Category Archives: DNA Matches

Dunmore’s War: Documenting the Cox Family Legacy

16 Sunday Aug 2026

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DNA Updates

  • DH, a 4th cousin 1x removed descends from Isaac Catt. This was easy enough to fill in and add to the tree.
  • EV, a 3rd cousin 2x removed descends from Calvin Mattox. This cousin was also relatively easy to add to the tree.
  • T4 is a descendant of Reuben Staton. Since I haven’t really built that branch out much yet, I’ll tag it and leave it for later. A quick look and I’m not sure the suggested path is correct.

Coxes of Cox Creek Footnotes

20. Draper MSS, typed copy of 16S280-286 in the Filson Club. This reference was previously discussed on July 26th.

21. Reuben G Thwaites, ed, Documentary History of Dunmore’s War, 1774 (1905), pp 15, 16, 220, 233, 256, 258, 425. This book can be found on Internet Archive.

  • page 15 references Draper MSS, 2SS, book 5, pp 33-35. The passage, as recounted by Michael Cresap Jr, mentions Joseph Tomlinson and Nathaniel Tomlinson, as well as George Cox, son of Isaac Cox. The incident described occurred April 30, 1774 at Baker’s Tavern which was situated near Yellow Creek and the Ohio River. A group of Mingo Indians related to Chief Logan were ambushed by a larger group of white vigilantes and massacred. George Cox apparently left the scene prior to the massacre, however, Nathaniel Tomlinson did participate. The Tomlinsons are of interest; George Cox’s mother (Isaac’s wife and my 6th great grandmother) was Susannah Tomlinson.
  • page 16 references Draper MSS 2S, book 3, p. 34. This account of the incident provided by George Edington mentions that George Cox was part of Daniel Greathouse’s party, but does not go into detail regarding Cox’s role in the incident.
  • page 220 is a correspondence from Major Arthur Campbell to Colonel William Preston, describing an incident with the Indians which occurred on September 29, 1774. Major Campbell expressed concern about the low number of men willing to band together to protect the citizenry. Among those who were not responsive to the call of arms was a man named Cox. The book index attributes this reference to a Captain John Cox. (Draper, 3QQ109.)
  • page 233 is a follow up letter from Campbell to Preston dated October 6, 1774. Reference is made to a Lt. Cox, however again, it is not clear which Cox it identifies. The book index identifies this Cox as Gabriel. (Draper 3QQ116)
  • page 256 This page is undated correspondence from Colonel William Fleming to his brother-in-law William Bowyer recounting his injuries incurred at the Point Pleasant Battle. No specific mention of a Cox individual was made.
  • Page 258. Correspondence from Captain William Ingles to Colonel William Preston recounting the Point Pleasant Battle. Again, no specific mention of a Cox family member. (Draper 3QQ121)
  • Page 425. Mention of Lt Gabriel Cox, likely son of Isaac, as part of Dunmore’s Division in the April 1904 issue of West Virginia Historical Magazine.
    • Volume 4, number 2, published in April 1904, available digitally on FamilySearch. Page 159 – An excerpt of a deposition of Benjamin Tomlinson is recounted. The deposition was collected on April 17, 1797. Benjamin was asked who was in attendance at the treaty signing at the conclusion of Dunmore’s War. Lt. Gabriel Cox who now resided in Kentucky was named. This would be consistent with Isaac and Susannah’s son Gabriel. This article references A Biographical Sketch of the Life of the Late Captain Michael Cresap by John J Jacob, originally published in 1826 and reprinted in 1866, available on Internet Archive.

The following references to Cox family members were not included in Mrs. Adams’ citation:

  • Page 19 – George Cox is mentioned by the interviewee. His actions were not described, just merely that George was a large man. Large by 1774 standards likely meant over six feet tall and 200 pounds or more.
  • Page 229 – John Cox is mentioned in a missive from Campbell to Preston. This is likely Captain John Cox since it states he was leading a company of 24 men. It is not clear if this John was related to my Cox family or belongs to another. (Draper, 3QQ114)
  • Page 421 – Mentions that George Cox participated in the conflict under Lord Dunmore’s Division, however, no details were provided. (Draper 6ZZ79)

List of Revolutionary Soldiers in Virginia, Virginia State Library, Richmond (1912). I’m not sure how this reference relates to the Dunmore War since that conflict technically was not part of the Revolution. At any rate, the following Cox names are included in the list on page 115. References to the actual list on which these men appeared are provided and would likely need to be checked to confirm the correct man has been identified.

