Sarah Maria Wilber
ID # 4985, (1821-1856)
| Father | Jeremiah Wilber (1797-1867) |
| Mother | Susan Kitchen (1797-1872) |
| Baptism | Sarah Maria Wilber was baptized in 1821. |
| Marriage | She married William Nelson Van Every. |
| Death | She died on 6 April 1856 at Beverly Township, Wentworth Co.. |
| Burial | She was buried at St. George Baptist Cemetery, South Dumfries Twp.. |
| Note | With what follows, there are problems. Our sources are a copying of information in 1976 as it appeared in the Christian Messenger, an organ of the Baptist Church. This is taken from microfilm as held by McMaster University and was copied by members of the Hamilton branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society. Another source is information to be found in transcriptions of the St. George Baptist Church Cemetery. One, rather fuller, was done by the Brant County branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society, the other was done by interment.net. The OGS transcription is undated, but probably earlier and, hence, perhaps fuller. The interment.net transcription was done in 2001 and updated in 2009. The OGS transcription is contextual and the interment.net transcription is alphabetical. The latter transcription does not show the name of the husband of S. Maria Wilber Van Every. The transcription of the McMaster microfilm shows a death date of 6th April, 1856, for Sarah Maria Van Every, the wife of Nelson Van Every, eldest daughter of Jeremiah Wilber. She is said to be in her 35th year and have left a husband and five children. The problem is that the Brant County OGS transcription as well as the interment.net transcription both show a death date for S. Maria Van Every as 6th April 1836. The Brant OGS transcription includes that she is said to be the wife of Wm. J. Van Every. The interment.net transcription omits this information. This latter situation probably has to do with a worn stone. Maria's husband's name aside, we have a 20 year spread relating to her death date. It is evident that she is buried with her mother Susan who died in 1872. An updated transcription of the Christian Messenger has been done by the Hamilton branch of the OGS and this confirms the death date of 6 April as it appears in the May 29, 1856 edition the paper. This is to be found in PDF format and is identified as CM01. The date confusion is probably caused by a worn stone; as to who Maria's husband was, for the moment, and pending further research, he was probably Nelson Van Every. The Christian Messenger entry showing Wm. J. Van Every as the husband of Sarah Maria Wilber is almost certainly a mistake - such things did happen. Nelson and Maria are in Oneida Township at the time of the 1851 census. With them are children William, age 5, Emily, age 4, and Susan, age 2. (Recall that the 1851 census was not done until January of 1852 and asked the age of the person as of the next birthday.) At some point after the death of Maria, Nelson and family went to Barry County, Michigan. There were evidently more children after 1851. The family has yet to be found in the Canadian 1861 census or the American 1860 census. They do appear in Barry County in the U.S. 1870 census. A Michigan Death registration for Susan has been found. She was the wife of a Robert Allen and she died in 1945 in Plainville, Michigan. Her paentage is shown as Nelson Van 'Avery' and Mariah Wilbur. |
| Last Edited | 18 Jun 2018 |