Week 4 - Overlooked - Smith family, Prince family, Dillingham family

     My favorite pastime is to wander through cemeteries. I don't have to have any 'family' in the said cemetery - everyone who is buried has a family so in that way, we are all related.

Every year, once in May and again in December we have visited my husband's family that are buried in the Thumb of Michigan. We travel to Metamora, Columbiaville and on to North Branch, relating stories about those that went before us. But, what about those that didn't 'live', get married, have an occupation or leave behind stories for us to reminisce about? Those that have been forgotten for years, decades, and centuries.

John Dillingham, my dad's great uncle, was born 17 Aug 1841 in Troy, New York. John was the fourth of 12 children of Sidney & Katharine (Sweet) Dillingham. He died 12 Dec 1844 in New York just a few months from his third birthday. There are no official records to be found at this point for him. Only an entry in a family bible. There was a Typhoid epidemic happening in New York in 1844. Could that be the cause of his death? We will never know. Within four years the family would be in Michigan and then into Illinois. A daughter Elizabeth (number 11 of 12 children) was born 15 Dec 1854 in Illinois and died 5 Jan 1855 at 21 days of age. By 1870, the family is found in Cerro Gordo County, Iowa where they settled, leaving their little ones in two different cemeteries in two different states.

Siblings Muretty Prince and Fred Oliver Prince were born in 1851 and 1857, respectfully. Both were born in Washtenaw County, Michigan the children of Matthew and Abigail (Bess) Prince.  The father Matthew was from Wighill, York, England and their mother Abigail was born in New York. Muretty died in July 1854, cause unknown and Fred died in February 1860 from croup. Both of them died in Ypsilanti, Washtenaw County, Michigan. By 1867 Matthew and Abigail and family were living in Decatur, Van Buren, Michigan where their last child, Frank T Prince, was born. (Frank was my maternal great grandfather). No records exist at this time to show where these children were buried. 

One that has always made my heart melt was Merle Maxine Smith. She was born 21 May 1927 in Deerfield township, Lapeer County, Michigan to Noble Ray & Edith Emily (Stewart) Smith. She was my husband's grandmother's younger sister. Margaret was 12 years old and the oldest girl, when Merle was born and certainly, she helped her mother with all the littles in the family.  Merle was 49 days short of turning five years old when she died from pneumonia on 2 April 1932. Was she a happy child, a funny child or a quiet child? Why her? A life snuffed out way too soon. Could she have been a scientist, a mom, or a teacher? These are questions that will never be answered. 

Back of photo states: My Sister Merle with long black hair. 
Evelyn Clemens, Norma Jean Clemens & Barbara Jean Shoulty

But neither Merle, nor the others will be overlooked again.

Barbie

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