Searching for my Smiths

I have Smiths. My condolences to you if you too have Smiths in your family tree.  Can we just say were cousins and give up on them? Because researching Smiths is like some ring of Dante's inferno. I don't know what I did in my past genealogical life to acquire such a fate but I suppose those Smiths of mine really acquired me, right? Ugh. Anyway, they are agony to research.

I am, however, blessed that my 3rd great grandfather Smith had a somewhat unusual first name - - Gersham. Yeah, you don't run into too many of them so he has that going for him. I do love that name, although, it does appear with various spellings; Gersham, Gershom, Gershon, Gershes, Gershow. I know it is him when I see him.

In any case, I have quite a few sources for information on my Gersham Smith. I don't have anything definitive regarding his date of birth but census records have it as about 1845-1847 in New York. His date of death I have for sure; November 5, 1905 in Smithville South. Smithville South is now known as Bellmore; the same town my grandfather was born in, where my step-mother grew up, where my sister resides, etc., etc., etc. It's right over there. So close.

My desire to find his burial location is not proving to be as easy as I had hoped. I thought being so local it would be easy. There aren't a lot of cemeteries around Bellmore. The closest, and the location where most of my old Long Island family lines are interred, is called Greenfield Cemetery in Uniondale. I thought for sure he's buried there. But I called them, and Gersham is not there. Not according to their records.

So I set about to find my 3rd great grandmother, Gersham's first wife, Sarah Ann Garvey-Smith. Yeah, Sarah Smith. There are only about a bajillion of them. In fact, his second wife was also named Sarah; Sarah Jane Andrews-Baldwin-Smith. Yes, two wives. Both named Sarah. You're killing me grandpa, you are killing me.

A call to Greenfield inquiring as to the burial locations of Gersham and his two Sarah Smiths resulted in one burial location, that of his second wife, Sarah Jane. I am biologically descended from the first Mrs. Sarah Smith but all the same, I think I will go visit step-3rd great grandma Sarah.

Sarah Jane Andrews-Baldwin-Smith was born in January of 1847 to Henry Andrews and Margaret Switzer-Andrews. I have not put much research into Sarah Jane but I know she married DeWitt Clinton Baldwin in about 1870 and had around 10 children with him. DeWitt died in the mid-1890s and in 1899 she remarried my widowed 3rd great grandfather, Gersham Smith.

I suspect Sarah Jane is buried with her first family, the Baldwins, since Greenfield cannot find a burial record for Gersham. Well, I am off to find out who is there with Sarah Jane in Greenfield Cemetery, Section 25, Lot 172, Grave 3. Wish me luck.