Here is an article that is not about any of the “normal” topics of this newsletter: genealogy, history, current affairs, DNA, and related topics. However, if you expect to go tromping through the woods looking for abandoned cemeteries, old homesteads, and similar locations of interest to genealogists, this could provide life-saving information. Really!

Nancy Battick is a Dover-Foxcroft, Maine native who has researched genealogy for over 30 years. She is past president of the Maine Genealogical Society, author of several genealogical articles and co-transcribed the Vital Records of Dover-Foxcroft.  Nancy holds an MA in History from the University of Maine and lives in the town of Dover-Foxcroft, Maine with her husband, Jack, another avid genealogist.

Nancy has dusted off her annual “Be Safe in the Woods” article and has updated it significantly. Her latest article is written for genealogists, primarily for those wandering around old cemeteries, homesteads, and in other places of interest to anyone who is researching in Maine or somewhat similar rural locations.

I was born and raised about 12 miles from Nancy’s location in Dover-Foxcroft and spent much of my childhood roaming around in nearby wooded locations. I think I know every long-abandoned cemetery in the area along with lots of abandoned homesteads and other locations of interest to genealogists. My specialty is finding abandoned silver mines in and around the towns of Corinna, Dexter, and Dover-Foxcroft. I could write a similar article but I rather like Nancy’s version better than my own. 

You can read Nancy Battick’s “Be Safe in the Woods” article https://observer-me.com/2024/07/09/opinion/be-safe-in-the-woods/.

This article is recommended reading for anyone who expects to go walking in either the Maine woods or in any similar locations. And yes, I got lost a number of times when I was growing up but always found my way out of the woods by using similar techniques to what Nancy Battick recommends.