• General Notes

  Rick Albright Feb. 16, 2002
  The 14 Dec 1839 date came from Richard Shipley's Bible as quoted by my grandfather and his sister, but I did NOT personally see the entry.  Sarah Ann Fisher Shipley's newspaper obit says she "... was born in the state of Maryland in the year of 1839 and passed away April 29, 1918 at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Rettie Preston at the age of 79 years, 4 months and 15 days."  Her tombstone reads  "April 28, 1918 age 79 yr, 4m, 15 d."
  
  In 1970, the Iowa State Department of Health wrote me that Sarah Ann Shipley's 1918 death had not been recorded, which might have offered another bit of evidence about her birth year. Oddly, Richard Shipley's 1908 Iowa death WAS recorded, so it was a slip-up of some sort not that the state did not require it in 1918.
  
  Bit of trivia: If Sarah's December 1839 birth is correct, her mom must have become pregnant with Sarah quite soon after delivering another child as Sarah's brother Stephen John Fisher was supposedly born 11 Feb 1839.
  
  Sarah's parents were James Fisher (1798-1853) and Jane Ellen Boyd (1803-1875) who lived in Harford Co., MD (on the Maryland/Pennsylvania line) before moving to Kenton Co., Kentucky and then southern Iowa.
  
  
  
  
  If you figure her birth date from her tombstone reading  "April 28, 1918 age 79 yr, 4m, 15 d, " it says her birth date is Dec. 13, 1838.

Details of Sarah Ann's family with Richard Shipley