A monumental part of many people's lives are the years they spend in school. It is usually a time when 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 Ida, Milan, Monroe, Britton, Deerfield, Blissfield, Battle Creek, Mt Pleasant, Toledo and other places were family members lived.

By far, the largest number of our relatives have attended Dundee High School. Very early members all attended Bridge School in Raisinville Township through the 8th grade. 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, the first four started their education at King School on South Custer Road. All of them attended nearby 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. Of Wm and Mary's 38 grandchildren, around half attended Bridge for all or part of their education.

Others of August Heiden's descendents in the turn of the twentieth century generation attended the one-room Fonia School. It was also taken into a consolidated school district in the late 40s.

From what we have found, it appears that a majority 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 starting in 1915. They were the only early generation of the 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. Donna Burge and Bob Heiden, offspring of Lester Heiden, and Sally Guy (left) daughter of Mildred (Heiden) Eipperle went to Ida High School

So, these high school yearbooks only included a few of August's grandchildren but nearly all of his great grandchildren. For example, 38 of the grandchildren of Wm Carl Heiden (August's son) are heavily represented in the pages of this section of the website.