Tags

, , , ,

Getting started on the writing phase always is a struggle for me. Ideally I should get all these details down as I find them, then do edits when I finish a family. Maybe I’ll take that approach when I work on the family of Isaac Cox and Susannah Tomlinson, Benjamin’s parents.

I like to include a transcription of a document or two with each family if I find one I think is interesting or contains a lot of information that is relevant to the family. I added Benjamin’s Last Will and Testament this week. I may also add Sarah’s to illustrate that sometimes the widows have these documents too.

My focus right now is putting together the migratory details of Benjamin as a very young man. This information will also be useful in trying to determine the timeline for vital statistics for both Benjamin and Sarah, as actual documentation recording their births and their marriage have been elusive to date.

Polk Family and Kinsmen written by WH Polk in 1912 states Benjamin and Sarah were married ca. 1783. This data point appears to be based on their eldest child’s date of birth. The family genealogy also states that Ben was sixteen and Sarah fourteen when this event occurred.1 That would mean he was born ca. 1767 and she ca. 1769. There are concerns with these estimated dates as I mentioned back in Week 21 of this year.

One thing that was evident from the research is that the Cox family was rather prosperous and held a substantial amount of land. This includes Benjamin. According to the Certificate Book of the Virginia Land Commission, which was transcribed in the Register of the Kentucky State Historical Society in 1923, Isaac paid the state rate for 1000 acres of land in Kentucky on Benjamin’s behalf in 1779.2 Under the laws of Virginia at the time, an individual must be of the legal age of twenty-one to purchase land. It’s not clear if someone could purchase land on behalf of a minor and then relinquish it when the child reached their majority. I would think that was not allowed, but I do not positively know. Assuming the law was in play, then Benjamin would have had to be at least twenty one in 1779, making his year of birth no later than 1758.

The 1810 and 1820 US Census was not much help in pinpointing the dates of birth for Benjamin and Sarah. The oldest category for men and women was “over 45”. At a minimum, both of them would have been born prior to 1765 using this information. Sarah, having outlived her husband, was head of household in 1830 and she was listed as between 60 and 69. That would give her a birth year between 1761 and 1770. Since her parents were not married until 1763, a safe bet for her date of birth would be between 1765 and 1768.

All of this circumstantial evidence pretty much debunks the statement of lore that Benjamin was sixteen at his time of marriage. Sarah could have been fourteen, but maybe she was a year or two older than that. We will likely never know for certain.

Tree Ratings are back! I have 3 errors from this week to resolve. I have 4928 errors in the tree–366 possible duplicates, 4106 with no documents, 456 other errors.

  • The first is a mother in law of a distant cousin. Since I am pruning my tree a bit and not including the inlaws, she will be deleted.
  • Number two is a spouse of a distant cousin without documentation. Took a little digging to find something, but Arkansas Voter Registration records came through.
  • Lastly, a distant cousin needs some documentation. Unfortunately, it would seem that he is a tween since his parents were married in 2012. He was named in his grandmother’s obituary which was published online. Ancestry will not recognize a web link as a “record”.

This week in the past…
I’d like to take an opportunity to celebrate the anniversaries of births, marriages, and deaths of my bloodlines from the week ahead.
371 years ago – birth of Jacques Cardinal (8th ggf)
347 years ago – marriage of Mary Mason (9th ggm) and John Norton (9th ggf)
343 years ago – marriage of Louise Arrivee (8th ggm) and Jacques Cardinal (8th ggf)
302 years ago – birth of Benjamin Bonnell (7th ggf)
219 years ago – marriage of Francoise Crely (5th ggm) and Joseph Cardinal (5th ggf)
165 years ago – marriage of Sarah Catt (3rd ggm) and Joseph E. Cardinal (3rd ggf)
136 years ago – marriage of Anna Gravel ( 2nd ggm) and James S. Cardinal (2nd ggf)
107 years ago – birth of Lillian E. Fielden (gm)
72 years ago – death of Mathias Keller (2nd ggf)

Goals and progress…
Beginning of Week: 27,009 people
End of Week: 27,007 people
Change = -2 persons
Tasks for coming week:

  • Write the biographies of the family of Benjamin and Sarah Piety Cox.
  • Review the information in The Other Polks to see if there is anything I don’t already have.
  • 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. Polk, WH, Polk Family and Kinsmen, The Bradley and Gilbert Co, Louisville, KY, 1912, page 366, Ancestry.com. ↩︎
  2. Certificate Book of the Virginia Land Commission 1779-80, Register, Kentucky State Historical Society, volume 21, number 63, pages 302-303, http://www.jstor.org. ↩︎