  • Benjamin Cox
  • David Cox
  • Lt. Gabriel Cox
  • George Cox
  • Isaac Cox
  • James Cox
  • John Cox
  • Joseph Cox

Error Resolution

Per Ancestry’s Tree CheckerThis WeekLast Week
Total Errors50325059
Potential Duplicates517512
No Documentation40934103
Other Errors422444
  • JR, A 6th cousin DNA match. While I don’t like using Public Records Index for references, I will do it from time to time if nothing else presents itself.
  • Daniel Maquinet, a 7th great-grandfather. Not a lot is available on this ancestor.
  • DD, a 5th cousin needing records. Found a Public Records Index identifying him.

Goals and progress…
Beginning of Week: 27,966 people
End of Week: 28,000 people
Change = +34 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

Cox Creek History and Family Footnotes Explained

09 Sunday Aug 2026

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DNA Updates

  • SH, descended through Richard Puckett. I don’t have any of her line built out so I will set this one aside until I am working on the Pucketts.
  • RW, also descended through Richard Puckett. I don’t have any of their line built out so I will set this one aside as well.
  • AT, descended through Benjamin Cox and Sarah Piety. I do have her line proven through her grandmother so I will finish this one up.

Coxes of Cox Creek Footnotes

15. Historic Romney 1762-1937, published by the Town Council of Romney, West Virginia, pp. 30-31. This book was found on FamilySearch. The referenced passage provides background on the first school in the area which was referenced in the mid-1700s by George Washington. Because the children of Isaac, Gabriel and Friend appear to have been educated, it is possible they attended this subscription school known as the Romney Academy.

16. Journals of the House of Burgesses of Virginia, 1766-1769, pp. 87-88. This book can be found at Hathitrust. On March 20, 1767, the House recognized twelve men who served under Colonel Bouquet in an expedition against the Shawnee and Delaware Indians and granted them 40 pounds each. Isaac Cox, presumably the son of the older Isaac, was among this group.

17. Reuben G Thwaites, ed., Early Western Travels 1748-1846, “Journal of George Croghan, 1765” (1904), I, pp. 126-129. Volume I, which this footnote references, can be found on the Project Gutenberg Website, gutenberg.org. The referenced pages describe Croghan’s journey from May 15-19, 1765 down the Ohio River as he made his way ultimately to the Mississippi River. Landmarks have been marked on the map below, indicating his daily progress during this segment of the trip. Croghan’s descriptions of the landscape lend to the attractiveness of the area for farming and settlement. Land deeds for various Cox family members reference Buffalo Creek near present day Wellsburg, West Virginia.

Daily progress (May 15 to 19, 1765) of Croghan’s journey down the Ohio from Fort Pitt (aka Fort Duquesne). Aerial perspective mapped using Google Earth with Lake Erie situated approximately 100 miles due north of Little Beaver Creek. Approximate distance covered in these four days was 165 miles.

18. Land Draughts in the Surveyor General’s Office, Pennsylvania Archives, Harrisburg, Appendix, 3rd series, p. 41. Unfortunately, it is not clear if this exact document is available on the internet. I did, however, locate what I believe to be other documents which describe the land claimed and patented by Gabriel Cox (son of Isaac) near the Monongahela River in 1769 in what is now Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.1 2 There are actually two separate plots of land–Coxburg and Cox’s Addition. A historical marker has been placed near the site.3

19. Land Patent Book, Brooke County, West Virginia, I, p. 1. A transcribed copy of land deeds recorded in Ohio County, Virginia, that are actually located in present day Brooke County can be found on FamilySearch. Tucked in the front of this book is a transcription of the surveyor’s description of lands for George Cox (son of Isaac) and Friend Cox in what is now Wellsburg. The original surveyor’s description, with drawings, was found in the Surveyor’s Books for Ohio County, Virginia which is available on FamilySearch.4 Considering I have a love of maps, I asked CoPilot to plot these out for me on a current day map of the area. He (yes, my CoPilot is an obtuse man) was unable to fulfill my request. I then manually roughed in the parcels using Google My Maps and the descriptions from the surveyor book. These two men basically owned all of the land that is now Wellsburg, WV. Holy cow! They later sold this land to Charles Prather who named the town after his son-in-law Alexander Wells.

