Author Archives: suzieg1969

2025 Week 51

21 Sunday Dec 2025

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As I continue writing the short biographies for my 5th great grandfather’s children, it has occurred to me, more than once, that my families recycle names…a lot. It makes it difficult at times to sort out which documents belong to which person. Not only that, but as I index my manuscript, I may end up with a single name indexing multiple persons. So, what are my options to separate out these many individuals with the same monikers?

Middle names help, if they exist. However, not everyone had a middle name or if they had an initial, it isn’t always known what that initial represents. For example, my dad’s name was Samuel Thomas DeMoss, as was his father. My 2nd great grandfather has only ever been documented as Samuel T. DeMoss. I can distinguish these three as Jr., Sr, and Samuel T.

In some instances, though, middle names aren’t that helpful because both individuals have the same middle name as well. I have two Sarah Piety Coxes in my tree, so far. One was the daughter of Ben and Sarah Cox and lived from 1785 to 1860. The other was a granddaughter of the couple and lived from 1826 to 1888. I could just number them in the text–Sarah Piety (1) and Sarah Piety (2), however, that doesn’t help much when referencing the book index. I have opted in the index to list them as Sarah Piety (1785-1860) and Sarah Piety (1826-1888). This will actually allow the end user to find the individual they are looking for much more quickly.

I didn’t get as much done this week as I had hoped. A lot of holiday festivities required my attention, however, I am hopeful with a couple days off this coming week, AND two scheduled shifts at the genealogical library, will help me get back on track just before the year ends. I was able to write the bio for Austin Piety Cox and his wife Rebecca Phillips. I still need to do the indexing, but that should not take very long to update.

Error resolution. The last available update: I have 4918 errors in the tree–374 possible duplicates, 4088 with no documents, 456 other errors.

  • Distant cousin needs a source. He was named in his grandmother’s obituary, but little can be found. His parents are likely still alive so there really isn’t much to go on.
  • Another distant cousin needing a source. Again, not a lot of information out there except obituaries of the parents.
  • The last error to be resolved was the second husband of a distant cousin. I was able to add a name for him as well.

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.
269 years ago – birth of Catherine Bowen (6th ggm)
225 years ago – birth of Ellinor Johnson (4th ggm)
199 years ago – death of James Butler (6th ggf)
125 years ago – death of Calvin Mattox (2nd ggf)
114 years ago – marriage of Blanche Cox DeMoss (ggm) and her 2nd husband Coen Robertson
107 years ago – birth of Francis Keller Sr (gf)

Goals and progress…
Beginning of Week: 27,006 people
End of Week: 27,011 people
Change = +5 persons
Tasks for coming week:

  • Finish writing 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

2025 Week 50

14 Sunday Dec 2025

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Last weekend was a travel weekend which didn’t leave much time for genealogy. Of course, a whirlwind trip cross-country to spend less than 48 hours with my sisters during cold and flu season can take a toll and I ended up with a massive head cold as a result. I’m on the mend and ready to finish up Ben and Sarah’s family narrative.

But first, Ancestry has compiled a few year-end statistics for me.

  • Apparently 131,000 new hints were added to my tree
  • 26,850 of those hints came from new collections that were added to the site this year
  • I viewed 8703 records
  • I added 2138 people to my tree
  • My tree helped 1661 other researchers
  • My DNA matches increased by 2510 people

I did accomplish a bit of writing this weekend. I sorted out Joseph Cox who was the focus back in Week 32. He was the one who had previously been identified as a bachelor at the time of his death, but appears to have actually had six children! I also merged duplicate files for him on FamilySearch.

I should be able to finish up Jonathan Piety Cox’s bio before the day is over. He was my focus during Week 33. Since he had not yet reached his majority when he married in 1817, he needed his father’s permission to obtain the marriage license. I think it is so cool that an image of the permission note is available and carries the handwriting and signature of my 5th great-grandfather.

Permission for Jonathan Piety Cox to obtain a marriage license signed by his father Benjamin Cox.

I’ve been playing around with Google’s NotebookLM. I really like the concept of the Infographic. Too bad the free version only gives you three per day. Need to be selective in what you create! I have noticed that when I do a document dump, it tends to make up names and dates, making the graphic worthless. I decided to upload the narrative I wrote for a single family unit–in this case, Gabriel and Nancy (Squires) Cox–to see what it might do. So. Much. Better! It didn’t mention John S Cox having served and died in the Civil War, but that was because his story was told in a previous chapter, focusing on him. I’ll have to decide what to include about the linking child on future runs. At any rate, I thought I’d share the output of my experiment on Gabriel and Nancy. Once I get the process perfected, I think including these in my manuscript will break up the monotony of lots of text.

