Thanks to the Ontario Genealogy mailing list, I think I’ve located my great grandparents Smith. Philip and Elizabeth Smith:

http://www.ewbarnard.com/ancestry/getperson.php?personID=I8235&tree=barnard

came to Ontario Canada from Cornwall. They lived and died in Mariposa Township in southern Victoria County, Ontario well into the 20th century. Here is what I learn:

From the transcript of Smith’s Cemetery, which is near Woodville Ontario: Smith / Philip / 1827-1915 /
Elizabeth Bray /1833-1914. Woodville is on the border between Mariposa and Eldon Townships. Mariposa the Banner Township is on line at http://www.ourroots.ca .

Thanks Marilyn!

Philip and Elizabeth Smith had several children in the mid-1800s, including John. John came across the border into Michigan to work on a farm near George and Elizabeth Smith. I suspect George was John’s uncle - so more than one Smith family probably came together from Cornwall to Ontario. John, in Grand Ledge Michigan near Lansing, met Lola May Lawrence.

They came back to his parents’ house in Mariposa Township Ontario. They married in Ontario and had their first child Nellie May in Ontario. Uncle Ron does remember meeting Nellie at least once before she died. I have papers passed down from Uncle Ron naming the members of John Smith’s family, including his parents Philip and Elizabeth, and all their birth dates; naming the members of Lola’s mother’s family (Hannah Grinnell); naming the members of Lola’s father’s family (Samuel Lawrence). The papers were probably all written shortly after John and Lola May married and returned to Michigan.