It's been almost two years since I found Belle Greer buried nearly in my own back yard, at the Fairmount Cemetery in Denver, CO. Finding her buried in Colorado prompted ordering her death certificate, which uncovered that her mother was somebody named Isabella Gillespie. We have since been able to determine alot about Isabella Gillespie - that she came to Michigan from Orange County, New York and married John Greer, they settled in Bloomfield township, acquired quite alot of land, and raised 16 children, all of which seems stunning. But so far, we've not been able to determine who Isabella's parents were (there are lots of votes on ancestry.com that she is a daughter of William Gillespie and Isabella Houston, but I have not found any evidence to support that theory - my research notes for that can be found attached on ancestry).
So one of my primary goals for my recent trip to Michigan was to find an answer to this burning question. I'm sorry to say as I write this, the answer still eludes me. But here's what I found (and did not find):
I have been primarily focused on why I have not been able to find a death certificate for Isabella. Death certificates were issued in Michigan by 1891 and they often listed parents. Why can't I find one? At the Michigan State Archives, they have a register of deaths for the entire state by year, organized alphabetically and by county. There were no Greer or Gillespie deaths recorded anywhere in the state in 1891. So this means one of two things:
a) Isabella did not die in Michigan, but in this case, her body was brought back - presumably - and buried in Michigan. We should actually check the cemetery records personally - they might have some other info. It should be noted that this very thing happened to Jane Gillespie Greer. If not for the probate record which said she died in Henderson, KY (we still don't know what she was doing there), we wouldn't know where she died because she too is buried in Michigan (presumably).
b) Isabella did die in Michigan but for whatever reason it was not recorded at any official level (county or state). It should be noted, however, that I did find a death announcement in an 1891 Pontiac Gazette which noted that Isabella had been ill and quoted a poem at her passing.
I was pretty discouraged at not finding any death record. But on my last day in Lansing, I started thinking about what other documentation would list a person's parents, and I wondered about a marriage certificate. I had found one source that said John and Isabella were married in Wayne County, so I started hunting. Lo and Behold! There is both a religious and a civil record recorded in Wayne County on June 13, 1833. This information was recorded by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in 1936 as part of the Vital Records Project of Michigan (a copy of what I found is attached on my research website). Because all this happened before Michigan was a state, the actual record, if it still exists, is somewhere in a Detroit storage room. Should I admit that I have my hopes pinned on this slim chance?
And here's one other little thing: John Greer and Isabella Gillespie Greer were officially registered as Oakland County Pioneers in 1903, interestingly AFTER they both had died. Although some have survived, the original forms for Greer's application are not found at the Oakland County Pioneer and Historical Society. Clearly one of their many descendants recognized they were pioneers and made sure they were registered. More Michigan pioneers. More history than we ever knew....
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