Individuals and families are so mobile these days, many of us may feel we don’t have a homestead, a place with roots that holds fast to our roots no matter where life may take us.

Do you know where each of your parents lived as a child? How about your grandparents?

Sometimes we know more about where a long-ago ancestor, such as a Mayflower Pilgrim or other prominent person of the 1600s or 1700s, lived because that homestead has been preserved.

In Bangor, I think a very nice museum could be made out of the homestead of my second cousin, four times removed, at 15 Fifth St. That was the homestead at one point of Hannibal Hamlin, best-known as Abraham Lincoln’s first vice president and later as minister plenipotentiary to Spain.

Perhaps your parents or grandparents or great-grandparents were alive in the 1940 Census. It is free to look up that census online, and it would tell you what street your family lived on, sometimes the street number as well. Look to see who lived on both sides of this homestead.

In 1940, Stanley and Edith Steeves and their 9-year-old daughter, my mother Joyce, lived on “School and Maple Street” in Sangerville. I know the house was across the street from the Sangerville School, but which house was it?

The Census lists the Steeves family as Household No. 49, right next to that of Abbie Fowler, with John Hill on the other side. Generations of Sangerville residents know the name Abbie Fowler, who for many years taught kindergarten and first grade in Sangerville — my mother included. In her retirement, Miss Fowler operated a gift shop in her home, complete with penny Valentines during February.

Now I should go take a photo of this house where my mother lived.

In cities, you often can find a city directory to give you an address and other information, often something to crosscheck with whatever the census tells you.

Happy homestead hunting!

The Summit Project

As I write this, eighth-graders from Helen S. Dunn School in Greenbush are learning and writing about 13 Mainers who were killed in service for their country since the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

These youngsters, with schoolmates in attendance, will escort the Summit Project stones engraved with the initials and branch of service for their fallen hero in a ceremony that welcomes the stones for a 23-day display, May 1 to 23, at Cole Land Transportation Museum, 405 Perry Road, Bangor.

The students will be there that day to tour the museum and talk with veterans of World War II to the present in the Veterans Interview Program. The brief ceremony will be held at 9 a.m., and the public is invited to attend.

We are most familiar with The Summit Project, founded by Bangor High School graduate Maj. David Cote, a U.S. Marine who served in Iraq and is stationed at the Pentagon, from seeing photos and film of hikers carrying the stones to the top of Mount Katahdin and other Maine peaks.

But Cote is eager to have facilities such as the Cole Museum host static displays of several of the project’s 60 stones so all of us can have the opportunity to see them. While the museum itself has an admission fee for adults, youngsters 18 and under always are admitted free. And, there is no admission fee to see the Summit Project stones, which will be on display 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, May 1 to 23.

The stones chosen for the Cole Museum display by The Summit Project memorialize these men who died in service to their country since the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001:

— Sgt. Kevin B. Balduf, 27, U.S. Marine Corps, Richmond, May 15, 2011.

— Capt. John R. “Jay” Brainard III, 26, U.S. Army, Newport and Atkinson, May 28, 2012.

— Lt. Cmdr. Robert E. Clukey, 33, U.S. Navy, Orono, Nov. 3, 2002.

— Staff Sgt. Dale J. Kelly Jr., 48, U.S. Army, Richmond, May 6, 2006.

— Maj. Samuel C. Leigh, 35, U.S. Marine Corps, Belgrade, June 30, 2009.

— Master Sgt. Ryan C.C. Love, U.S. Marine Corps, Frankfort, July 19, 2012.

— Sgt. Brett E. Pelotte, 35, U.S. Army, Waterville, Aug. 19, 2003.

— Staff Sgt. Brandon M. Silk, 25, U.S. Army, Orono, June 21, 2010.

— Spc. Wade A. Slack, 21, U.S. Army, Waterville, May 6, 2012.

— Pvt. Dustin R.F. Small, 19, U.S. Army, Palmyra, June 30, 2009.

— Lt. Jerry R. Smith, 26, U.S. Navy, Greenville, Aug. 15, 2007.

— Staff Sgt. David M. Veverka, 25, U.S. Army, University of Maine, Orono, June 21, 2010.

— Spc. Christopher M. Wilson, 24, U.S. Army, Bangor, March 29, 2007.

For information on researching family history in Maine, see Genealogy Resources under Family Ties at bangordailynews.com/browse/family-ties. Send genealogy queries to Family Ties, Bangor Daily News, P.O. Box 1329, Bangor 04402, or email familyti@bangordailynews.com.