Land parcels belonging to George Cox (northern parcel) and Friend Cox (yellow and purple).

Error Resolution

Per Ancestry’s Tree CheckerThis WeekLast Week
Total Errors50595067
Potential Duplicates512512
No Documentation41034100
Other Errors444455
  • The first individual to fix was “??”–no name, no documentation, and no relationships. Safe to say, this one should be deleted.
  • HS, a fifth cousin who needed some documentation. I was able to supply some for him and his siblings. An interesting newspaper article regarding an arrest came up as a hint with his name in an area where the family was known to live during that time, but I’m not positive it was him because the age was off by nearly a decade.
  • KF, a fourth cousin who also needed some documentation. I was able to supply a few documents for him.

Goals and progress…
Beginning of Week: 27,952 people
End of Week: 27,966 people
Change = +14 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

  1. https://www.phmc.state.pa.us/bah/dam/rg/di/r17-522warranteetwpmaps/r017-Map2502-Allegheny-JeffersonWeb.pdf ↩︎
  2. https://www.phmc.state.pa.us/bah/dam/rg/di/r17-114copiedsurveybooks/Books%20C1-C234/Book%20C025/Book%20C-025%20pg%20292.pdf ↩︎
  3. https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=78747 ↩︎
  4. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CS46-MVQR?view=fullText&keywords=Cox&lang=en ↩︎

Cox Family Research: Documenting Histories & Errors

02 Sunday Aug 2026

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DNA Updates

  • BC, through James Mattox and Elizabeth Moyer. This one wasn’t too hard to complete. I already had down to his grandmother documented. We connect through his dad and I wasn’t able to completely identify his mother.
  • SA, through Richard Puckett. I haven’t built out the Puckett tree so I will simply mark this one to do later.
  • LK, through Mathias Keller. This one was easy. Her father was already in my tree so it was only a matter of connecting her.

Coxes of Cox Creek Footnotes

12. Archer B Julbert, Historic Highways of America, “Braddock’s Road” (1903), IV, pp. 87-89. This book is available on Hathitrust.org. In the passage for May 7th, 1755, it mentions that they camped at Mr. Cox’s (probably Friend Cox) which was located along the Potomac River. It also states they crossed another waterway multiple times between Mr. Enoch’s place and Mr. Cox’s place. This was likely the Little Cacapon River. The distance between the two men’s strongholds was about 12 miles of poorly developed road. Mr. Enoch is quite possibly the father of Sarah and Mary Enoch who married Isaac’s sons Gabriel and Isaac Jr, respectively.

13. J C Fitzpatrick, ed., The Diaries of George Washington (1925), I, pp 405, 406, 449. This book is available on Hathitrust.org. The referenced pages describe the route Washington traveled in October and November 1770 which included not one but two of the Cox Forts. On October 8, 1770, the first Cox Fort mentioned was situated at the mouth of the Cacapon River (page 405)–the same location that Washington surveyed some 20 years previously. On October 10th, reference is made to a previous fort the Coxes had erected. This fort was located near Patterson Creek (page 406). The return trip in late November came past Cox’s Fort at the Cacapon (page 409).

14. Deed Book, Hampshire County, West Virginia, II through VI. This footnote references a series of land transactions made by various members of the Cox family during the period of 1757-1778. Mrs. Adams mentioned that Volume I was not available when she performed her research. Apparently it has been found at some point as FamilySearch has it digitized, along with the other volumes. At any rate, no mention of the Cox family was found in Volume I. The only mention of the Cox family in Volumes V and VI (1778-1785) were in reference to previous ownership of the parcel; they were not party to the transaction at hand.

Because of the number of documents found, I asked CoPilot to compile the information into a table for easy reference. I’m also attempting to have CoPilot map each parcel, however, that is more complicated. Based on the information in the table, the family gradually left the area. Gabriel appears to be the first to sell and leave in 1767. Friend followed in 1772 and Isaac and his sons brought up the rear between 1775 and 1779 which is consistent with Mrs. Adams’ summation.

