Monthly Archives: March 2025

2025 Week 13

30 Sunday Mar 2025

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One night this week when I checked my DNA matches, I had several older matches that suddenly had a common ancestor assigned to them…the same common ancestor…Temperance Posey. I do not have Temperance Posey in my tree at this time. Based on hints, she was supposedly married to Benjamin Lankford, my 5th great grandfather. From what I can tell, she was married to a Benjamin Lankford in Tennessee, but I’m not sure he is one and the same with my Benjamin. Making this more puzzling is that I have no matches for Benjamin…none. After a few minutes I could tell this would require some digging…more than I had for a Tuesday night.

This incident got me thinking. When will I be working on the Lankfords? I definitely hope to wrap up work on the Cox family this year, but what comes next? Here is the order of family lines I’m planning to work on. This should definitely take me a while. The lines after Carroll are rather spotty and that is where my tree turns to Swiss cheese.

  • Cox
  • Winkler
  • McCullough
  • Reeve
  • Lankford
  • Caywood
  • Frost
  • Lowe
  • Ireland
  • Gross (not sure if there is anything to find)
  • Mattocks
  • Gaston
  • McGill
  • Staton
  • Carroll

Gathering information on the family of Thomas P and Sarah Hollingsworth Cox has been, at times, daunting. Their son Joseph C married Rhoda Flock and they had three children. Joe and Rhoda disappeared by the 1900 census. I found Rhoda mentioned in an 1892 newspaper attending a party. I also found her in some 1913 court documents along with her siblings. She was listed as the deceased wife of George W Clark. I have not yet substantiated that with a marriage record. Not sure I will.

Joe and Rhoda’s children weren’t challenging to document. They had scattered by 1900 which further supports that he had passed and she had moved on without her children, or was deceased herself. Their middle child, Thomas, married and had a child, then apparently divorced, but later was found listed as a boarder in his ex-wife’s household after she remarried. Rather unexpected, if nothing else.

Henry Clay Cox and his wife Lydia Parker were a bit easier to document. There was actually a decent write up when they celebrated their golden wedding anniversary. The article mentioned that Henry had three older brothers that served in the Civil War and two of them did not make it home. This will help with my argument that John S Cox was a child of Gabriel and Nancy.

The last two children of Gabriel and Nancy Cox that needed review were Nancy Jane and Susan. There isn’t a lot of information on either of the girls, but they do have headstones. Susan’s stone leaves me scratching my head. It’s old and weathered. The death date barely fits on the stone and it is unclear what the full year stamped into the stone is. Most researchers have called it 1837 but that does not correlate with other family events. Gabriel died in March 1836 so Susan could not have been born in April 1837 as this interpretation might suggest. Enlarging the photograph posted by Cathy Griggs on Find A Grave (memorial 57751282), I almost want to say it is 1832. This would fit with the birth gap between Henry and Nancy. Please let me know if you agree in the comments.

This week Ancestry gave me three new errors to resolve. I have 5281 errors in the tree–402 possible duplicates, 4271 with no documents, 608 other errors.

  • My first error to correct this week was the father-in-law of my 4th cousin 5x removed. To keep myself from diving down every gopher hole, one of the guidelines I set for myself is to not research the extended families of those who marry into my tree. That includes the parents of the “inlaws”. If it becomes necessary to FAN out, I will. But as a rule of thumb, I leave them out of my tree. So, Mr. Edgerley and his wife will be removed from the tree to resolve the “issue” of having no records attached.
  • The next person to fix was the husband of a 3rd cousin 2x removed. This was easy since he had several Ancestry hints. Updated him, added a few family members and I was done!
  • The last error to correct this week was for Sebastian Catt, my 6th great-granduncle. Not sure why I need 5 references for his marriage to Sebra Conger, but at least he’s documented now. There are also several pay vouchers for him during 1810 when he served in the Indiana Militia.

This week in the past…
I’d like to take an opportunity to celebrate the anniversaries of births, marriages, and deaths of my bloodlines which will occur during the week ahead.
320 years ago – birth of Nicholas DeVore (7th ggf)
97 years ago – death of Rebecca Coppock Mattox (2nd ggm)

Goals and progress…
Beginning of Week: 27,605 people
End of Week: 27,622 people
Change = +17 people
Tasks for coming week:

  • Generate a rough draft of Gabriel and Nancy’s family and start editing and footnoting.

