As a young man who was interested in the family genealogy I had many conversations with my father about his family. Dad was 58 years old when I was born and therefore his memory of his foreparents went back many decades before my birth. His memory of his grandparents and other family stories always feed my desire to know more. Dad's maternal grandmother, Mary Elizabeth (BURLING) REAMS died when he was about 10 years old. But he had memories of her large family because his parents lived with and around many of the REAMS relatives from time to time. The big mystery was that Mary Elizabeth BURLING was said to have been an orphan, although the family clearly knew her maiden name. According to a notebook kept by my grandmother, Florence Mabel (REAMS) GRINNELL, Mary was born 12 April 1845. She married Uriah REAMS on 1 Dec 1860--thus Mary was only 15 years old at the time of her marriage. Well, when I began the genealogical research I really figured there was little hope of ever finding anthing about her family, the BURLINGS. While visiting the Riverside Cemetery in Bellevue, Michigan with my father and aunt on Memorial Day 1984 we searched the cemetery for Uriah and Mary's gravesites. We located them and I was surprised to find them buried along side Theodore and Lucy STULTS. Dad and Aunt Vivian recognized these names right away, they were Mary's "adoptive" parents. Well at that point I figure what the heck--I should just research their lineage. Not so easy though! The STULTS' proved to be as much a mystery as did identifing the BURLINGs.
Several years pass and I decided to make a request for Uriah's pension records from the National Archives. When the envelope of photocopied records arrived I was surprised to find a copy of Mary's death certificate from 1918. BINGO! there were names, although incomplete, on the record. Fathers name simply listed as BURLING, mothers name listed as WILSIE. But the other clue that was very helpful was that it recorded Mary's birthplace as Pokagon, Cass County, Michigan. Now I had surnames and a location to investigate.
The first time I searched for BURLING and Pokagon together, I came up with the name Robert G. BURLING, a Civil War vet who served in both Illinois and Michigan volunteer infantries. Could this be a relative or even a brother to Mary?
I have been very interested in posting information on the web for genealogical research and have been truly amazed at the amount of cemetery transcriptions that have been posted. Well, wouldn't you know a little burial ground in Pokagaon was posted several years ago with only an handful of burials listed. The cemetery has been known as the Hamilton Cemetery, it appears to be located on private property. This listing show Robert G. BURLING and his parents Henry W. BURLING (1803-1849) and Charlotte BURLING(1812-1845). Could this be Mary's parents--interesting death dates--Mary would have been only 4 years old when the last parent died. Hmm.
SeekingMichigan.com death certificate project to the rescue! Even though I had a copy of Mary's death certificate in my files, I though just for kicks I should see if I can locate the record online now. Sure enough it was there--but rather than listing only the last names of her parents it listed their full names "Henry Burling" and "Charlotte W. Wilsie." Interesting that the two death certificates did not contain exactly the same information. So, we now have established that Mary is the daughter of Henry and Charlotte--and the sister of Robert!
Now, how about Henry and Charlotte's lineage? Digital libraries are wonderful! I located a digitized book on ancestry.com entitled The Descendants of Peter Willemse Roome by P. R. Warner from 1883 which listed 6 generations of Charlotte's ancestors (entirely through the female lines) take us back to the early settlement of New York City (then New Amsterdam). But wait, we aren't finished. I then located Jane Thompson-Starhs The Burling Books, published in 2001, which trace Henry's BURLING (and several associated lines) back another 6 generation, who were also located in New York City and surrounding communities. The Burling publication is a great work--filled with great citations and is both genealogy and family history. It is posted on googlebooks and is well worth taking a look as a great example of a genealogical publication.
Wow! It has taken years, but these discoveries have been just amazing. And to think I had little hope of ever discovering anything on Mary Elizabeth BURLING's ancestry. Shown above is the only image I have ever seen of Mary. This image comes from Leigh ABTHORPE of Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada, where two of Mary's children later settled.
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