Since I missed a week, I have 6 error hints to resolve. The last available update: I have 4926 errors in the tree–376 possible duplicates, 4094 with no documents, 456 other errors.

  • Distant cousin needed a source.
  • Husband of a distant cousin needed a first name and a source. I have not been able to identify this individual.
  • Husband of a distant cousin. I used a marriage announcement for the cousin’s brother (also a cousin), to ballpark marriage dates for the siblings and their spouses.
  • Father-in-law for a distant great-granduncle has no sources attached. Since I am pruning extended family from the tree, I deleted him and his wife.
  • Father-in-law for a distant cousin has no sources attached. Again, since I am pruning the tree, he and his wife were also deleted.
  • Distant cousin has no sources attached. I found a few sources for him and cleaned up his family while I was at it.

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 last week and the week ahead.
325 years ago – birth of Anna Schmidt (7th ggm)
304 years ago – birth of Elizabeth Quincy (7th ggm)
298 years ago – birth of Rachel Van Winkle (7th ggm)
264 years ago – marriage of Rachel Maquinet (6th ggm) and John J Pea (6th ggf)
243 years ago – birth of Joseph Cardinal (5th ggf)
235 years ago – birth of Jonathan McCullough (4th ggf)
227 years ago – marriage of Barbara Mattox (5th ggm) and Samuel Wilks (5th ggf)
213 years ago – death of Rachel Van Winkle (7th ggm)
193 years ago – birth of Eli T Butler (3rd ggf)
190 years ago – death of Rebecca Jones (5th ggm)
187 years ago – birth of Joseph Ellis Cardinal (3rd ggf)
170 years ago – marriage of Louisa Reeve (3rd ggm) and Isaac DeMoss (3rd ggf)
165 years ago – death of Margaret Gray (5th ggm)
164 years ago – marriage of George Winkler (3rd ggf) and his second wife Katie Bean
162 years ago – death of Nancy Squires Cox (3rd ggm)
140 years ago – death of Letitia Casey (4th ggm)

Goals and progress…
Beginning of Week: 27,008 people
End of Week: 27,006 people
Change = -2 persons
Tasks for coming week:

  • Finish writing 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

2025 Week 48

30 Sunday Nov 2025

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With a long holiday ahead of me, I’m digging into who Benjamin Cox was as a person. This requires me to incorporate the history of the places where he lived and how he might have contributed.

First order of business was to map out where Benjamin resided throughout his life. He was born in Hampshire County, Virginia about 1757. Since this is pre-Revolutionary War Era, the Colonies were expanding and counties were being organized. To keep up with the rapidly changing boundaries of these government units, I found a really cool website that includes interactive maps of the states: Maps of US. I whole-heartedly recommend you check it out if you are exploring how boundaries changed over time.

My second task was to reread Evelyn C. Adams’ “The Coxes of Cox’s Creek, Kentucky”. Mrs. Adams provided footnotes for her article on the Cox family which led to some additional references I had not considered. She mentioned that Benjamin and his brothers often served in various capacities in the community when they were residing in Yohogania County. As luck would have it, the Minute Book of the Virginia Court held for Yohogania County, 1776-1780 is available digitally on FamilySearch.org. I am sure I will reference it often, especially while researching the next generation of Coxes.

There was mention that a Benjamin Cox served on a jury in May 1778. It is not clear if this was my Benjamin Cox or his older cousin. If it was my Benjamin, this would support a birth of 1757 or earlier, not 1765 as family lore would suggest.

Taking into account the boundary changes during this time period, a full text search of FamilySearch for Washington County, Pennsylvania, did not produce any documentation for Benjamin prior to 1780. Jefferson County, Virginia/Kentucky after 1776 was nearly as fruitless with one deed transfer. A search of Nelson County, however, was quite bountiful. One of the earliest documents was from a tithable tax list from 1787.

References identified in Kester’s The Other Polks included manuscripts and papers in the Rogers Clark Ballard Thruston collection, a descendant of Benjamin and Sarah. Unfortunately, those do not appear to be digitized at this time so a trip to Louisville to visit the Filson Club is now on the genealogy bucket list.

On some of the genealogy groups, I’ve been hearing about NotebookLM, a Google AI application. Since I am currently in a writing phase, I thought I’d try it out and see if it is something I want to maybe use. I’m not sure I want to go back and rewrite everything I have already put together, but maybe it can wordsmith things a bit better going forward.

I keep a folder for each set of grandparents on my computer. In it are copies of vital records, census records, draft cards, newspaper clippings, and tombstone photos. One thing I haven’t been including in these folders are excerpts from books. I keep the books elsewhere. To try out NotebookLM, I started a new notebook and uploaded all the documents from my grandparents’ folder. The app initially spit out a one paragraph summary of what I had uploaded, hitting some highlights. I then tried out some of the other features the application boasts in the Studio.