2025 Week 12

23 Sunday Mar 2025

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I started this week’s research working on the family of Joseph D Cox and Nancy Sartor. Nancy is a bit of a a conundrum. For some reason I had her death in 1882 Missouri. I had no idea where that information came from since there weren’t any citations attached–bad younger me.

After thinking on this for a bit, and devoting a couple hours trying to find where this information came from, I remembered in 2019 a historian from Knox County had found a ledger notebook that may have belonged to J F Nicoson that included various dates for JD and Nancy’s family. Some of the information was entered into the notebook in 1889. Based on the variety of handwriting, it would appear that multiple people contributed to this information. In this ledger, it states, “Nancy Jane Cox departed this life June 22, 1882 of quick consumption in Joppa, Massac County, Illinois”. Unfortunately, I have not yet found anything to corroborate this information or to explain why she was in extreme southern Illinois.

Image from the Norbert Brown Collection.

Also on this week’s to do list was finishing up the family of Sarah P Cox and Philip Smith. Several of the daughters’ obituaries stated they were one of thirteen(!) children. The problem I was facing was a couple of the obituaries I first looked at named the only living brother as Clarence so I thought Harlan had died before them. Of course, when I was researching Harlan (he was the youngest), things were not adding up. He was alive after these sisters had passed. So, back I went, rereading the obituaries a bit closer. As it turned out, Harlan outlived all of his siblings.

At this point I could only account for eleven of the thirteen. I started looking at when each person was born and checking the gaps. In the mid-1800s, it was common for women to be perpetually pregnant…new baby every fifteen to twenty months. I noticed a couple bigger gaps of three years or so. Remembering that the 1850 and 1860 censuses don’t always populate full family units at once in Ancestry, I checked those documents again. I found Mary who was born in one of the gaps showing up on the 1850 census as a newborn, and George who was born in another. George was listed as a seven year old in 1860 census but not included in 1870. I have no idea what might have happened to them. Both were very likely deceased by 1900 when Philip’s will was written. He only named the other eleven children. At least I have accounted for everyone’s birth.

This week Ancestry gave me three new errors to resolve. I have 5280 errors in the tree–392 possible duplicates, 4280 with no documents, 608 other errors.

  • A living 5th cousin 2x removed from my Cox line who did not have any documentation attached. Surprisingly, she was in the Nebraska Birth Index and I was able to update her sisters and her parents all at the same time!
  • A living 6th cousin 2x removed from my DeMoss line who also did not have any documentation attached. Being fairly young, little could be found for her. I was able to add a reference for one of her brothers as a consolation.
  • The last error assigned this week was for Abigail Bonnell, a 6th great-grandaunt on my paternal side. Very little is available about Abigail or her husband Jonathan Johnson, but I was able to find a couple facts in Genealogies of the First Settlers of Passaic Valley, New Jersey. Copies of this 1851 compilation can be found on Ancestry and archive.org.

This week in the past…
I’d like to take an opportunity to celebrate the anniversaries of births, marriages, and deaths of my bloodlines which will occur during the week ahead.
267 years ago – birth of Mary Magdalan Catt (7th ggm)
249 years ago – birth of Mary Catt (6th ggm)
189 years ago – death of Gabriel S Cox (4th ggf)
160 years ago – marriage of Apollonia Braun (3rd ggm) and Georg Keller (3rd ggf)

Goals and progress…
Beginning of Week: 27,584 people
End of Week: 27,605 people
Change = +21 people
Tasks for coming week:

  • Sort out the family of Thomas P. Cox and Sarah Hollingsworth.
  • Continue to look for documentation connecting John S Cox to his siblings as further proof that he was a child of Gabriel and Nancy.

2025 Week 11

16 Sunday Mar 2025

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One of the Facebook groups I follow is Genealogy Tip of the Day by Michael John Neill. On a daily basis, he’ll post interesting little tidbits related to genealogy. I recommend genealogists of all levels subscribe to his posts. On Monday, Michael led off a post with “Is it necessary to research your fifth cousin’s third mother-in-law whose daughter he was only married to for a few weeks?” That made me stop and think. Was I doing something similar by researching all the descendants of my 4th great grandparents? My end goal isn’t to do a descendants report on the Cox family. My goal is to research the lineage of my grandfather Samuel T DeMoss Sr. When I started the project, I decided that the end product would contain biographies of each couple for each bloodline that I could reasonably prove. As part of the biographies, I would include a list of any children either parent had, with limited details on the children and their spouses. To keep the project manageable, I would not delve further down the lines in my manuscript. So, I ask myself, why am I spending so much time right now researching people who will not make it into my book? I did this before when I was working on the DeMoss line. Ultimately, I checked myself and got back on track. I think I need to check myself again and get back to the current topic at hand, namely the children of Gabriel and Nancy Cox.

