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This week I’m attempting to sort out Joseph Cox, the son of Benjamin and Sarah Piety Cox. Family histories that have been published1 2 3 suggest that Joseph was never married, however, details for him are scarce in these sources. The research of one of my DNA matches says otherwise. Let’s break this down a bit.

My “cousin” is descended from a Joseph Cox who married an Elizabeth Smith in 1833 in Jefferson County, Kentucky. According to her father’s will, written in 1847 and proven in 1860, she died prior to 1847. This means she would not be identified specifically in any of the census records.

It is not exactly known when Joseph died. The previously mentioned sources cited have his date of death as 1862. Jefferson County court records from April 1861 recorded the assigning of a guardian for Martha Cox and Elizabeth Cox, infant orphans of Joseph Cox, deceased, who are above the age of fourteen. 4 Joseph’s 1850 census listed both a Martha and an Elizabeth who would not yet have reached their majority in 1861.

What further complicates this is the presence of a marriage record in Jefferson County for Martha Cox to John Brown in 1863 that has a permission note signed by Joseph Cox. 5 This Martha apparently died in 1877 and Mr Brown then married her sister Lena. Did Joseph die in 1861 or after 1863? Are there two Martha Coxes of about the same age living in Jefferson County, Kentucky at the same time? Maybe the note was forged?

There is also a Joseph Cox who died in Jefferson County in 1866. His occupation was listed as a carpenter, whereas our Joseph Cox identified as a farmer in the census records. Which one is our Joseph Cox?

Regardless of when he died, my “cousin” has multiple Cox DNA matches as well as numerous matches with the Piety surname. Since this suggests that he is descended from both families, his line likely passes down through Benjamin Cox and Sarah Piety. The logical connection would be their son Joseph. For this reason, I believe that Joseph Cox was a widower with several children at the time of his death, whether it was in 1861 or 1866.

Wrapping up Joseph Cox, I do have DNA matches through more than one of his children which boosts my confidence level that he is a child of Benjamin and Sarah Piety Cox. There are even a few shared matches of fairly close Cox relatives of mine. With that, I will be moving on to his brother Jonathan Piety Cox.

This week Ancestry gave me three new errors to resolve. I have 5227 errors in the tree–376 possible duplicates, 4250 with no documents, 601 other errors.

  • James DeMoss, a potential 6th great-grand uncle is lacking citations. This is my questionable generation on my DeMoss line so I haven’t researched it fully. There was a Findagrave listing for him which I added. He has a daughter named Joanna. This might be an interesting clue, as my 4th-great grandfather also had a daughter named Joanna. Makes me think it might be a well-used family name.
  • Husband of a 6th cousin 1x removed. Found a marriage announcement to clear both of them.
  • A question of duplicates for two women with the same name. After digging in and adding some facts, they are a set of duplicates. Both records had the same father’s name with different mothers. The father had been widowed then married again. After sorting out the correct mother’s name, the error was cleared. I was able to clear two duplicates 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 the week ahead.
335 years ago – death of Daniel Quincy (9th ggf)
236 years ago – birth of Gabriel S Cox (4th ggf)
219 years ago – birth of Elizabeth Sarah Lowe (4th ggm)
210 years ago – death of James Ireland Sr (6th ggf)
208 years ago – marriage of Rebecca Pea (5th ggm) and George Catt Jr (5th ggf)
166 years ago – death of Jonathan McCullough (4th ggf)
163 years ago – death of Catherine Catt Cardinal (5th ggm)
130 years ago – death of June Bennett (2nd ggm) and Arely D Fielden (2nd ggf)

Goals and progress…
Beginning of Week: 27,630 people
End of Week: 27,642 people
Change = +12 persons
Tasks for coming week:

  • Focus on Jonathan P. Cox
  • Review the information in The Other Polks to see if there is anything I don’t already have
  • 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

  1. Kester, John G., The Other Polks, volume 1, New Elm Press, 2019. ↩︎
  2. Polk, William Harrison, Polk Family and Kinsmen, Bradley & Gilbert Co, 1912, Ancestry.com. ↩︎
  3. Adams, Evelyn C, “The Coxes of Cox’s Creek, Kentucky“, The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society, volume III, 1981, p. 442, Ancestry.com. ↩︎
  4. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QHV-N3Z2-51NH?view=fullText&keywords=Joseph%20Cox&lang=en&groupId= ↩︎
  5. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-89SQ-H84P?view=index&cc=1804888&lang=en&groupId= ↩︎