Hoyt Family Tree
Before we move onto the next generation, I do want to check into filling in the information about Lottie’s two sisters who survived to adulthood. I need to fill in specific information about their vitals.
I know from censuses and the history of Detroit that Charlotte married a man named Henry G. Sherrard. He is buried in Elmwood. There is no photo of his stone, but the database entry says he was born on 6 Aug 1861 in Illinois, and died on 13 Nov 1909 in Grosse Point, Wayne, Michigan.1 This is why he isn’t found with his family on the 1910 and later censuses. There is currently no entry for Charlotte or her three children in Elmwood.
Records at Ancestry.com consist of census records for her as well as a number of passenger lists which name her year of birth as anywhere from 1869-1872; however, they all agree on her day of birth. One of her trips ended in Southampton, England, where she boarded the Washington to return to New York City on 14 Sep 1946. The list states that Charlotte Sherrard was 76 years and 9 months old and was born in Detroit, Michigan on 8 Nov 1869.3 Her address was 59 Lake Shore Road. Gross Pointe Farms, 30. Michigan.
A quick check at Joe Beine’s index of death records for Detroit and Wayne County shows that the Grosse Pointe Public Library has an Obituary Database. The index reports that Charlotte Berry Sherrard died on 1952-01-04 and her obit was printed on 1952-01-17 in the Grosse Pointe News on page 15. The index also points to digital copies of the papers where the full text is available.
Charlotte Berry Sherrard
Mrs. Charlotte Sherrard, 82 of 59 Lake Shore road, died in her home on Friday, January 4. She was the wife of the late Henry Gray Sherrard, prominent Detroit educator.
Mrs. Sherrard, active in civic and charity organizations for many years, was the one time president of the Michigan League of Women Voters. She was also a member of the Women’s City Club and St. Paul’s Cathedral.
She is survived by two daughters, Mrs. Alfred Coleman of South Weymouth, Mass., and Mrs. Hugh K. Bullit of Louisville, Ky.; a son, Joseph B. of Grosse Pointe; five grandchildren and two great grandchildren.
Services were held on Monday, Jan 7, at 2 p.m. in St. Paul’s Cathedral. Burial was in Elmwood Cemetery.2
Using her age at death, I can nail down Charlotte’s year of birth as 1869.
1. Jim Tipton, Find A Grave, database (http://www.findagrave.com : accessed 29 Nov 2011), Henry Gray Sherrard (1861-1909), Elmwood Cemetery, Detroit, Wayne, Michigan.
2. “Obituaries,” Grosse Pointe News, 17 Jan 1952, p. 15, col. 3; digital images, Grosse Pointe Public Library Local History Archives (http://digitize.gp.lib.mi.us/newspapers.htm : accessed 29 Nov 2011).
3. “New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957,” online images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 29 Nov 2011), manifest, Washington, Sep 1946, p. 85, line 17, Charlotte Sherrard, age 76.