  • Flashcards – This tool created a series of flashcards with facts about my grandparents such as where was Edeine born, etc. Not necessarily a useful feature for genealogy, but possibly would be for other subject matter. This might be useful for a student studying for an exam.
  • Mind Map – This tool broke the main topic into a handful of subtopics and continued to drill down within each layer to more detail. This might be useful for organizing facts into categories for later presentation.
  • Audio Overview – This is a narrative with commentary breaking down the subject matter in the the source documents. In this case, my grandparents lives. It incorporated current events at the time and gave color to what might be otherwise a boring stack of documents. There is a limit of three of these that can be generated each day.
  • Reports – This tool can generate several kinds of reports depending on the angle you want to project. Do I want to focus on my grandfather or my grandmother? Do I want a summary or a blog post? Lots of options here.

I thought the audio overview was rather cool. It brought some perspective to events of my grandparents’ lives. The fact that they married young at the end of the Great Depression. Their first child died after only a few weeks. My grandfather escaped with his life from a coal mine explosion. A discussion as to why he might have needed to do coal mining in addition to farming. The financial impact of having a large family. My grandmother’s resiliency of being a young widow with a passel of children to support.

Initially I didn’t include birth certificates for all of their children. I still don’t have anything in the source stack for my aunt who is still living. The written reports are riddled with errors, but at least those can be manually fixed if I were to use those reports in any way. You are limited to 100 notebooks and each notebook is limited to 50 source documents that can be included. The test runs I did used about half that. I’m curious to try out the Infographic and the Slide Deck, but those features were not active today. I am likely to utilize this set of tools to enhance my biographical writings, but I will continue to do the writing myself.

3 Error hints to resolve. The last available update: I have 4926 errors in the tree–368 possible duplicates, 4102 with no documents, 456 other errors.

  • A distant cousin with no sources attached. Found her with her parents in the 1860 Census.
  • Another distant cousin with no sources attached. I probably won’t find anything for this individual since he likely just graduated from high school.
  • Last is a stepson of a distant cousin. I was able to find a birth record for him.

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.
264 years ago – birth of Therese Lefebre (6th ggm)
230 years ago – marriage of Martha Smith (5th ggm) and Reuben Staton (5th ggf)
182 years ago – marriage of Oliver McCullough (3rd ggf) and his first wife Eliza Grimsley
133 years ago – marriage George W Winkler (3rd ggf) and his second wife Katie Bean
88 years ago – death of Samuel T DeMoss (2nd ggf)
10 years ago – death of Dorothy Cardinal Keller (gm)

Goals and progress…
Beginning of Week: 27,007 people
End of Week: 27,008 people
Change = +1 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

2025 Week 47

23 Sunday Nov 2025

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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. ↩︎

2025 Week 46

16 Sunday Nov 2025

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There is a light at the end of the tunnel as I am researching the youngest child of Ben and Sarah Piety Cox–Finetta. I’ve already done a little research on her and her family back in Week 23 when I was researching older sister Sarah (aka Sally). Finetta married Elbridge Arnold and they moved to the Kansas City, Missouri area. Their home, Woodneath, is now on the National Register of Historic Places.

Information on the children of Finetta and Elbridge was at times hard to come by. Sarah, Mollie and Mariana all married. Benjamin disappeared after the 1850 census. Nettie was living with Mollie’s family and is listed as having lung disease in the 1880 census. Susan appears in the 1870 census, but has not been found in the 1880 census.

A land deed record dated 1874, after the death of their mother, names Sarah and husband, Susan, Nettie and Mollie. A Susan Arnold is listed as a creditor in multiple probate reports well into the 1880s. Without knowing how many Arnold families were in the Clay County area, it is difficult to know if this is the same Susan Arnold or possibly a cousin. Since Elbridge’s father died in Clay County, Missouri, it is possible that one or more siblings also relocated.

Can’t find the newspaper you want on the subscription sites? Google it! Some states, like Missouri, have digital collections that are available for free. I found the following information on that site.

A mention in the Liberty Tribune published January 13, 1882, stated that J(ohn) P(eter) Stowers buried a child on January 10th and his wife (Mariana Arnold) was buried the previous week.

