Monty Small presents his compilation of Deer Isle and Stonington cemeteries to the Deer Isle-Stonington Historical Society. [Left to right: Ellen Dinsmore, Connie Wiberg, Montelle Small, Janice Olsen]
The words of Montelle “Monty” Small, creator of these pages:
This entire cemetery program got its start for me at the Island Nursing Home. During the mid to late ’90s my mother, Alda Small, was a resident at the INH. One of her nurses was Janice Olsen and, during the course of conversation with her, I found that she had been recording information from just about all of the cemeteries on the Island. I was running two genealogy web pages, one for Deer Isle and the other for Stonington, in cooperation h the USGENPROJ [United States Genealogy Project]. I thought the introduction of cemetery listing would be an important part of this project, and so Janice gave me copies of every cemetery listing that she had. I proceeded to enter all the information on the web sites and immediately got a number of inquiries: some from Trinidad, Australia and England. Later on, while I was visiting the Deer Isle-Stonington Historical Society, I got talking with Connie Wiberg, who volunteers at the Society. We thought it would be important to have a cemetery-listings catalog for both Stonington and Deer Isle and also include Isle au Haut, Merchants Island, and Eagle Island. So now, over a span of seven years or more, we feel the listings are complete and accurate enough to go ahead and publish the catalogs, which [have now] become the property of the Society.
There has been a tremendous amount of work to put these cemetery listings together. Connie and Janice have put in countless hours plodding through cemeteries, a number of which are buried in the underbrush way off the beaten path. We have also had considerable help from people “from away” who have family ties to the Island. Janice Barter, who lives on Trinidad-Tobago off the coast of South America, has furnished a great deal of valuable information on the Barter family of Isle au Haut. Ingrid Luke of Clackamas, Oregon, has been a continuous help to us with all of our listings even though her primary concern is with the Rich family of Isle au Haut. Jan McGrath has also been very helpful concerning the Holden family of North Deer Isle. Jan lives in Goolagong, Australia. It seems that our seafaring descendants travelled far and wide -- and sometimes never returned.
Cemetery listing is a never-ending work and, especially in the case of listings in the early years, highly subject to error. So, as you travel back in time to visit with your long-gone friends and relatives, if you spot errors and/or omissions, we will be grateful to you if you would put us straight. Please send us your corrections or additions in writing, along with your sources (Vital Record, Birth, Death or Marriage Certificates).
Contact Connie Wiberg or Ellen Dinsmore.