July 10

 Elizabeth Ann Decker was born 10 July 1851

I don't have a picture of Elizabeth. What I have is photos of her gravestone, along with those of three of her siblings.

Elizabeth Ann Decker died age 2y 4m 15d

Abraham  J Decker died age 1y 4m 3d

Marilla Decker died age 1y 2m 1d

William F Decker died age 2y 7m 7d

All of these are in the Burford Cemetery in Jasper County, Illinois. All of them are documented to be children of "W & M.A. Decker". I believe this to be William and Mary Ann Burford Decker Mary Ann was the sister of my Alexander Oscar Burford, Sr. (Alexander Oscar Burford, Jr. was my great-grandfather.)

The information on William Decker on the FamilySearch website is incorrect, as it says he died in 1849, but he is documented in the census as Mary Ann's husband in 1850 and 1860. I cannot find William's or Mary Ann's graves on the FindAGrave website. 

From what I have been able to determine, William and Mary Ann were married 10 August 1843 in Jasper County, Illinois, and they had nine children - Mary, Nancy, Lucinda, Marilla, Elizabeth, Sarah, William, John, and Abraham. The only two of their children I can document that lived to adulthood are Lucinda and Sarah. Mary and Nancy were in their teens and John was an infant in the 1860 census, which is the most recent record I can find for them.

It's shocking how many children died young back in the days before antibiotics and vaccines. Most of them died from diseases that were common at the time -- diphtheria, typhoid, etc. Families were large (no birth control) and nearly every family experienced the death of at least one child. William and Mary Ann Burford Decker certainly had more than their share of sorrow.