This trio of family burials has no tombstones but shows in burial records.

Louise was the eldest daughter of Heinrich and Maria/Mary Gernand Schmidt/Smith. Her father died in Cincinnati when she was 8 and her mother remarried to Wilhelm Mueller/William Miller.

Her mother and stepfather are buried in section 1 of Oak Grove, along Washington Street by the gate, along with Louise's son William Schlaubach and his wife. Louise and her household family (husband and daughter Lizzie) are buried along Washington Street, a couple of sections uphill, in section 25, above the Jewish cemetery enclosure.

Louisa's siblings were John, Henry Jr. and Louis Smith, all buried in Oak Grove, also. She also had a half-sibling, William Beltz Miller (in section 23 of Oak Grove buried with an Anna Schmidt Miller). That William is buried just below the road, relative to Louise's brother Louis who is atop the knoll of section 23 by the chapel. Sections 19 and 23 are separated by a road between the office and chapel. (See cemetery sections map on the cemetery overview page)

Louise shared her house with her widowed mother and was then her executor. She was sued by her siblings over the estate. The Marietta Daily Leader, Wednesday, Dec. 2, 1896, reported: "The jury in the case of Louis W. Smith et al vs. Louise Schlaubach, executor of the will of Mary Miller, in which it was sought to set aside the provisions of the instrument, returned a verdict in favor of the defendant."

It is not yet clear what that dispute had been nor how all of the other siblings sided.

Louise and her husband husband lived at "Gilman Extension," and Fort Street, Harmar, Marietta, various records show. Brother Louis lived not far away as did in-laws of her siblings. Son William was the reporter on her death certificate. His burial record with his grandparent Millers, however, spells his surname as Slaubaugh, so he is indexed that way. Several family are spelled Slaubach or Slawback or Slaubaugh.

According to St. Luke's Evangelical Church records (Matt transcription, Vol. 4, page 35), Louisa's oldest child was a daughter Maria Elizabeth born 18 July 1861. It is not clear what happened to this child. She is omitted from the church's marriage and death records and does not appear in any census for the rest of her family. She does not show in the burial record here.

Possible explanation: The church's records do also report a confirmation in 1881 of a Maria ANNA Schlaubach with the same birth date as this Maria Elizabeth, and that confirmation list omits any parent references. Perhaps the birth dates of cousins Maria Elizabeth (daughter of Peter and Louisa Schlaubach) and Anna Maria Schlaubach (daughter of Peter's brother John) were switched/confused in the confirmation report? Peter and Louisa's Maria would have been 19 in 1881, an old confirmation age, and hard to explain for census omissions. John's Maria in 1881 would be 14, a more typical confirmation age. John's Anna Maria/Mary Ann is known to have survived to marry Fayette Harris (both in this cemetery). Taken together, it seems likeliest that Peter and Louisa's oldest child died sometime between the printing of her baptism record (which was shared with her younger brother's in 1864) and before the 1870 census that omitted her. But then why not showing in the burial record here? Perhaps this family plot was taken out after that child was buried elsewhere? Or she IS buried here but wasn't recorded? Or, perhaps in the same way that this Louisa's son William was buried with his Smith/Miller grandmother, maybe Louisa's first child was buried with Peter's parents -- which would be in the old St. John's German Evangelical Cemetery at Watertown. Or, perhaps buried in Harmar Cemetery near where the couple lived and had a store. In any event, the child's birth was reported, but no record offers clarity of story after that.