Elvira Mary Palmer was born on 06 Aug 1837 in New York as the first child of Austin Palmer and Jane Russell. She had five siblings, namely: John Austin Sr., Sarah Louise, Henry Clay, Mark, and Russell Collins.

As a young child, she moved with her family from Oneida County, New York, to Michigan. They probably traveled via the Erie Canal which opened in 1825. The family first settled in Monroe County, Michigan, then in Huron, Michigan, then Ann Arbor, and finally Brooklyn, Michigan.

The family lived in Napoleon, Jackson, Michigan, at the time of the 1850 Federal Census.

When she was 15, just a few months after the death of her father, Elvira married Peter Morris Cornell, son of Isaac Cornell and Julia, in Jul 1852, at Brooklyn, Jackson, Michigan. They were married by the minister of the Presbyterian Church of Brooklyn. Peter was from Grass Lake, Jackson, Michigan, and Elvira was living in Brooklyn, Jackson, Michigan, at the time of their marriage.

Peter Morris Cornell and Elvira Mary Palmer had one child:

1. Jane Elizabeth Cornell was born on 17 Jul 1853 in Grass Lake, Jackson, Michigan. She married George Leifheite Miller on 09 Apr 1871 in Oroville, Butte, California. She died on 27 Jan 1942 in Bristol, Kendall, Illinois.

Elvira died on 05 Feb 1855 in Washtenaw, Michigan. She died way too young! She was only 17-years old at the time of her death. She was buried in Oak Grove Cemetery, Chelsea, Washtenaw, Michigan, with her Palmer relatives.

Where is she in the tree?

Notes and Selected Sources:

Ancestry.com, 1850 United States Federal Census (Online publication – Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch.Original data – Seventh Census of the United States, 1850; (National Archives Microfilm Publication M432, 1009 rolls); Records of the Bureau of the), Ancestry.com, http://www.Ancestry.com, Year: 1850; Census Place: Napoleon, Jackson, Michigan; Roll: M432_352; Page: 441B; Image: 632

Beakes, Samuel W, Past and present of Washtenaw County, Michigan (Chicago: S.J. Clarke Pub. Co., 1906), p. 524, GoogleBooks (https://books.google.com/books?id=qUUzAQAAMAAJ : accessed 14 Jul 2019).

GoogleMaps, https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Oneida+County,+NY/Monroe+County,+Michigan/Huron,+MI/Ann+Arbor,+Michigan/Brooklyn,+Michigan+49230/Napoleon,+MI/Chelsea,+MI/@42.7523763,-80.4997627,8z/data=!4m44!4m43!1m5!1m1!1s0x89d913ee21746425:0x88f30c39679e3c77!2m2!1d-75.4344727!2d43.2371798!1m5!1m1!1s0x883b66d8352823d3:0x93c932f7ae9b9be5!2m2!1d-83.5070203!2d41.9738893!1m5!1m1!1s0x883b44426d0d723d:0xdfd764039af51604!2m2!1d-83.357567!2d42.1427399!1m5!1m1!1s0x883cb00dd4431f33:0xdb09f94686c8b5e2!2m2!1d-83.7430378!2d42.2808256!1m5!1m1!1s0x883cdfc276e6998f:0x9d55d9b2d6fc8cad!2m2!1d-84.2482819!2d42.105874!1m5!1m1!1s0x883cdf3454babdc9:0x4cf4f10c58b4cb40!2m2!1d-84.2460616!2d42.1605944!1m5!1m1!1s0x883ccd94fe56d5e9:0x4cdc35f9fb05974f!2m2!1d-84.0205029!2d42.3180919!3e2

Michigan, Jackson County Michigan, marriages, 1833-1870 Item 2; Jackson County Michigan, marriages, 1833-1870, database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C9BJ-Z3ZQ-S?i=573&cat=225230 : accessed 14 Jul 2019), Film # 007724038, image #574 of 942. Cornell-Palmer marriage, Family Search – The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, discussion list (familysearch.org).

Note: Per a paid researcher in 1996, “when you enter the cemetery bear to the right road…graves are near the edge of that road.”

Note: Photos provided by Jane Alice Palmer Sandefur.