bangor, Lewiston, and other larger towns are the kind of printed Maine material that Fogler Library collects comprehensively; the Maine Historical Society and the public library in each city are the other places to look. For how to turn a directory entry into a street address and a map location, see our guide to old city directories.

Census, military, and statewide indexes for Maine

Maine has only one state census of note: an 1837 state census that lists heads of household, with images available on FamilySearch. For every other decade you rely on the federal census, which treats Maine as part of Massachusetts in 1790, 1800, and 1810 and as its own state from 1820 onward.

Statewide indexes worth knowing:

• Maine State Archives vital records: original 1892 to 1922 births, marriages, and deaths, plus marriage indexes for 1892 to 1967 and 1977 to 1996.
• Pre-1892 town records: the archives' copies of town vital records, which can save a trip to a town office that is open one afternoon a week.
• Land Office and bounty-land files: the 1835 to 1838 Revolutionary War veterans' applications at the State Archives name men who were living in Maine decades after the war.
• Naturalization: the archives highlights naturalization records among its genealogy services; ask for county court naturalization indexes if your ancestor arrived from Canada or Ireland.

For the Civil War, Maine regiments are well documented in the published adjutant general's reports, which Fogler Library and the Maine Historical Society hold, and federal pension files are at the National Archives. The State Archives also publishes featured exhibits on DigitalMaine, including one on the 1918 influenza epidemic in Maine.

Researching a house or building in Maine

Maine's state historic preservation office is the Maine Historic Preservation Commission (maine.gov/mhpc). While its Augusta building is renovated, the commission is working from 10 Water Street in Hallowell. It runs the National Register of Historic Places program for Maine, a statewide survey program, and state rehabilitation tax credits for historic buildings. Its CARMA system (Computerized Archive and Records Management Application) is the quick route to existing survey and National Register files; consultants and researchers who want to use the survey files in person are asked to schedule an appointment.

• National Register listings: if your building or district is listed, the nomination form usually contains a researched construction date, a chain of owners, and historic photographs. Ask the commission for a copy.
• Deeds: work backward through the county Registry of Deeds (see above). Because Maine registries are online through the statewide portal, you can often complete a 150-year chain of title from home.
• Maps: county atlases from the 1850s to 1880s show owners' names on individual houses; search Maine Memory Network and Fogler Library for them. Sanborn fire insurance maps cover Maine's cities and larger towns; check the Library of Congress's online Sanborn collection and the Maine State Library.
• Town histories: most Maine towns published a history between 1850 and 1920 with family genealogies. Fogler Library's collection is close to complete.

Our guides on dating a house and researching an old building walk through the sequence step by step, and finding a burial is often the fastest way to confirm a previous owner's death date before you request a probate file.

Working with Maine's town historical societies

Maine's local history is organized by town, not county. Nearly every incorporated town has a historical society, many of them housed in a former schoolhouse or meeting house and staffed by volunteers who open one or two days a week in summer and by appointment in winter. County-level societies are rare. Before you write, check whether the society has contributed to Maine Memory Network, which will tell you what kinds of material it holds and often gives a current contact.

Because town clerks still hold the original pre-1892 vital records and the early town meeting books, the clerk's office is as much a research stop as the society. Call ahead: small-town offices keep limited hours, and some charge a search fee. For a town that was settled before 1820, remember that early records may be filed under a parent town or under the Massachusetts county that then governed the area.

Additional Maine History Resources

• Maine State Archives - Augusta; original 1892-1922 vital records, Land Office files, court and military records
• Maine State Archives Online Catalog - Search the archives' collections and digital materials
• Maine CDC Vital Records (order records) - Certified birth, marriage, and death copies from 1892 to the present
• Maine Registry of Deeds (statewide portal) - Maine Registers of Deeds Association portal linking all 17 county registries
• Maine Newspaper Project on DigitalMaine - Index of free digitized Maine newspapers from all 16 counties
• DigitalMaine Repository - State Library and State Archives partnership; state documents, aerial photos, local collections
• Maine Historic Preservation Commission - State Historic Preservation Office: National Register, survey, CARMA records system
• Maine Historical Society Research and Collections - Portland research library: manuscripts, maps, newspapers, genealogy
• Maine Memory Network - Maine Historical Society's collaborative digital museum of local collections statewide
• Fogler Library Special Collections & Archives - University of Maine, Orono; the major academic repository for Maine materials

Frequently Asked Questions

When did Maine begin statewide registration of births, marriages, and deaths?

Maine's state registration began in 1892. Before that, town clerks recorded vital events, and those town books remain the originals. The Maine State Archives holds the original 1892 to 1922 state returns and copies of many pre-1892 town records; certified copies from 1892 onward come from the Vital Records office of the Maine CDC in Augusta or from the town clerk.

Where are Maine deeds recorded?

At the county Registry of Deeds. Maine has 17 registry districts across its 16 counties (Aroostook and Oxford each have two). The Maine Registers of Deeds Association's statewide portal at maineregistryofdeeds.com links every registry's online search. Deeds from before 1760, when all of Maine was York County, are published in the 18-volume York Deeds.

Does Maine have state censuses?

Only an 1837 state census that lists heads of household, available with images on FamilySearch. Maine otherwise relies on the federal census, and because Maine was part of Massachusetts until 1820, its 1790 through 1810 returns are filed under Massachusetts.

Where can I read old Maine newspapers online for free?

Start with the Maine Newspaper Project collection on DigitalMaine, which is led by the Maine State Library and lists free digitized titles from all 16 counties, from the Bangor Weekly Register of 1815 onward. Titles are hosted on several platforms, including college repositories and county collections, so the DigitalMaine page acts as an index rather than a single search box.