Catching up on my library research and access to the restricted files on FamilySearch, I started with Benjamin F Cox, son of Jonathan P and Rachel Cox, who was born in 1819. Using Full Text Search, I immediately found the History of Mariah Creek Church which mentioned Benjamin F. It provided his year of death and the name of his wife, Patsy Shepherd. I have to wonder, though, if the author of the church history was confusing this Benjamin (b. 1819) with his uncle (b. 1804). The elder Benjamin married an Elizabeth Shepherd in 1834. 1834 would have been too early for the younger Benjamin to marry–he would have been 15 years old. Of course, Patsy was usually associated with Patricia or Martha as a nickname.

Interestingly enough, I was also looking for Benjamin F Cox, brother to Jonathan Piety Cox. Benjamin was assigned as guardian for his grandchildren Virgil and Elizabeth Farmer in 1868 after the death of their father Amos. He terminated the guardianship in 1874 when the money ran out, however, the children continued to live with him and his wife Lucinda until the children reached adulthood. Nothing after 1861 was found for Sarah Cox Farmer, Benjamin’s daughter and the children’s mother.

I had hoped to find documentation of Benjamin’s death in 1887, however, I was not able to locate anything. The latest recorded deed which mentioned Benjamin and wife Lucinda was recorded in 1886. After that, there was a deed recorded in 1893 that names Lucy Cox, unmarried, Carrie and Virgil Farmer, John and Caroline Cox, and Lizzie Berry, unmarried. This would be consistent with the living heirs of Benjamin. This would also give credence to the fact that Albert was no longer living and had no known descendants in 1893.

With that, I believe I have concluded the research portion of the family of Benjamin and Sarah Piety Cox. I can now move to editing and writing. This is actually my favorite part of my project as the people start to come to life. My first task will be to merge duplicate event records and standardize place names. Then I will generate the rough draft and start filling in the blanks and citing references. With the long Thanksgiving weekend right around the corner, I should be able to complete this step fairly quickly…at least that is my hope.

Tree Ratings are back! I have 3 errors from this week to resolve. I have 4947 errors in the tree–374 possible duplicates, 4115 with no documents, 458 other errors.

  • The spouse of a distant cousin has no sources attached. However, he has several hints which have cleared this error.
  • A distant cousin Jean was eleven at the time a child attached to him was born. Based on the information in the 1860 census, the children in question are probably his brother’s children who were living with Jean and his wife.
  • The last error for this week is another spouse of a distant cousin. As it turns out the cousin also was lacking sources. Cleaned up both at the same time.

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.
353 years ago – marriage of Jeanne Lemarche-Beaudry (8th ggm) and Jacques Duguay (8th ggf)
325 yeas ago – death of Jean Lemarche-Beaudry Duguay (8th ggm)
262 years ago – death of Nathaniel Bonnell (7th ggf)
250 years ago – birth of Mary Overlin (6th ggm)
238 years ago – marriage of James Shields (6th ggf) and his 2nd wife Nancy Brown
198 years ago – marriage of Letitia Casey (4th ggm) and William Fielden (4th ggf)
196 years ago – death of John Keirsey (6th ggf)
155 years ago – birth of Anna Gravel (2nd ggm)
110 years ago – marriage of Ethel Thompson (ggm) and August Cardinal (ggf)
101 years ago – death of Emma Nagele Keller (2nd ggm)

Goals and progress…
Beginning of Week: 26,997 people
End of Week: 27,009 people
Change = +12 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

2025 Week 45

09 Sunday Nov 2025

Posted by in Civil War, Genealogy

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If you recall back in Week 34, I had an overview of the many Benjamin Coxes there were in this family. I’m now deep-diving into Benjamin #2 from that list.

I’ve exhausted what I can easily find on Ancestry for Benjamin. In searching on FamilySearch from home, the vast majority of documents pertain to deed transactions in Shelby County, KY on the inherited property from his father. There are restrictions on Knox County, IN documents in FamilySearch; I will need to put that on my to do list for next Saturday when I am at the library. I really want to find something indicating that he died in 1887. He did file for a father’s pension in 1885 for his son Virgil who died in the Civil War.

Not much is known about Ben’s first wife, Elizabeth Shepherd. She died about 1845. Together they had four children.

Ben’s second wife, Lucinda, was the widow of Leonard Williams and together they had four daughters. Ben and Lucy did not have any children together. An obituary for Lucy stated she was 87 at the time of her death in 1898.

Ben and Lizzie’s oldest child, Sarah, married Amos Farmer and they had two children. By 1870, the children were living with Ben and Lucy, so it is not clear what happened to Sarah and Amos. Their son Virgil was born in late 1861. Amos served in the Civil War, however, he was reported as a deserter in October 1862. I will need to check the guardianship and probate records at the library to see if any further details might surface.

