Today’s post, featuring the letter “Y” in my alphabet series on “This Maine Life” is personal. It explains part of my connection to the state of Maine. This yesteryear history is one of the reasons I launched Maine Features.

The four photos you see in the compilation grid above are my two sets of maternal great-grandparents and some of their children who turned out to be my grandparents, aunts, and uncle. They, along with other ancestors, grew up in Appleton, Liberty, and Montville, Maine. These three little towns are where many of my roots can be found.

I’ve always been interested in history. That passion has increased over the years. I have found that it is difficult to understand the present without the framework of the past.

This interest has extended to genealogy more recently. The amount of information that is available via digital databases is mind-boggling. Most of my best finds, however, were discovered the slow, manual way: sifting through family photos my grandmother passed on to me and painstakingly combing through town archives.

Needless to say, I could write thousands of words here. Many of my relatives were farmers. My great-grandmother was the teacher in a one-room schoolhouse. My grandmother was a nurse. One great-great-grandfather was town selectman, superintendent of schools, and justice of the peace.

The man in the photo of the couple sitting alone is the source of my Scotch-Irish heritage: my great-grandfather Martel McLain. The Bangor Daily News wrote an article on him in 1971. It tells how Annie Oakley taught him to how to shoot. It sounds like a tall tale, but was true. Annie Oakley and Buffalo Bill used to come visit my great-great-grandfather William on the McLain family farm. Years before, after fighting in the Civil War, William went to help build the continental railroad and there met Buffalo Bill. They became friends which resulted in the visits when the Wild West show came to Maine. My great-grandfather used the lessons from Annie to become an avid deer hunter. His interview with the newspaper took place on the same family farm seventy years later.

There are countless other stories which could be told. Some were shared with me by relatives who have since passed on. Others I’ve unearthed through research. Through the entire process, I have been reminded of the deep roots I have in this state. I can drive through places in Maine that bear some of the names of those who came before me, even centuries ago. So many other Mainers can do the same.

As I continue on this Maine Features journey, I am exploring our home. I am discovering the oftentimes ordinary ways we are adding to our state’s history. All of us together are writing the stories that those who come after us will read. Let’s fill those pages with a meaningful legacy built on a bedrock of character and values.

This post is part of my A to Z Challenge Series with the overall theme, “This Maine Life.” I am covering a Maine-related topic with a different letter of the alphabet every day except Sundays throughout the month of April 2020.