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.
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| Capt. (Jere) Jeremiah McIntire & his wife, Amaril Wallace |
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| 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.
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| Lyman's stone with no dates. Company A 1st Massachusetts- Heavy Artillary |
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| Mary A. wife of Lyman Wallace. |