Sarah and Amos’s son Virgil was the center of a supposed scandal in July 1895, according to the local newspapers.1 Supposedly Virgil disappeared, leaving his wife and children to fend for themselves, and a pile of debt to deal with. His wife Carrie apparently filed desertion charges against him. The rumor was that he took off with his ex-wife. It was never disclosed where he went or what he did. The rumor was discounted in that the ex-wife was happily at home in Linton with her current husband. Virgil did return, he resigned from his position as deputy sheriff, and apparently he and Carrie sorted things out as they were listed in the same household in 1900.

Ben and Lizzie’s oldest son, Albert, is quite the conundrum. He appears in the 1850 census with the blended family, but he is not present in 1860. Granted he would be about 23 and possibly on his own. Some researchers have attributed him to an Albert Cox who married Caroline Sprinkle in 1867 in Warrick County. Albert who resided in Warrick County is more likely to be the son of William Cox and Rachel Underwood who migrated to Pike County, Indiana from North Carolina. This assignment would be more logical since Pike County borders Warrick County.

Without any proof linking Knox County Albert to Warrick County Albert, I will refrain from assuming they are the same person.

Third child Virgil joined the 51st Indiana Infantry Regiment in 1861. He became ill in Missouri and died of disease after only serving a few months. He is buried in the national cemetery in St Louis. His father Ben filed for a survivor’s pension in 1885.

The youngest of Ben and Lizzie’s children was John Shepherd Cox. He too served in the 51st Indiana Infantry Regiment. After returning from the war, he married Caroline House and they raised at least four children. The family resided in Labette County, Kansas, for several years before returning to Knox County. At some point prior to 1900 it would seem that John and Caroline divorced. Nothing was reported in the papers, but maybe something will turn up in the court records. An account of the 50th wedding anniversary celebration for Caroline’s parents in 1894 gives the impression that they were still married at that time.2 It is also possible that they merely separated and did not obtain a formal divorce.

Tree Ratings are back! I have 3 from this week to resolve. I have 4950 errors in the tree–374 possible duplicates, 4119 with no documents, 457 other errors.

  • A distant cousin with no documentation. Found him in the 1950 census and put a first name to his father.
  • A father-in-law of a great granduncle with a logic error associated to him. Since his is not a blood relative or married to one, I have removed him and his wife.
  • The last is the spouse of a distant cousin with no sources.

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.
343 years ago – marriage of Anna Shepard (9th ggm) and Daniel Quincy (9th ggf)
236 years ago – death of Margaret Moore Short (7th ggm)
227 years ago – death of Benjamin Bonnell (7th ggf)
205 years ago – marriage of Phillip Catt (7th ggf) and his second wife Sally Kimmons
202 years ago – birth of Oliver McCullough (3rd ggf)
192 years ago – birth of Henry V Gravel (3rd ggf)
131 years ago – death of John W Fielden (3rd ggf)
109 years ago – marriage of Magdelena Kaiser (ggm) and Emmett Keller (ggf)
107 years ago – death of Arely Fielden (2nd ggf)

Goals and progress…
Beginning of Week: 26,965 people
End of Week: 26,997 people
Change = +32 persons
Tasks for coming week:

  • Follow up on several items for the family of Benjamin Cox and Elizabeth Shepherd.
  • Research the family of Finetta Cox and Eldridge Arnold.
  • 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. The Western Sun, 5 Jul 1895, page 1, newspapers.com. ↩︎
  2. The Western Sun, 23 Mar 1894, page 4, newspapers.com ↩︎

2025 Week 44

02 Sunday Nov 2025

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This week I am finishing up the off-spring of John C Cox and his wife Eliza. First up is their son Benjamin Harrison Cox. Benjamin served in the ministry, as did several others in his family. When his sister died, he became guardian for her son Oliver. Census records from 1900-1920 all state he was widowed, and Kester mentions a wife named Elizabeth Reeser. A marriage record was found from 1885 for Benjamin and Bettie Reasor. Her life was cut short just four years later.

It should be noted that Benjamin was referred to as “Elder B.H. Cox” in most newspaper mentions. This is a good reminder to try different naming variations when doing searches for individuals.

Julia Cox, the ninth child of John and Eliza, married Dr. Samuel Smith. They resided in Frankfort, Kentucky. She died in 1885, leaving behind three children. The youngest has been unidentified by name, as far as I can tell. Samuel died in 1892.

Margaret Cox was married to James McDonald and they had one son, James B. He only lived to be eighteen and it is unclear how or why he died, as it was before recording deaths was mandatory. After her husband died in 1905, Maggie lived with her brother Benjamin in the home of their nephew. Her death was rather tragic and indirectly caused that of Benjamin. While sitting by the fire in January, a cinder from the fire escaped the grate and caught her dress on fire. Benjamin and their nephew worked to get the fire out, but she was burned severely. Benjamin had a heart attack shortly after the incident due to all the stress and excitement. Maggie died a few days later due to her injuries.

