DIXFIELD — People pored over scrapbooks of old newspaper clippings and photos here Thursday night as the Dixfield Historical Society opened up its collection to the public.

Minnie Hutchinson Blodgett, 87, of Carthage and her daughter Barbara Blodgett Chase said they hoped to find clippings about their family’s past. They have been working on genealogy projects together since 1979.

“It’s not just dates and facts in researching the past, there are interesting stories you pull together,” Chase said.

The Dixfield Historical Society’s collection has been created from donations from the public.

“It comes from people who clean things out and they find old articles or just don’t have the space to hold onto items anymore,” society member Charlotte Collins said. “We love getting them because there is so much information in the news clippings.

The scrapbooks contained articles on birth announcements, wedding announcements, obituaries and news stories.

Peter Stowell, society historian, said his family has a history in Dixfield.

“I found a snippet about my great-great-grandmother’s brother in the Dixfield Historical Society’s calendar they put out,”  he said. “I contacted them about seeing the document they found it in and that is how I got involved.”

Stowell also writes for the Dixfield Star, the society’s newsletter. It contains photos and articles about their collection of artifacts, including information found in the newspaper scrapbooks.

Society member Donna Towle said Thursday that she hopes to start the process of entering their collection of photographs and documents into the Maine Memory Network.

The Maine Memory Network is a online service that provides access to thousands of historical items belonging to more than 200 organizations from across Maine. It’s part of the Maine Historical Society.

Towle hopes that more people will be encouraged to bring items into the historical society if they know a photo or document can be scanned and returned instead of having the organization keep the item.

Anyone interested in donating historical artifacts or becoming a member of the society is encouraged to contact Clarice Hodges, Dixfield Historical Society secretary, at 562-7125 or Towle by email at [email protected]