Sarah Smith is my third great-grandmother. The little bit I know about her comes from a town history published in 1897: History of Litchfield and an Account of its Centennial Celebration, 1895, published by the Kenebec Journal Print in Augusta, Maine. I found this at Ancestry.com, and it can also be found at Google Books.
Local histories are a wonderful resource. This local history includes many genealogies of families who spent time in Litchfield, Maine. On page 311 is the family of Joseph Smith and his wife Martha Robinson.
In the History of Litchfield, the first child of Joseph Smith and Martha Robinson is listed as Sally Smith. This is the only place where I find her listed as Sally. In other records I find her listed as Sarah.
Of course, we must remember that this is a secondary source and should be used as a guide to find primary source information about a family, but for some of this family's information, this is all I have at this point in time. (Other secondary sources that mention Sarah Smith, wife of Reuben Lowell, include The Historic Genealogy of the Lowells of America from 1639 to 1899 by Delmar R. Lowell, published by The Tuttle Publishing Company, Rutland, Vt. in 1899, and The Copeland Family: A Copeland Genealogy by Warren Turner Copeland, published by The Tuttle Publishing Company, Rutland, Vt. in 1937.)
Sarah (Sally) Smith, was born as the oldest child of Joseph Smith and Martha (Robinson) Smith, on November 28, 1795, presumably in Litchfield, Maine. She married Reuben Lowell on February 28, 1820. About 1825, they moved to Calais, Maine, about 186 miles east northeast of Litchfield, according to Google Maps. Her husband, Reuben, died at the young age of 42 in 1837, in Calais, Maine, leaving Sarah as a widow with five children (three other children had died very young in the 1820's).
Reuben Lowell is in Calais, Maine, in the 1830 US Census. After his death, Sarah is the head of the household and I am able to follow her in census records in Calais, Maine.
