Matrilineal Monday ~ Sarah Lowell

I am continuing my series on my long-lived maternal ancestors.

My great great grandmother Sarah Lowell was born in Calais, Maine, on December 30, 1833, the youngest of eight children to Reuben Lowell and Sarah Smith. Her father died in May 1837. I have not been able to find her widowed mother, Sarah (Smith) Lowell in the 1840 Federal Census, though I just found her in the 1850 Federal Census, mis-indexed as Sarah Lowde.

Detail from 1850 U.S. Federal Census,
Sarah Lowell in Calais, Washington County, Maine

This is the earliest record I have found for my great great grandmother, 16-year-old Sarah Lowell, as Sarah (Smith) Lowell's youngest child. 22-year-old Frederick A. Lowell is a third great uncle.

On December 15, 1858, Sarah Lowell married Henry Clay Copeland (1832 - 1912) in Calais. [Calais, Maine Vital Records.]

They had three children:

1. Charles Townsend Copeland (April 27, 1860 - July 24, 1952) - longtime Harvard English professor, never married.
2. Lowell Copeland (October 5, 1862 - December 24, 1935) - my great grandfather.
3. Sarah Katherine Copeland (October 15, 1874 - September 13, 1924) - married William Harrison Dunbar in 1898.

Every Federal census record from 1860 to 1910 finds Sarah with her husband, Henry, in Calais, Washington County, Maine. See Workday Wednesday ~ Henry Copeland, Lumberman.

Sarah's husband Henry died in 1912 in Calais.

Boston Journal, January 11, 1916, GenealogyBank.com

Sarah died in Cambridge, Massachusetts on January 9, 1916, at the age of 82. See a photo of Sarah Lowell.

My descent from Sarah Lowell > Lowell Copeland > Lowell Townsend Copeland > my mother > me.

Matrilineal Monday is a daily blogging prompt from Geneabloggers, the genealogy community’s resource for blogging. It is used by many genealogy bloggers to help them tell stories of their ancestors.