ISLESFORD, Maine — A small island off the coast of Maine recently celebrated its first baby born in more than 90 years.
Aaron Gray and Erin Fernald Gray welcomed their sixth child, Azalea Belle Gray, at their home in Isleford, Maine, on Sept. 26.
Isleford, known as Little Cranberry Island, is a part of the town of Cranberry Isles, a collection of five islands off Maine’s coast. The 2010 Census showed fewer than 150 people inhabited the town. In 2019, 23 students were enrolled in the town’s two K-8 schools, the Bangor Daily News reported.
Erin Gray, 40, told the Bangor Daily News two of her children were born at a mainland hospital. Three others were born at a family home on Mount Desert Island, Maine’s largest coastal island.
The Grays discovered that before their newest daughter’s arrival, the last known birth on Isleford was that of Warren Fernald, a lobsterman born in 1927 who died in 2005 at the age of 77. He was Erin Fernald Gray’s grandfather.