Ancestors were born in Maine in 1700s before Maine was a state so how should birthplace be entered?

Question

I have many ancestors from Maine in the 1700s. Maine wasn’t a state until 1820. My choices for birthplace are always in Massachusetts. Is there any option to specify Maine for the birthplace?

Comments

Try "Town, County, Maine District, Province of Massachusetts Bay" (for 1692-1776) or "Town, County, Maine District, Massachusetts, United States" (for 1776-1820).

Those names probably won't show up in the drop-down lists that come from FamilySearch, but they are generally consistent with the advice we've gotten here from Maine genealogists.

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That helps me a lot. I thought I could only use the drop down selections. If I can type it in the correct way then it will be accurate.. I also got a private message explaining it. Now I have to make some corrections. Thank you!

Answer 1

How should birthplace be entered?

• Birthplace should be entered as the name that existed at the time of your ancestor's birth.

Is there any option to specify Maine for the birthplace?

• Yes. You could note it under a section called Research Notes.

Answer 2

Simply put, between 1692 and 1820, the area that now encompasses Maine was part of the Province of Massachusetts Bay. In 1820 they broke off in preparation to become a separate state of the United States. You can read more about it here:

Province of Massachusetts Bay - Wikipedia

It is interesting to note that prior western Maine was part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and the eastern part was Arcadia or Nova Scotia.

Comments

I believe that Maine is treated as part of Massachusetts, United States, from 1776 to 1820 -- no longer part of the English province of Massachusetts Bay.

Answer 3

Marilyn,  Maybe you have your complete answer already . . . Below is a link to a another G2G question which connects many discussions and further data concerning history and location names prior to Maine becoming a state.  Sometimes it is that it should be "District of Maine" other times "Province of Maine."  Other times are not straight forward (at least to me).  However, I always add Maine somehow before the appropriate time name place of Massachusetts.  Looks like we are 9^th cousins once removed and connected from two lines descendant from [[Farnham-54|Mary (Farnham) Poore (abt.1628-1714)]].  Most of my work is in Maine.  Please reach out if I can ever be of any assistance.  https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/1610588/an-appeal-to-use-maine

Comments

Pamela - thank you for your answer. I received a private message yesterday from Curt Danforth and he sent me a spreadsheet that lists all the states and what they were called depending on the date. it has helped me so much! Before that I was using the drop down box and Maine was being replace with Massachusetts and it was so frustrating. Now I know exactly which name to use depending on the date.