A monumental part of many people's lives are the years they spend in school. It is usually a time when children begin to grow into adulthood. We make many new friends, some of which last for the rest of our lives. That special teacher or coach makes a big impact on our thinking that helps us maneuver through the adult world. It is a time of discovery, learning and fun that is a unique experience for each of us.

A very large percentage of the people in the families covered in this website attended high school in the little towns of Dundee or Ida, Michigan. They were either Vikings or Comets and the athletic teams of the schools played regularly each year.

The genealogy website, Ancestry.com, has a section where yearbooks from high schools across the country have been scanned into digital form. As a member of Ancestry, I was able to view yearbooks for Dundee High School from 1949 into the 1980s. Not every year is available but there are enough to find pictures of many, many relatives. Several yearbooks were also available for the high schools in Milan, Monroe, Britton, Deerfield, Blissfield, Battle Creek, Mt Pleasant and other places were family members lived.

By far, the largest number of our relatives attended Dundee High School. Very early members all attended Bridge School in Raisinville Township. In the late 1940s when these one-room schools were consolidated into community school districts, Bridge became part of the Dundee grouping. Of Wm Carl and Mary Heiden's 13 children, all of them attended Bridge School through the 8th grade. Only the final two daughters, Norma "Jeanie" Heiden and Wilma (Heiden) Bicking attended high school and that was in Dundee.

Others in the turn of the twentieth century generation also attended one-room King School and Fonia School. These were also taken in to consolidated school districts.

From what we have found, it appears that nearly all of us with the surname Heiden attended Dundee. This is with the exception of those in the Herman Heiden branch who lived in Isabella County. They were the only early generation Heiden family to move away from Monroe County. Of Wm Carl and Mary's children only Hilda (Heiden) Fuller lived outside the county with their children going to school in Battle Creek. Wilma (Heiden) Bicking's children went to Monroe High School and Marie (Heiden) Tommelein's sons attended Milan High School.

August Heiden came to America in 1873. His children all attended school through the 8th grade as was the custom of that time. The majority of his grandchildren also finished their formal education when they were around 13 years of age. So, these high school yearbooks only include a few of August's grandchildren but nearly all of his great grandchildren. For example, 38 the grandchildren of Wm Carl Heiden (August's son) are heavily represented in the pages of this section of the website.