Monthly Archives: May 2026

Discovering Ancestors: Overcoming Genealogy Challenges

31 Sunday May 2026

Posted by in DNA Matches, Genealogy

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It was a busy week but I was able to get a little research done despite everything.

Most interesting was a DNA match. The match came up marked with a common ancestor, however, there was no tree attached. The surname was not what I would call common so I searched my tree for that and found a handful of distant cousins, complete with a previous DNA match who did have a tree linked to their account. After some trial and error, I was able to determine who the new match was and get him connected to the tree!

Continuing on with the descendants of Jesse Cox and Mary Wagle. I am picking up where I left off with descendants of Zachariah Cox and Nancy Wright. I am continuing on with Nettie Taylor and her husband John T. Wilson.

Thelma was a tiny bit difficult to start researching. Ancestry was not providing any hints to work off. She was mentioned in obituaries, but as Mrs. Husband’s Name, as was the norm during a good deal of the twentieth century. Since she was the second eldest, I had not eliminated very many of the names yet. Luckily she was named in her sister Leah’s obituary as Mrs. Thelma Montfort; she was either divorced or widowed at this point in time. Now I am able to circle back to her and fill in those blanks.

Finishing up Zachariah’s children, Mattie, the youngest, was a little difficult to complete. The Ancestry hints populated records for her sister Nettie. So frustrating. She was named in the obituaries for her siblings Alice (1947) and Nettie (1957). She was not listed in John’s obituary in 1959. That narrows the window down considerably. Voila! Mattie Taylor died in 1958.

I was not able to find a date of death for Zachariah, but maybe I can get a clue from his younger siblings. Next up is William Taylor.

  • Louisa Cox + David Taylor > Zachariah Taylor + Nancy Catherine Wright
    • Taylor
    • Wilson
      • Kentucky: Madison, Fayette
    • Montfort
      • Kentucky: Fayette, Jefferson
      • Louisiana: Caddo
    • Drake
      • Kentucky: Fayette
  • Louisa Cox + David Taylor > William F Taylor + Mary Lucy Pearson
    • Taylor
      • Kentucky: Estill, Madison
      • Oklahoma: Delaware

Error resolution. The last available update: I have 5041 errors in the tree–529 possible duplicates, 4061 with no documents, 451 other errors.

  • Up first is a distant cousin from 200+ years ago. Lots of records found for her and her family.
  • A distant cousin from my generation needs some records. A public record reference will have to do for now.
  • And another distant cousin needs a record. She was featured in a newspaper advertisement at age 5, giving me an approximate date of birth. Score!

Goals and progress…
Beginning of Week: 27,802 people
End of Week: 27,866 people
Change = + 64 persons
Tasks for coming week:

  • Continue 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 the Cox package of information from Sweden
  • Look for documents in Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Kentucky

Honoring Legacy: Memorial Day and Family History

24 Sunday May 2026

Posted by in Civil War, DNA Matches, Genealogy

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It’s Memorial Day Weekend. Memorial Day began after the Civil War and was originally called Decoration Day as tradition in the spring to decorate the graves of the fallen with flowers, flags and wreaths. The holiday today honors all American military personnel who died while serving in the armed forces. That said, I wish to remember my 3rd great grandfather John S. Cox. John was a member of the Indiana 80th Infantry, Company C. He mustered in at the rank of Private on September 3, 1862 with his friends and neighbors from the Edwardsport, Indiana area. He died of influenza of the lungs on January 14, 1863 at the Regimental Hospital in New Haven, Kentucky. He left a widow and four children.

One new DNA match that I was able to incorporate into my tree this week. It was for a 2nd cousin 1x removed on my mom’s side. His parents were already in my tree; I just needed to update them a bit and add the DNA match.

Continuing on with the descendants of Jesse Cox and Mary Wagle. I am picking up where I left off with descendants of Zachariah Cox and Nancy Wright. I finished Homer’s descendants and have moved on to Zachariah’s daughter Nettie (fourth of five children) who had ten children. I’m about half way through them. So far they have been straight-forward to navigate.

  • Louisa Cox + David Taylor > Zachariah Taylor + Nancy Catherine Wright
    • Taylor
    • Plavsic
      • Ohio: Clermont, Hamilton
    • Brown/Broun
      • Ohio: Hamilton
    • Haile
      • Ohio: Hamilton
    • Wilson
      • Kentucky: Madison, Fayette, Estill
    • Dozier
      • Kentucky: Estill, Fayette
      • California: Los Angeles
    • Hardy
      • Indiana: Fayette
      • Kentucky: Fayette
      • Virginia: Henrico

Error resolution. The last available update: I have 5023 errors in the tree–529 possible duplicates, 4043 with no documents, 451 other errors.

  • A wife of a distant cousin with no references and no maiden name. After piecing together several documents, I was able to determine her last name and fulfill the need for a reference.
  • A husband of a distant cousin needs a reference. The daughter’s marriage certificate held his middle name which led to several hints.
  • A husband of a distant cousin has no first name or references. The marriage record supplied both. It would seem he lied on his marriage record about his age, because all subsequent records list him four years younger.

Goals and progress…
Beginning of Week: 27,707 people
End of Week: 27,802 people
Change = + 95 persons
Tasks for coming week:

  • Continue 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 the Cox package of information from Sweden
  • Look for documents in Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Kentucky

Unraveling John D Taylor’s Family Mysteries

17 Sunday May 2026

Posted by in DNA Matches, Genealogy

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Ancestry has a “Recommended” list of individuals on my landing page. My 3rd great grandfather Jean Michel Kaiser is listed with a flag for records from a new collection in France. Unfortunately this is a collection only available to World Explorer subscribers. I’ll have to revisit this record once I upgrade for international research.

