Monthly Archives: May 2025

2025 Week 21

25 Sunday May 2025

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So this week I’m getting my bearings on Shelby County, Kentucky. It is east of Louisville. Biographical accounts for Benjamin and Sarah state they lived near Bullskin Creek. Tax records confirm Bullskin Creek was the water source for their land. Information on Find A Grave state they are buried in the Cox Family Plot which was on the family farm. The physical location for the farm is identified as 5 miles west of Shelbyville and 1 mile south of the turnpike. Since there are no true turnpikes (toll roads) in Kentucky at this time, it is either 1 mile south of US 60 or 1 mile south of Interstate 64. Bullskin Creek runs north-south under both highways.

As I was transcribing Benjamin’s will, there were several entries that bequeathed a monetary gift to some of the heirs. It was specifically worded as “the sum of one hundred dollars in specie”. So what is “specie”?

Historically, specie money was primarily composed of gold and silver coins, valued for their intrinsic worth as precious metals. 

I started reviewing the information in “The Coxes of Cox’s Creek, Kentucky” by Evelyn Crady Adams which was published in Genealogies of Kentucky Families in 1981. It is available on Ancestry and it does have citations which I appreciated. In this read through, I was especially interested in clarifying the timeline of life events for Benjamin and Sarah. I was and am still not certain that they were 16 and 14 when they were married ca 1783, as is the claim in Polk Family and Kinsmen which was published in 1912 and does not have any citations. I have as yet to find a marriage record for them.

Accounts in both manuscripts give similar stories of how the Coxes and the Polks/Pietys arrived in the same general location. Each family had its own “station” or stockade and were only a few miles apart. It’s not clear where the Pietys were living in 1782 when Kincheloe’s Station (formerly Polk’s Station) was raided and burned by Indians.

While I was poking around on FamilySearch looking for something to answer all these questions I have, I did come across a reference to a three volume set of books about Charles Polk, the Indian Trader and his descendants. The first volume specifically called out the descendants of his daughter Sarah Polk Piety, mother of Sarah Piety Cox, so I was intrigued. Written in 2019, I was hoping to find an electronic version. It is available in print, but only known to be in a few select libraries, nowhere near me. Considering the cost of traveling to one of those libraries would exceed the price of the three books, I bought the three books. Now I wait for them to get here. I hope it is more up to date than the 1912 family history.

Until I get my books, I’ll start documenting Ben and Sarah’s children.

This week Ancestry gave me three new errors to resolve. I have 5268 errors in the tree–372 possible duplicates, 4290 with no documents, 605 other errors.

  • A 6th cousin DNA Match on my Cox line. She’s probably about my daughter’s age so I don’t know how much I’ll be able to find.
  • This one was a bit of a challenge, but I finally got a first name and a source for the 3rd husband of a 5th cousin.
  • Here’s one I haven’t come across before. When I added the 1940 census data, it also had a line item for residence in 1935. Only problem with that is that this person wasn’t born until 1939. This was for a husband of a 4th cousin 1x removed. All fixed 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.
277 years ago – birth of George Catt Sr (6th ggf)
275 years ago – birth of Philip Catt (7th ggf)
250 years ago – birth of Thomas Johnson (5th ggf)
209 years ago – marriage of Elinor Johnson (4th ggm) and Francis Roderick (4th ggf)
206 years ago – marriage of Rebecca Wilks (4th ggm) and her first husband James Hughes
188 years ago – birth of Robert C Thompson (3rd ggf)
160 years ago – death of Michael Keller Jr (4th ggf)
137 years ago – marriage of Arabelle McCullough (2nd ggm) and Frank Cox (2nd ggf)
76 years ago – death of Magdalena Keller Kaiser (2nd ggm)

Goals and progress…
Beginning of Week: 27,871 people
End of Week: 27,883 people
Change = +12 persons
Tasks for coming week:

  • Continue data mining on Ben Cox and Sarah Piety
  • Confirm the data from Polk Family and Kinsmen has been added for this family and page numbers are noted for easier citation adding
  • Review Coxes of Cox Creek
  • Review History of Mariah Creek Christian Church
  • Review bio of James Ballard, husband of Susannah Cox

2025 Week 20

18 Sunday May 2025

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This week I had limited time to work on research, but made the most of my library aide shift yesterday. Because the library is a FamilySearch affiliate, I do most of my searching on that platform when I am there. I focused on Benjamin Cox in Shelby County and downloaded 30 images that I now need to sort through and file. Most were either tax ledgers or land deed records. Some of the land deeds were for transfers made after Ben’s death by his heirs. All and all, it was a pretty good haul of information. Now I just need to sort through it.

I also need to deep dive into Shelby County, Kentucky, and see about making connections there.

I do have concerns about Benjamin’s supposed year of birth. Most sources say he and Sarah were married when they were 16 and 14, respectively. If that were the case, based on the marriage date I have, he was born ca 1767, not 1757. I will need to look into that in the near future. He was a twin so I can utilize information on Jonathan to help resolve this discrepancy.

Lots to do, but I’m excited to learn more about this ancestor!

This week Ancestry gave me three new errors to resolve. I have 5268 errors in the tree–372 possible duplicates, 4291 with no documents, 605 other errors.

  • A 5th cousin 1x removed with no citations. Nothing links up for her. Eventually linked her mother’s obituary to her record to clear the error.
  • Rachel Regina Maquinet…wife of John Jacob Pea and my 6th ggm…has no records attached. I found reference to their marriage which I added to her record.
  • Elizabeth Moyes, wife of a 3rd great-granduncle also had no records attached. Lots of records available to choose from.

