Monday, May 11, 2015

In Search of Lyman Wallace and Mary, his wife

I came across Lyman Wallace while looking at a family plot I had recently discovered, and was photographing the stones and taking down names and information.  Lyman and his wife, Mary were off to the very front/ side of the large plot by themselves, Lyman's small military stone practically sliding off the edge of the lawn into the dirt road that curved its way around the peninsula of stones. No birth date nor death date for this poor man who had serviced his country during one of our bloodiest wars in history, and now became a person no one can find in a single family tree research program. 

I would have assumed nothing of him if it weren't for the man's last name.  It was Wallace. I knew that the grand tall stone that stood behind and center on that same piece of land had the name of a Captain, and his wife, Amaril (she was a challenge too!) What the stone does not say is that Amaril's maiden name was Wallace as well. I remember searching census records trying to get her maiden name, and on most censuses, they couldn't even get her first name right!  They had every spelling and variation under the sun for her name, but rarely was it Amaril.  However, since I knew family knew her name and spelling, I trusted them.  Then I found Amaril's name mentioned on one of  her daughter's death certificates.  They also put her maiden name on it!  THERE! I knew it was Wallace, but really needed to prove it.

Capt. (Jere) Jeremiah McIntire & his wife, Amaril Wallace

Doing family History work in Sea View Cemetery, notice Amaril and her husband's large stone  in the front, (Mother and Father stones are the smaller ones in front on the big stone) and the two small stones off to the left are Lyman and his wife Mary. Everything behind the large stone are family as well.
Lyman's wife was Mary.  After a little research, I discovered that Mary's maiden name was likely the same surname as her husband's, which, in this particular Wallace family was not so surprising to me. The question remained whether the name was truly spelled with "ACE" or "IS".

The Wallace and Wallis families populated the Phippsburg area back in the 1700's. William Wallace & Rhoda Blethen had many children, and those children had children, for generations, with names that were passed on from generation to generation.  Mary is not the only Mary Wallace.  Unfortunate for me, Lyman Wallace was a bit more of a rarity. Did he have a first name and Lyman is his first name? The task of hunting down his parents and confirming Mary's parents began.  I thought perhaps Mary was Amaril's sister, and indeed find a Mary as a sibling, but no list from any of the censuses had a mention of Amaril, so again I doubted myself.  For Lyman, all I could find was a Lermand or something. In every cencus under Lyman's alleged parents, it carried on as Lermon or something similar, never turning up as Lyman.  Then comes Mary married to another fellow.  Well, Lyman had his stint in the Civil War, so he did not marry young.  He was at least in his mid thirties when he was discharged on 8 July 1864. Since it states elsewhere that they married in 1865, she was at a similar age.
Lyman's stone with no dates.
Company A
1st Massachusetts- Heavy Artillary

Mary A. wife of Lyman Wallace.

Could have Mary A. Wallace been married before Lyman. and are her parents indeed Josiah and Charlotte Wallace? Are Amaril's parents the same?  I may never really know, so the mystery continues.

6 comments:

  1. Did any of these Wallace's (to the best of your knowledge) end up in Colorado County, TX?
    My great grandfather was Franklin Larette Wallace and from what i have researched, he was born in NY in 1848 to Lyman and Maryette Wallace.

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    1. I will have to check that out. Lyman was im the MA 1st division heavy artillary which more supports him beimg from the area. I have possible parents to both Lyman and Mary here in midcoast ME. I do not know if they had children. I suspect Mary is a sibling to one of my great... Grandmothers because of location in the cemetery. Thanks.

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  2. Did any of these Wallace's (to the best of your knowledge) end up in Colorado County, TX?
    My great grandfather was Franklin Larette Wallace and from what i have researched, he was born in NY in 1848 to Lyman and Maryette Wallace.

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  3. We have a Lyman Wallace in our tree:
    Liman Lyman Wallace
    1789–1814
    BIRTH 17 JUN 1789 • Marlboro, Windham, Vermont
    DEATH ABT 1814 • Prob NY
    4th great-uncle

    Our interesting conundrum with him is we believe he died in the war of 1812 in plattsburgh, ny while on guard duty. Here is the interesting part, even though the government claims he died, there is no record of where he was buried. I have always wondered Lyman Wallace and Mary Coffin where our Lyman, which btw we have no record of any marriage.

    Btw we have about 7 samples of our Wallace line out at ancestry and from there to other DNA sites like FTDNA etc. % are my direct family, one is a close cousin off the same Wallace line and another is a close cousin we haven't connected to. Our best guess is they split off our Wallace's about 2 or 3 generations earlier than 1765. Originally our lines tied into Wallis William Wallace born 1650 in New Hampshire at "Wallis sands". However now we are looking at the Wallis's that settled in Casco, Falmouth and / or Portland, Maine. {all the same place geographically, just different periods in time}
    Currently I'm chase'n a Nathaniel and John Wallis who settled there in 1658.

    Lazloew@gmail.com

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    1. Chop that Coffin name off of Mary, my bad that was a Nathaniel Wallace married Marry Coffin. Yet another close match DNA line to ours. FYI We are in the Old Group 3 at FTDNA, which is an offshoot of the Old group 10, which made the "Kings Clade" DF-13

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    2. Check for your Wallis relatives in Phippsburg/ Georgetown, ME area. It is a bit further north of Falmouth, but both Wallace and Wallis are plentiful here. They are not necessarily related though.

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