The youngest of the Cox siblings, Fannie, has been a bit of a challenge to completely document. She married Landon Coleman and they had three sons. Around 1880 or 1881, Landon was involved in some sort of incident which left him disabled and apparently addled to some extent. Fannie received a payout for half of the value of his insurance policy with the Royal Templars of Temperance. Landon was then placed in some sort of institution while Fannie and the boys went to live with her family in Middletown. In 1884, it was reported that Landon returned to Frankfort, hale and hearty, and Fannie also returned. Shortly thereafter, Landon relocated to Shelby County to work in the confectionery business, but no mention of Fannie and the boys was made. Fannie is mentioned as residing in Kansas City in 1891 in her mother’s obituary. Their son Willis was living there in 1900 with his family. He worked for the railroad. Fannie was not listed with the family which would hint that she might be deceased. Landon is living with Fannie’s brother Benjamin in 1900, identifying as a widow in the census.

The Royal Templars of Temperance was a fraternal organization founded in 1870 in Buffalo, New York. Its members attempted to close saloons on Sundays and advocated abstinence. Its members practiced rituals borrowed from Freemasonry.

https://www.viennapedia.org/organizations/royal-templars-of-temperance

Some researchers have attributed a death to a Frances Coleman in Howard County, Indiana in 1896 to Fannie, but that seems a bit far fetched without something more substantial placing her there. Also, I have not seen any documentation calling her “Frances”. At this time, I’ll opt to list her death as after 1891.

Tree Ratings are back! I have 3 from this week to resolve. I have 4949 errors in the tree–372 possible duplicates, 4117 with no documents, 460 other errors.

  • Here’s a new one I haven’t come across before. Both parents were too young to have had a child when the daughter was born. This would indicate that either the parents birth dates are incorrect or the child’s. It could also mean that she wasn’t their child, but a foster child of some sort. As it turns out, she was listed as a “daughter” in the 1920 census, but she carried a different last name, than either of the two parents. At any rate, she is not a blood relation. Based on the criteria I have set for my database, she will be removed.
  • The second person needing an error cleared will be difficult to clear. Web links are not considered sources by the Tree Checker. This distant cousin is still in her teens. I will need to revisit this one at another time.
  • The last error needing cleared also appears to be rather difficult this week. The known residence location, Oklahoma, doesn’t have much available online for marriages or births and nothing was populating from the newspapers. I may need to revisit this one as well.

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.
253 years ago – marriage of John McCullough (5th ggf) and his first wife Margaret Peters
228 years ago – marriage of Margaret McLees (5th ggm) and Isaac Lowe (5th ggf)
207 years ago – birth of James Denis Cardinal (4th ggf)
70 years ago – death of Samuel T. DeMoss Sr (gf)
43 years ago – death of Frank Fielden (ggf)
28 years ago – death Samuel T. DeMoss Jr (RIP Dad. Miss you.)

Goals and progress…
Beginning of Week: 26,947 people
End of Week: 26,965 people
Change = +18 persons
Tasks for coming week:

  • Return to Knox County and start reviewing the family of Benjamin Cox and Elizabeth Shepherd.
  • 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

2025 Week 43

26 Sunday Oct 2025

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This week I have started on the family of John Calhoun Cox and his wife Eliza Garrett. They are documented to have had eleven children. After Ben and Sarah died, John and Eliza lived in their farmhouse in Shelby County. In their later years, they lived with one or more of their children in both Franklin County and Jefferson County.

Research for Eliza was pretty straight forward. John, however, is proving to be a little more difficult. Some researchers have assigned a death date of 1869 for John, however, he was still alive in the 1870 census. The 1869 death was for a John Cox who resided in Butler County, so I’m not convinced this is the correct information for Eliza’s husband. Other sources have provided a death date in 1878. This would be consistent with Eliza stating she was a widow in 1880, however, I cannot find any documentation supporting this date either. As for now, it will remain a mystery.

JC and Eliza’s first son, Dr. Henry Clay Cox, married Mary Jane Newland in 1859. Mary Jane died in 1926. Her obituary stated that she lived with her husband until his death in Shelby County and in Crestwood (Oldham County). It later states that she resided with her son Ben and/or his wife for the past thirty-seven years. Could that mean that Henry died around 1889? Also, his mother Eliza passed in 1891. He was not listed as a surviving child of hers at that time. This would be consistent with a ca. 1889 death. I have not found any mention of his demise in the papers and there is nothing on Find-a-Grave. For now, I’ll stick with a death of about 1889.

