Wow! The last week of the year. I’m actually proud of myself that I kept up with the blog. I only missed three weeks out of the 52, so I’m just a little impressed.

I am finishing up the bio writing for Benjamin and Sarah Piety Cox’s children this week. Having this blog has helped me with organizing facts and sources. While I didn’t do the greatest job of documenting everything on the blog, I left myself enough breadcrumbs to make it worthwhile. For instance, the Find A Grave memorial for Finetta Cox Arnold stated her death was announced in the Liberty (MO) Tribune. Thing is, I don’t ever recall finding it. I had a death notice for one of her daughters in 1882, but not Finetta. So, back to the newspaper archive. After a little searching I found what I was looking for. YAY!

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Having finished writing up the biographies of Benjamin and Sarah’s family, I am now moving on to Benjamin’s parents–Isaac Cox and Susannah Tomlinson. This will prove to be challenging for several reasons. The first being that there were several Isaac Coxes who lived in the Colonies during this time, and there are researchers out there who have haphazardly intermixed details of the various men. Even within this family unit, Isaac “the Immigrant” is regularly confused with his son Colonel Isaac. My first task is to sort out the various Isaac’s while gathering documentation for my two Isaacs. On FamilySearch alone, a full text search of documents from the 1700s returned a list of almost 3000 documents. While I don’t anticipate needing to read all 3000 documents, I believe I can cull enough information from these documents to sort these gentlemen out. Hopefully other Isaac Cox researchers will find this useful as well.

Will the real Isaac Cox please stand up?

Talbot County, Maryland – There are two Isaac Coxes (father and son) who resided in Talbot County, Maryland. The elder Isaac wrote his Last Will and Testament in 1786. His wife was named Mary and he had a married daughter Elizabeth Jenkinson and sons named Isaac and Joseph. His son Isaac was named his executor and it appears the will was entered into probate May 25th, 1788. It was mentioned in the court minutes that this Isaac Cox was a Quaker.¹

New York City – This Isaac Cox is previously from Philadelphia, but relocated to New York. He was a merchant with a wife named Catherine. Isaac and Catherine were purchasing a house in New York in 1785.²

Philadelphia/Bucks County, Pennsylvania – Mention of another father and son pair of Isaac Coxes surfaced in Bucks County, Pennsylvania in 1779. The older Isaac who is deceased, was a merchant in Philadelphia. The son’s occupation was not mentioned.³ The elder Isaac seems to have had dealings in Lancaster County and Berks County as well.

Charleston, South Carolina – Mention of an Isaac Cox from Philadelphia was made in a land transaction in Charleston, South Carolina in 1765. This very well could be the same Isaac who was mentioned as deceased in 1779.⁴

Culpepper County, Virginia – An Isaac Cox and his wife Lydia involved in a land transaction in New Jersey in 1792.5

Kent County, Delaware – An Isaac Cox and his wife Sarah from Philadelphia are named in a deed in Kent County, Delaware in 1796. Isaac, whose occupation is Hatter, is named as a the son of a Susannah Hunn Cox in the indenture.⁶ An earlier deed from 1772 names Susannah with her husband Isaac in this same county. Also mentioned is a Powell Cox who might be related.⁷

Nashville, Davidson County, North Carolina (now Tennessee) – An Isaac Cox from Philadelphia are party to a land transaction in 1792.⁸ It is highly possible that this Isaac Cox is one and the same with a previously mentioned merchant from Philadelphia.

Guilford County, North Carolina – An Isaac and a William Cox of Guilford County, sold land to a John Cox in 1771.⁹

New Providence, Bahamas – The Last Will and Testament of a Jacob Cox names several family members including a sister Elizabeth Marshall and a brother Isaac Cox who resides in Philadelphia. Jacob’s will was written in 1764 and names several of Isaac’s children including Martha, Altha, John, Isaac, and Mary.¹⁰

I’ll stop there, but may add to the list as I come across other Isaacs. Some of these may very well be connected to my tree. There are others with the surname of Cox who have married into my tree at various points that are not directly descended from Isaac Cox who settled in Nelson County, Kentucky. Also, I will need to use a broader set of search criteria considering where my Cox family is known to have resided through the years. Hampshire County, Virginia later became part of West Virginia. I will want to pull those documents as well as ones that might be in Virginia. I will want to examine documents from Maryland, based on previous writings about the family, but I will want to be careful of the timeline so as to not confuse my Coxes with others in the area.

What I also find fascinating is that my Cox family and my presumed DeMoss family were in the same area of Virginia at approximately the same time. Both purportedly had interactions with George Washington in his early days as a surveyor. I have to wonder if I will stumble across any documents naming both families together. Only time and research will tell.

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Error resolution. The last available update: I have 4926 errors in the tree–376 possible duplicates, 4094 with no documents, 456 other errors.

• Distant cousin needs sources. I was able to add sources to him and his siblings.
• The wife of a distant cousin needs a last name and sources. I was able to update a few other family members, but not the cousin or the wife.
• Another distant cousin from long ago who needs sources. I was able to supple a couple and add a few family members.

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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.
361 years ago – marriage of Susanna Whitehead (10th ggm) and Nathaniel Bunnell Sr (10th ggf)
272 years ago – birth of James Shields (6th ggf)
245 years ago – birth of Thomas Butler (5th ggf)
233 years ago – death of Joanna Miller (8th ggm)
189 years ago – marriage of Mary Caywood (3rd ggm) and her 1st husband Ambrose Azbell
116 years ago – death of George Winkler (3rd ggf)

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Goals and progress…
Beginning of Week: 27,011 people
End of Week: 27,019 people
Change = +8 persons
Tasks for coming week:

• Begin research on Isaac Cox, “The Immigrant” and his wife Susannah Tomlinson.
• Review Coxes of Cox Creek
• Run newspaper search, especially for articles recounting local history
• Review Cox Family in America
• Review the Cox package of information from Sweden
• Review Minutes of Yohogania Co, VA
• Look for documents in Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Kentucky

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1. Maryland, Orphan’s Court, Talbot County, will book 4, pages 52-53, film 14454, image 542, FamilySearch.org ↩︎
2. New York Land Records, 1630-1975, volume 42, pages 426-427, film 888346, image 244, FamilySearch.org. ↩︎
3. Deeds, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, volume 19, pages 34-35, film 172881, image 37, FamilySearch.org. ↩︎
4. South Carolina, Land Records, Charleston, 1764-1765, volume 3D, page 717, film 23526, image 469, FamilySearch.org. ↩︎
5. Deeds, Gloucester County, New Jersey, volume C, pages 471-472, film 846546, image 652, FamilySearch.org. ↩︎
6. Deed Records of Kent County, Delaware, volume F2, page 154, film 6461, image 468, FamilySearch.org. ↩︎
7. Deed Records of Kent County, Delaware, volume V1, page 43, film 6457, image 50, FamilySearch.org. ↩︎
8. Land Records, Davidson County, Tennessee, volume C, pages 255-256, film 332658 image 471, FamilySearch.org ↩︎
9. Deeds, Guilford County, North Carolina, volume 1, page 99, film 19045, image 106, FamilySearch.org. ↩︎
10. Bahamas, Wills, 1756-1766, page 175-180, film 223469, images 347-350, FamilySearch.org. ↩︎