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.
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.
Digging Up My Roots 