Daughters Martha and Elizabeth were fairly straight forward to research, but Mary was a little more complicated. She was actually Martha’s twin sister, and the algorithm kept insisting that she was actually Martha. Since Kester’s book named Mary’s husband as Samuel C. Long, I was able to research her through him. Similarly, Ancestry wanted to confuse brothers Willis and Wallace, although they were not twins.

Sarah “Sallie” Cox was slim on the documentation. While the family lived in Franklin County, she apparently married a man by the name of Edward Hancock in 1868. Oddly enough, she was listed with her parents in the 1870 census sans Edward. Sallie died in 1874 but she did have a will. She names her brother Benjamin guardian of her minor son Oliver Hancock.
Oliver was living with his uncle and grandmother in 1880, but he disappears into the ether beyond that. When Oliver was born is also in question. The 1880 census claims he is twelve, but he was not listed in the 1870 census. Was he left out on purpose? Was his age inflated in 1880? This is another question that likely won’t be answered.
It’s unclear if Sallie and Edward separated, divorced or if he actually died. Her death record states she was a widow. Some researchers claim that Edward remained in Franklin County and lived to a ripe old age, but didn’t appear to marry again.

I wasn’t quite able to finish up JC and Eliza’s children this week. There were just so many! I have four left to tidy up then I can move on to JC’s brother Benjamin. Yes, another of the Benjamin Coxes.

Tree Ratings are back! I have 3 from this week to resolve. I have 4948 errors in the tree–372 possible duplicates, 4116 with no documents, 460 other errors.

  • The first error was a potential duplicate. The algorithm postulated that sisters Martha and Mary were the same person. This was debunked by the fact that both girls were listed on the 1860 Census.
  • A distant cousin who needed a citation. Finding documentation for him was difficult, but I did find an obituary for his older brother.
  • Finally, another suspected duplicate. This time, it truly was a duplicate. I confirmed it with several other documents and merged the two records.

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.
97 years ago – marriage of Mathias Keller (2nd ggf) and his 2nd wife Mary Bouvy Bowman
81 years ago – marriage of Dorothy Cardinal (gm) and Francis W Keller (gf)

Goals and progress…
Beginning of Week: 26,923 people
End of Week: 26,947 people
Change = +24 persons
Tasks for coming week:

  • Finish family of John Calhoun Cox and Eliza Garrett; return to Knox County and start reviewing the family of Benjamin Cox and Elizabeth Shepherd.
  • 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

2025 Week 42

19 Sunday Oct 2025

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Finally, we’ve moved on to another of Ben and Sarah Cox’s children…Austin. Austin was child number eight, born in 1799. He spent his adult years in Frankfort, Kentucky, marrying Rebecca Phillips in 1831. In addition to farming, Austin was known to have served as a land surveyor and as a clerk. He was briefly appointed to the role of Secretary of State of Kentucky from February to August 1836 by Governor James Morehead. Austin and Rebecca reportedly had ten children, most of which were daughters.

Nothing unusual cropped up in researching their oldest daughter Elizabeth. Sarah, however, raised a question or two. Kester’s The Other Polks listed Sarah’s date of death as July 25, 1850. Sarah was enumerated in the 1850 US Census. The date Austin’s household was recorded was on September 10, 1850. This would seem to be a discrepancy in the data. Unfortunately, Franklin County, KY, didn’t start recording deaths until 1852. However, careful examination of the instructions for the census state the name of every person whose usual place of abode on the 1st day of June 1850. Furthermore, Sarah’s death was published in The Frankfort Commonwealth on August 6, 1850, supporting the fact that she died on July 25th.

An interesting fact about Austin P. Cox was revealed in the obituary of his daughter Laura Cox Kearns published in the Kentucky Post in 1906. There is an irregular boundary between Kentucky and Tennessee in Simpson County commonly referred to as the “Triangular Jog”. Apparently when the boundary was originally surveyed in 1780, the surveyors could not keep a straight bearing due to several factors present at the time. Several attempts were made to correct the issue and finally it was resolved in 1859 by Austin Cox and Benjamin Peeples. A historical marker identifies the site along US Hwy 31-W at the Tennessee-Kentucky State Line. You can read more about this dispute on the Kentucky Historical Society‘s website.

I was able to complete my research on Austin and Rebecca’s children this week. Interesting facts included:

  • a set of girl twins born in 1835 (Mary and Laura),
  • a couple daughters did not live past their teens (Sarah and Charlotte), and
  • a couple daughters never married (Mary and Rebecca).

One son, Wallace, was listed in Kester’s book but I could not corroborate with any documentation. He died as an infant in 1844.

