Please join us at our next meeting - online on February 5, 2021! The Greater Portland Genealogical Society usually meets at 1:00 on the first Saturday of every month except July, August and December at the First Congregational Church United Church of Christ at 301 Cottage Road, South Portland. Due to Covid19, our next meeting will be online using Zoom. Scroll down for more info. Our meetings are open to the public and new members are always welcome. Some of our members who attended the June 2018 meeting. Dr. Carol P. McCoy, President of the Maine Genealogy Society (front row in bright green and blue shirt) spoke on the advantages of being a member of MGS and the benefits that they provide.

Norman Jordan

We are sorry to announce that one of our faithful longtime members, Norman Jordan has passed away, a victim of the corona virus. Mr. Jordan served as our President for the 2006-7 year. He was a direct descendant of the Jordan family who founded Cape Elizabeth, Maine. He was a one-man library of knowledge of Cape Elizabeth and South Portland history. Our group has sent a check for $100 in his memory to the Cape Elizabeth Historical Preservation Society of which he was an active member during his lifetime. It is hoped the money will be used towards the campaign to acquire the former WW Thomas schoolhouse (used in the past as the town’s library) for the CEHPS headquarters. Norm Jordan standing in the Olde Spurwick Plantation Cemetery in Cape Elizabeth, ME, where several of his Jordan Ancestors are buried.

Our next meeting:

February 5, 2021 - What we've been up to!
Join us for a discusssion of what three of our members have been up to. Don Taylor, Diane Brakeley and Margaret Perkins will each give a short presentation on a genealogical project they have been working on and the process they used. For the second half of the meeting, members present will respond to requests for help with genealogical research problems sent in advance by other members.

We will meet online via Zoom at the normal time but NOT at the church. So, bring your snacks to your home computer or mobile device and listen to the chaos. At 1PM we will start the actual meeting.

You can join the meeting on your computer, or on your mobile device (ipad, android, etc.,) between 12:30 and 1 PM. The link will be sent to all members for whom we have email addreses. If you wish to attend the meeting, but have not received the link in an email, please contact Don Taylor and ask for the link.

Other upcoming events of interest- We do not know when these meetings will resume.

January 30, 2021 - Pioneers of Merrymeeting Bay -
Presented by Bruce Bourque. Free and online at 1:30. Register for this talk at spiritsalive.org/lectures.
It is little known that English settlement around Merrymeeting Bay began about the same time Puritans arrived in Boston. Between then and 1675 a substantial community emerged but was wiped out during King Philip’s War. The history of this lost community is poorly understood and none of its early home sites has ever been located or explored archaeologically. The Merrymeeting Bay Pioneers Project aims to identify these pioneers using new technology to locate and explore their homesteads.

Second Saturday of each month - DNA Interest Group (DIG)
meets at the Gray Public Library, 5 Hancock Street, Gray, Maine from 10am to noon.

Third Wed. of each month - Genealogy Club
from 1 to 3 p.m. at the South Portland Library.

Fourth Monday of each month - Scarborough Public Library Genealogy Group
meets from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Scarborough Public Library.
Please Note: They do not meet in July and August


This site was last updated on Jan. 7, 2021. If problems, contact Webmaster Diane Brakeley.