There was a mini-rant in one of my Facebook genealogy groups this week about how women were just extensions of their husbands–Mrs. John Doe, Mrs. Harry Smith, etc. They were never listed by their given names. I chuckled and moved on. At least it was funny until it hindered me from finding an obituary for Elizabeth Mabes, aka Mrs. John Mabes.

Sadly, women were considered extensions of their husbands. Can’t find her? Check under ‘Mrs. His Name’

This week Ancestry gave me three new errors to resolve. I have 5281 errors in the tree–390 possible duplicates, 4283 with no documents, 608 other errors. That’s 10 more than I had last week. Must be some of those sixth cousins or so that I added or their spouses or their kids.

  • A 6th cousin from my DeMoss line. He had several hints and I was able to clean up his record.
  • My second error to clean up was for Margaret Cowhick. I *think* she is my 5th great grandfather William DeMoss’s sister-in-law. She married Lewis DeMoss in 1802 in Fleming County, Kentucky. Someone posted an image of the marriage bond, so I attached that to her and she should be good to go now.
  • The last error is for a living 3rd cousin. She’s probably about the same age as my daughter and doesn’t have any hints available yet. I gleaned her name from her grandfather’s obituary. Won’t be able to fix that one for now.

This week in the past…
I’d like to take an opportunity to celebrate the anniversaries of births, marriages, and deaths of my bloodlines which will occur during the week ahead.
235 years ago – marriage of Mary Overlin (6th ggm) and Christian Hibner (1st husband)
189 years ago – birth of John W Fielden (3rd ggf)
183 years ago – birth of George Winkler (3rd ggf)
180 years ago – birth of Joseph Nagele (3rd ggf)
32 years ago – death of Phyllis Keller DeMoss (mother)

Goals and progress…
Beginning of Week: 27,549 people
End of Week: 27,584 people
Change = +35 people – goal not met
Goal for coming week: Finish research on Sarah Piety Cox and Philip Smith family. Start research on Joseph D Cox family. Continue to look for documentation connecting John S Cox to his siblings as further proof that he was a child of Gabriel and Nancy.

2025 Week 10

09 Sunday Mar 2025

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While researching Wanda Delaney (4th cousin 1x removed) I’ve come across a bit of a conundrum. A marriage record for her and Marion Sherman says they were married in 1950. Three days later, they are listed in the 1950 census with three children ages two to seven. Wanda died in 1967 and Marion remarried. His obituary clearly states that Wanda was his first wife. Her find-a-grave memorial states they were married in 1943 but no location is listed and a marriage record does not readily come up. I also cannot find the birth record for the oldest child where said child indicated she was born on her marriage record. Was Wanda and Marion married before the kids were born, had a falling out and got remarried in 1950? I have no idea. I guess I could expend a lot of energy on this one and try to find out. Or, I could move on and see if anything pops up at a later date. I’m leaning toward the latter since this is a distant collateral family. My musings have been documented on my tree so if anyone wants to pursue that search, I give you my blessing.

While a significant fraction of Martha and Jerome McCain’s family migrated from Pike County, Indiana to Cass County, Indiana to settle and raise their families, the family of Della McCain and Charles DeWeese landed in Martinsville, Indiana. Martinsville holds some personal interest since I have a sibling who lives there. I wonder if she has had interactions with any of these distant cousins of ours. We may never know.

I am about half done with Della’s family and should have that wrapped up this week. YAY. That will leave me with one more McCain sibling and my plan is to complete that family as well. Then I can start on the next child of Rebecca Cassidy and Isaac Arnold. Hmm? Someone posted on one of my Facebook groups the oath Benedict Arnold signed to the colonies before he sold us out. I wonder if this family is descended from him? I will not be falling head first down that rabbit hole.

Nothing remarkable to say about my DNA matches this week. Maybe someone will shake out of the tree next week.

This week Ancestry gave me three new errors to resolve. I have 5271 errors in the tree–390 possible duplicates, 4273 with no documents, 608 other errors.

