Mrs. Davis's Niece - Mrs. D. H. Parshall of Detroit

It was a challenge. This is what I had found in the newspaper:

Lapeer County Democrat
25 April 1883
Edmund Hallenbeck of Oregon [Twp] and Mrs. Eliza A. Davis of this city were married at the residence of the bride's niece, Mrs. D. H. Parshall, at Detroit, last Thursday, April 19th.

What I wanted to know was the maiden name of Mrs. Davis's niece, the first name of "D.H. Parshall" and was Mrs. Davis a sister of her niece's mother or father.

After checking the 1900 census in Lapeer County, I found a widowed Eliza Hallenbeck who was born in October of 1828. The death record for Eliza Hallenbeck indicated that her father was (FNU) Walker and her mother's name was not known. The informant was S. C. Hallenbeck, Eliza's step-son.

A search of the FamilySearch Record Search index found a Dewitt H. Parshall who fit the criteria for D. H. Parshall. A marriage record for Dewitt H. Parshall and Anna B. Suley was found in the index. One of the witnesses was Herbert Seeley -- was Suley really Seeley? I then searched for Herbert Seeley; when he married, one of the witnesses was Joseph Parshall.

A "Google" search for Dewitt Parshall revealed several hits for an artist (the person for whom I was searching was a farmer in Michigan). The "farmer" Dewitt Parshall was found here in the 1850 census, here in the 1870 census and here in the 1900 census.

After postponing the search for Dewitt Parshall, I searched for Joseph Parshall (the witness in the Seeley marriage) instead. With the "Joseph Parshall" search, The "History of the Parshall Family" produced the following:


Walker! The maiden name of Belle (Mrs. D. H.) Parshall's mother was Calista Walker. Eliza Davis's maiden name was Walker. It seemed as though Mrs. Davis's niece was Belle Seeley, daughter of Edward H. & Calista (Walker) Seeley.

Calista Thankful Seeley was born on April 10, 1822, in Chili, Monroe Co., New York, to Charles Walker and Melvina Phillips and died in Oakland Co., Michigan, on February 27, 1902, per her son-in-law, Horace Green. There was something to be learned about Eliza (Walker) Davis Hallenbeck's family through her sister Calista's death record.

Eliza's husband, Edmund Hallenbeck, was first married to Julia Richmond who was a cousin of my Thomas P. Richmond.