I had one new DNA match with a common ancestor identified. He was through my McCullough line. Hopefully I’ll get to that line in the next year or so.

Continuing on with the descendants of Jesse Cox and Mary Wagle. I am picking up where I left off with Richard’s son Eugene.

  • Louisa Cox + David Taylor > Richard Lewis Taylor + Sarah Emma Isaacs
    • Taylor
      • Texas: Eastland, Gregg, Jackson, San Patricio, Harris, Victoria, Travis
      • New Mexico: Quay
  • Louisa Cox + David Taylor > Zachariah Taylor + Nancy Catherine Wright
    • Taylor
      • Kentucky: Estill, Oldham, Madison
      • Utah: Salt Lake, Utah
      • Ohio: Warren, Hamilton
    • Baker
      • Utah: Salt Lake, Utah
    • Deitrick
      • California
      • Alaska
    • Blythe
      • Ohio: Hamilton
    • Plavsic
      • Ohio: Hamilton

Researching Zachariah’s son John D Taylor and his family was an adventure. From what I can piece together, John was living with his parents in 1900 and he was listed as a widower. There was evidence of a possible marriage in 1894, but I’m not certain if it was this John due to the location. John then married Stella Stratton in 1901. What was confusing is that I found a John D Taylor with a Della, not a Stella, in the census records. Next I received hints for death certificates for two daughters, Imogene and Dixie, who were born in 1902 and 1904, respectively, stating their parents were John and Stella. Hints for Stella show her in Idaho and Utah as early as 1907. Stella remarried in 1907 in Idaho and her daughters are listed with her husband’s last name instead of Taylor. That made it harder to find them. The revolving door of husbands wasn’t very helpful either.

As if those obstacles weren’t enough, John had a son with a widowed woman. This son was given his mother’s late husband’s name. Quite messy to untangle, if nothing else. I believe I am done with John.

Moving on, I am making progress on Zachariah’s son Homer and will continue to do so into next week.

Error resolution. The last available update: I have 5020 errors in the tree–525 possible duplicates, 4044 with no documents, 451 other errors.

  • A father in law of a distant cousin. He and his wife were pruned from the tree.
  • A distant cousin who needed a source added. Added sources for most of his family members as well.
  • Another distant cousin who needed a source added.

Goals and progress…
Beginning of Week: 27,622 people
End of Week: 27,707 people
Change = + 85 persons
Tasks for coming week:

  • Continue 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 the Cox package of information from Sweden
  • Look for documents in Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Kentucky

Weekly Genealogy Research Update

10 Sunday May 2026

Posted by in Genealogy

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Yes, I skipped a week. Life was crazy busy last week, so I didn’t get much research done. I’m combining two weeks into one report.

Ancestry surprised me last week with a free 7 day trial of the World Explorer access. I switched gears a little and researched ancestors in Canada and Europe. I have several individuals that I have tagged as having German documents so I started there.

My maternal grandfather’s family is deeply rooted in Germany. Researching his paternal grandmother, Emma Nagele, both of her parents had the surname Nagele. Nagele has several spelling variants including Näegele, Nagele, and Nagley. While I am not certain as yet, her parents may have been second cousins. It will take some deep diving to document everyone sufficiently, but I have honed in on where in the Old Country they resided–Baden. There were some references of births in Bavaria for a few of the last German born generation. It will take some effort to determine when each of the family members immigrated from Germany to the United States and which port they arrived at. The dates provided on the 1900 census are inconsistent between parent and child and siblings. One would think that small children would have traveled with at least one of their parents, but that might not have been the case.

German vocabulary that might be useful in the future:

  • weiblich = female
  • männlich = male
  • taufe = baptism
  • heirat = marriage
  • März = March
  • Mai = May

Continuing with my maternal grandfather, his mother’s family, the Kaisers, seem to have migrated from Alsace in France.

Continuing on with the descendants of Jesse Cox and Mary Wagle. I have made a lot of progress on Richard and Sarah Taylor’s family this weekend. I have a little to finish up on their son Eugene’s family and wrap it all up on Leon Taylor’s family.

  • Louisa Cox + David Taylor > Richard Lewis Taylor + Sarah Emma Isaacs
    • Taylor
      • Texas: Harris, Rusk, Nueces, Gregg, Jackson Counties
      • Oklahoma: Ottawa County
    • McCoy
      • Texas: Galveston County
    • Trammell
      • Texas: Eastland, Erath, Haskell, Parker, Stephens Counties
    • Gray
      • Texas: Erath, Rusk Counties
    • Ayers
      • Texas: Harris County
    • Comer
      • Texas: Potter County
    • Huston
      • Texas: Dallas, Tarrant, Erath Counties

Error resolution. The last available update: I have 5026 errors in the tree–519 possible duplicates, 4060 with no documents, 447 other errors.

  • First up is a floater who is not connected to my tree. She was actually attached to a half dozen or so others who were not connected to the tree, so I removed all of them.
  • Next, a distant cousin who needs a source record. I’m not all that confident with the records offered up, but attached a land grant record which was consistent with documentation that other researchers provided. I can always remove it later.
  • Finally, a husband of a distant cousin who needs a record and a first name. I found notice of their marriage license in the paper, resolving the error and his first name.
  • The father in law of a distant cousin was pruned along with his wife.
  • Husband of a distant cousin needed some source documents. Their daughter’s marriage record primed the hints for him and his wife.
  • Wife of a distant cousin needed source documents. Finally found a Public Record Index entry, although I don’t really like using them.

Goals and progress…
Beginning of Week: 27,519 people
End of Week: 27,622 people
Change = +103 persons
Tasks for coming week:

  • Continue 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 the Cox package of information from Sweden
  • Look for documents in Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Kentucky