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.
305 years ago – death of Michelle Garnier (9th ggm)
241 years ago – birth of Sally Short (5th ggm)
210 years ago – marriage of Elizabeth Devore (5th ggm) and Peter Courtright (5th ggf)
192 years ago – birth of Zeresh Puckett (3rd ggm)
159 years ago – birth of Sarah Winkler (2nd ggm)

Goals and progress…
Beginning of Week: 27,868 people
End of Week: 27,871 people
Change = +3 person
Tasks for coming week:

  • Continue data mining on Ben Cox and Sarah Piety
  • Sort and file downloaded docs for Ben Cox
  • Confirm the data from Polk Family and Kinsmen has been added for this family and page numbers are noted for easier citation adding
  • Review Coxes of Cox Creek
  • Review History of Mariah Creek Christian Church
  • Review bio of James Ballard, husband of Susannah Cox

2025 Week 19

11 Sunday May 2025

Posted by in DNA Matches, Genealogy

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So my main focus this week is to review the remaining five DNA matches I have for Benjamin Cox and Sarah Piety.

  • The first two are siblings. Their tree does not lead back to Benjamin and Sarah. Their Cox line stops at a John Cox in the early 1800s in Tennessee. Ancestry’s IA attempted to make a connection to Ben and Sarah through a Benjamin Cox born in Tennessee in 1786. These might connect a couple generations further back. I’ll revisit them in the next generation.
  • The third DNA match also is projected through the same Benjamin Cox who is not a son of Ben and Sarah.
  • The fourth DNA match was actually fruitful. I was able to get her added, but that family was messy–multiple marriages, and an unfortunate murder-suicide mixed in.
  • The last DNA match for the Cox line at present was connected to Benjamin’s brother Jonathan Piety Cox, however. The family was residing in Warrick Co, IN, not Knox County. I need to be on the look out for a Jonathan who married a Nancy Huston. I’ll revisit this one again later as well.

To recap, I have 9 Cox DNA matches that need extensive research to add to my tree. Hopefully I’ll be able to place them while working a future generation. For now, I need to get busy on Ben and Sarah.

This week Ancestry gave me three new errors to resolve. I have 5276 errors in the tree–372 possible duplicates, 4298 with no documents, 606 other errors.

  • The first error was for someone entered as James. He had no last name and was only connected to two other people in the tree who were not connected to the tree in any way. I removed all three.
  • Helen is my second error for the week. She has sources but is not connected to the tree. I’ll remove her too.
  • The last error for this week is a 6th cousin who doesn’t have any sources attached. She is a granddaughter of a DNA match. She has lots of hints, so I’ll get her cleaned up as well as her siblings and parents.

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.
301 years ago – death of Jacques Cardinal (8th ggf)
222 years ago – birth of Nicholaus Sievers (4th ggf)
186 years ago – birth of Louisa Reeve (3rd ggm)

Goals and progress…
Beginning of Week: 27,833 people
End of Week: 27,868 people
Change = +35 person
Tasks for coming week:

  • Start data mining on Ben Cox and Sarah Piety
  • Confirm the data from Polk Family and Kinsmen has been added for this family and page numbers are noted for easier citation adding
  • Review Coxes of Cox Creek
  • Review History of Mariah Creek Christian Church
  • Review bio of James Ballard, husband of Susannah Cox

2025 Week 18

04 Sunday May 2025

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I have never claimed to be a handwriting expert. Today I wish I was.

As this was library day for me, I was doing my monthly searches using the Full Text Search on FamilySearch. It would seem that there are some new sets of images for Knox County, Indiana that have been added to this tool…the County Commissioners Records.

I was searching for John S Cox, my 3rd great grandfather. I came across an entry from December 8th, 1846, where John S Cox was appointed constable for Washington Township. Initially I was excited to find this small detail about my 3rd-ggf’s life. That was fleeting, though, when I remembered that he had a cousin who lived in that same area whose name was John Lemen Cox. Handwritten “S” and “L” can look a lot alike. I examined other instances of those two capital letters on the page and, sadly, I’m half convinced that the name is John L Cox. (ref: Knox County Commissioner’s Records, volume B, page 471, film 7765, item 3, image 271, FamilySearch.org)

Appointment of John S (or L) Cox.
Example of capital L in the name Laplant.
Example of a capital S in the word Session.

I also located a history of the Mariah Creek Christian Church that is now searchable using the Full Text Search. It identified several of my Coxes and Polks named in that book. It could provide a little color to the biographies of several ancestors going forward. I was able to download a digitized copy from archive.org.

This week Ancestry gave me three new errors to resolve. I have 5280 errors in the tree–374 possible duplicates, 4299 with no documents, 607 other errors.

  • The first was an individual who was not linked to anyone else. Needless to say, he was deleted.
  • The second person to resolve is a 1st cousin 5x removed down the line of Ben and Sarah Piety Cox. He just needed a citation added. I added a few of his children and his two wives while I was at it. I will end up doing a deeper dive on him in the near future.
  • The last person needing resolution is the wife of a 5th cousin who had no citations. After a bit of searching I was able to resolve the error.

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.
264 years ago – birth of Jerome Creely (6th ggf)
223 years ago – marriage of Elizabeth Harris (5th ggm) and Ephraim Frost (5th ggf)
211 years ago – birth of Andreas Braun (4th ggf)
208 years ago – death of Eli M Short (6th ggf)
207 years ago – death of Alice Hopkins (6th ggm)

Goals and progress…
Beginning of Week: 27,829 people
End of Week: 27,833 people
Change = +4 person
Tasks for coming week:

  • Resolve remaining Ben Cox DNA matches
  • Start data mining on Ben Cox