  • The first one was the mother-in-law of a distant cousin. I no longer add the parents of someone who marries into my tree unless there are multiple siblings that do so. I have decided to remove her and her husband as they aren’t really a member of family. While I was at it, I reviewed the hints provided for their son.
  • The second was for a distant cousin who had no records attached. Reviewed some hints, cleaned up the record for his wife and added a child.
  • The third one was for the husband of a distant cousin who had no records. Unfortunately, the only record I have for his wife is from the Tanguay Collection which I cannot view using my US only subscription. I have tagged both of them as Canadian and will revisit when there is a free Canadian records weekend. Did I mention they were from the 1700s?

This week in the past…
I’d like to take an opportunity to celebrate the anniversaries of births, marriages, and deaths of my bloodlines which will occur during the week ahead.

344 years ago – birth of Louis DeMoss (7th ggf)
330 years ago – birth of Elizabeth Norton (8th ggm)
262 years ago – death of Elizabeth Bennett (7th ggm)
247 years ago – birth of Sarah Kerr (5th ggm)
226 years ago – birth of Nancy Squires (4th ggm)
222 years ago – birth of Henry Thompson (4th ggf)
201 years ago – death of Michael Keller (5th ggf)
192 years ago – birth of Isaac DeMoss (3rd ggf)
173 years ago – death of Therese Lefebre (6th ggm)
167 years ago – death of William Fielden (4th ggf)
143 years ago – death of Francoise Courtright (4th ggm)
80 years ago – death of Samuel Isaac DeMoss (ggf)

Goals and progress…
Beginning of Week: 27,485 people
End of Week: 27,549 people
Change = +64 people – goal MET!!
Goal for coming week: Add 50 new people and continue researching the Isaac and Rebecca Arnold descendants, specifically the Martha and Jerome McCain family this week.

2025 Week 9

02 Sunday Mar 2025

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I was pleasantly surprised this week when I discovered one of my first cousins had submitted an Ancestry DNA kit and she appeared as a match! Easy enough to assign her to the tree. I decided to sort all of my common ancestor matches by branch. I may choose every now and again to briefly work on one of those lines just to change things up. There were actually a couple of matches that were easily added to the tree since those lines were built out pretty well. I am still bit frustrated with the algorithm Ancestry uses to predetermine matches. It has at least a dozen matches that are attributed to my 4th great grandmother Elizabeth Lowe DeMoss that should be attached to her sister Catherine Elizabeth Lowe Ishmael. Also, why did they remove “5th cousin” on the relationship dropdown? I am forced to call these individuals a generic “distant relationship” and add notes.

I made some decent progress on the Arnold-Cassidy family. This week the focus was on their daughter Martha who married Jerome McCain. I’m about half finished researching their family. One of their grandsons, Maurice Delaney, served in World War II. He was in the US Navy, stationed in the Marshall Islands in the South Pacific. He sadly lost his life while trying to help another sailor who was caught in an undertow while swimming, as reported in The Pharos-Tribune on October 10, 1947. His remains were shipped home in 1947.

I looked a bit more into the tree score. I have a feeling mine will be stuck at 9.4 for a long time. Apparently I have 5232 possible errors, with 4235 of those being people with no documentation. Resolving three a week will be like paying down the national debt.

  • The first one was another floater which I decided to delete.
  • The second was for a distant cousin who had an approximate birth date but no documentation. That was easily fixed
  • The third one was a descendant of my DeMoss line, but for some reason I had not fully reviewed all the hints. I went back and completed my review of him and ended up adding several more distant cousins in the process.

This week in the past…
I’d like to take an opportunity to celebrate the anniversaries of births, marriages, and deaths of my bloodlines which will occur during the week ahead.
318 years ago – Birth of Elizabeth Bennett (7th ggm)
227 years ago – Death of Eleanor Robinson (6th ggm)
224 years ago – Death of Joseph Coppock (5th ggf)
222 years ago – Birth of Joshua Frost (4th ggf)
207 years ago – Death of Reuben Staton (5th ggf)

Goals and progress…
Beginning of Week: 27,340 people
End of Week: 27,485 people
Change = +145 people – goal MET!!
Goal for coming week: Add 50 new people and continue researching the Isaac and Rebecca Arnold descendants, specifically the Martha and Jerome McCain family this week.