I will now move forward to child number nine of Ben and Sarah–John Calhoun Cox. John married Eliza Garrett and they had eleven children. A descendant of at least one of those children is a DNA match for me. In the meantime, I’ll do a little clean up of danglers and placenames.

Tree Ratings are back! I have 3 from this week to resolve. I have 5017 errors in the tree–376 possible duplicates, 4142 with no documents, 499 other errors.

  • Up first is a second cousin whose family I think I worked on last week. He needed some citations, as did a couple of his brothers, so I fixed them up.
  • The next was a father-in-law of a distant great uncle. Since I am not keeping in-laws in my database, I have deleted him and his wife.
  • Finally, I have Francoise Bonneau who was born in 1786. She is a distant cousin with no citations. I was able to find one church record–thank you to the Catholic priests of Old Cathedral. There might be more information available in the Canadian records when I am ready to dive into that.

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.
210 years ago – marriage of Elizabeth Staton (4th ggm) and Jonathan McCullough (4th ggf)
200 years ago – marriage of Michael Keller Jr (4th ggf) and his first wife Barbara Klein
177 years ago – marriage of Mary Caywood (3rd ggm) and John S Cox (3rd ggf)
154 years ago – birth of John F Thompson (2nd ggf)
125 years ago – death of Isaac DeMoss (3rd ggf)

Goals and progress…
Beginning of Week: 27,106 people
End of Week: 26,923 people
Change = -183 persons
Tasks for coming week:

  • Focus on family of John Calhoun Cox and Eliza Garrett
  • 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

2025 Week 41

12 Sunday Oct 2025

Posted by in Genealogy, maps

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Time to wrap up the family of Jonathan and Rachel Cox. Their youngest daughter was Harriet. She married Thomas Hollingsworth. Thomas served in the Civil War and drew a pension until his death in 1882. Harriet made a widow’s claim at that time, but I didn’t have any better proof for her date of death. Her widow’s pension is not yet available at Fold 3. Only 22% of those have been digitized to date.

A search of the newspapers found an article in 1885 reporting on the annual Old Settlers gathering in the Knox County area. It was published in early August and Harriet was listed on the report from the Necrology Committee. In the following months, there were multiple legal notices in the papers regarding her estate. It would seem that one of her brothers served as administrator. After checking probate records, I was able to determine that she died on July 16, 1885 in Knox County, Indiana.

Of course, not all of Harriet’s children have been so easy to research. The children seemed to go in various directions. Millard married and moved to Wichita. Edward (aka Ellis) headed west and settled in Seattle. After Thomas died, Harriet returned to Knox County, taking Dora with her. John migrated north to Iowa, finally settling in Nebraska after several moves. Benjamin and Mary were elusive. Mary was mentioned in Millard’s obituary as still being alive, but nothing could be found for either sibling.

And with that, we return to Kentucky to research Austin Piety Cox, Ben and Sarah’s eighth child. With his wife Rebecca Phillips, they had ten children, seven of which were daughters. I’ll start Austin’s family next week.

I love maps! They help to tell the story, especially with migration. I found a new (to me) site that has me all giddy about creating maps. It’s called Ultimaps. I am forever wanting to illustrate where certain counties are in relation to others. This site has a blank county map of Kentucky and I can colorize it however I want! I’ve started by shading in the counties where my DeMosses are and where my Cox families are. I do have other lines that came thru Kentucky which I will add later.

Tree Ratings are back! I have 3 from this week to resolve. I have 5049 errors in the tree–374 possible duplicates, 4176 with no documents, 499 other errors.

  • First this week, is the husband of a distant cousin who I don’t have any references for and I don’t know his first name. Luckily, I found a wedding announcement for them right off the bat!
  • Another spouse of a distant cousin needs some references. Unfortunately, I’m not sure how she became connected to this cousin, because I can find no reference to her in any of his information. She’s been deleted.
  • Finally, a distant cousin without references. Of course, she would have six sisters who were all married and had a ton of kids…all without references. This exercise should make a dent in my errors for next week.

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.
209 years ago – death of George Catt (6th ggf)
194 years ago – marriage of Tamer Pool (4th ggm) and John Butler (4th ggf)
182 years ago – death of Hannah Puckett (5th ggm)
178 years ago – marriage of Francis Roderick (4th ggf) and his 2nd wife Eliza Pea
167 years ago – death of Gesina Brake Sievers (4th ggm)
165 years ago – marriage of Sarah Roderick (3rd ggm) and Robert Thompson (3rd ggf)

Goals and progress…
Beginning of Week: 27,078 people
End of Week: 27,106 people
Change = +28 persons
Tasks for coming week:

  • Focus on family of Austin P Cox and Rebecca Phillips
  • 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