Stumbling Upon Some Smiths: MY Smiths

Last year for my birthday my friend Toni and I went out to the East End of Long Island just to drive around really. I do love a drive. While on the road we happened through the town of Center Moriches. I said, "Hey, I have some relatives supposedly buried out here. I think the cemetery is called Mount Pleasant." And sure enough as we turned the corner there was the cemetery; serendipity if ever it existed. 

Now Mount Pleasant Cemetery is not a large cemetery really but in terms of small town cemeteries it is pretty big. I had no information with me. All I could recall was that this was where Smith cousins were buried during the mid- to late1800s. 

Smiths...don't get me started on Smiths. Researching Smiths is some sort of genealogical ring of hell. If you have Smiths in your tree (and who doesn't), God bless you!

Toni and I drove around the oldest section we could find looking for Smith headstones, knowing full well that my ancestors rarely had headstones. When just as we turned the corner, there they were.

Elijah Allen Smith actually appears on  many wills and inventories of estate for my Raynor ancestors in Hempstead from the 1820s through the 1850s. He married the sister of my 4th great grandfather, Leonard Losee.

Susan is Leonard Losee's older sister and, as her headstone indicates, the wife of Elijah Allen Smith. I know of her relationship to Leonard through an entry in a family bible listing her birth as well as those of all her siblings; the children of Cornelius and Jane Losee.

Samuel R. Losee born 12 October 1800

Mary Ann Losee born 5 August 1803

Sarah Losee born 16 January 1806

Pheobe Losee born 15 April 1809

Cornelius Losee born 15 July 1813

Susan Losee born 22 February 1815

Leonard L. Losee born 21 January 1817

And there is Jane's headstone. My 5th great grandmother; Jane wife of Cornelius Losee, no maiden name known. From the dates indicated on her headstone she was born in about 1774 and died on April 14, 1856. I know little of her husband, Cornelius, except for his date of death which was also written in the family bible; May 1, 1818, a little more than a year after their youngest child, Leonard (my 4th great-grandfather), was born.

To roam around a cemetery you have never been to before and make a find quite like this is rare. I knew I had family buried there but again, I had no information with me and knowledge that my ancestors rarely had headstones. I am grateful that I had my camera with me.