Error Resolution

The last available update via Ancestry ProTools: I have 5067 errors in the tree–512 possible duplicates, 4100 with no documents, 455 other errors. My Ancestry error resolutions this week included:

  • BD, distant cousin needs sources. Unfortunately, no hints are populating for this living person. He was listed in his grandmother’s and his father’s obituary so those will have to do.
  • CS, another distant cousin needs sources. Since he is about the same age as my children, he was a little difficult to find. Thank goodness for small town newspapers that cover a ton of local events. He was named with his age as being a participant in a local parade. In my search, I was also able to find articles naming his two brothers as well.
  • JA, wife of a distant cousin needs sources. This one was easily sourced. She appears to be a cousin to my 2nd great-grandfather’s half-siblings.1

GED Miner Update

It’s been just over a month since I ran my tree through GED Miner. My tree score went up just a tad. I decided to work on tree errors and clean that up a bit.

  • There were four instances of a parent born after the child. Those were resolved by deleting the errant individuals.
  • There were nineteen age issues. Most of these were due to a transcription error when the documents were transcribed. A couple were connected to the wrong parents. A few were inlaws meant for pruning.
  • There are 312 people who are not attached to the tree. I’ll clean those out as I come across them. I found quite a few with the surname Taylor that were pruned.
  • There are 852 instances of duplicate birth or death events. I am going to tidy about 10 of these every day.

Goals and progress…
Beginning of Week: 27,998 people
End of Week: 27,952 people
Change = -46 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
  1. Bennett, G.T., The Asbill Family History, 1955, pages 99, 173, Ancestry.com. ↩︎

Research Progress on Isaac Cox Descendants

26 Sunday Jul 2026

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DNA Updates

  • AH, through Michael Kaiser and Mary Anne Claussmann. I already have half her line documented. It was fairly easy to trace the rest of her line. It’s good to see the next generation become interested in their roots.
  • MC, through Reuben Staton. This one will take some effort to fill in so I will set it aside until I am working on the McCullough and Staton lines.

Research on Benjamin Cox of Montgomery County, Ohio descendants

I’ve thought long and hard about this research pathway and the amount of time it is taking. Since this is a collateral family to my direct line, I’m going to shelve it for now. I need to concentrate on the children of Isaac Cox and finish up that chapter of my manuscript. I will continue to check for shared matches of my DNA match descended from Friend Cox, however, when I write up the section on Friend, I will need to address his son Benjamin and whether this Benjamin was him.

Getting back on track…

First order of business is to get back on track researching Isaac Cox’s children. As part of this task, back at the beginning of March I was revisiting the source citations from Evelyn Adams’ Coxes of Cox Creek KY. Citation #6 is where I fell down the rabbit hole that is Benjamin Cox, supposed son of Friend Cox.

7. Land Survey Book, Brooke County, West Virginia, I, pp. 45, 47, 53. This is a set of three land deeds that were executed by John Cox, son of Friend Cox, after Friend’s death in 1785. At the time of Friend’s death, the land was situated in Ohio County, Virginia, which is now in Brooke County, West Virginia. Friend died intestate. As the eldest son, the property fell to John and he distributed it to his named brothers–Jonathan, Joseph, and Benjamin. An attorney represented Jonathan, Joseph and Benjamin and no locations were mentioned for any of the men.

8. Draper MSS, typed copy of 16S280-286, in the Filson Club. This note references typed copies of the Draper Manuscripts that were viewed at the Filson Club in Louisville, Kentucky. According to Google, the originals are at the Wisconsin Historical Society and the FamilySearch Library has a digitized copy. Unfortunately, there are access restrictions on these documents and they can only be accessed at the library in Salt Lake City. The Wisconsin Historical Society will do lookups and email a digital image for a fee. I’m considering requesting the lookup because I am curious as to what it contains.The footnote pertains to information about George Cox, son of Isaac.

9. J M Toner, ed, Journal of My Journey Over the Mountains (1747-1748), by George Washington (1892), p. 111. This is George Washington’s journal which he wrote as a young surveyor in the Northern Neck of Virginia at the age of sixteen. It is available on Googlebooks and at Internet Archive. This record from 1750 places Friend Cox in Frederick County, Virginia. Curious as to where this parcel was located, I enlisted the help of CoPilot to plot this out. It took several attempts to get the application to make a somewhat accurate drawing which helps me visualize the location once and for all.

10. Land Records of Northern Neck of Virginia, Book M, p. 200. I have to question the citation as it does not appear to have the correct page number. These records can be found on FamilySearch.1 The volume has a self-included index which indicates that Gabriel Cox was mentioned on page 241. Also a John Cox was mentioned on page 324. In 1764, Gabriel Cox entered into a land rental agreement with Lord Fairfax regarding 162 acres of land in Hampshire County, Virginia.

A similar agreement was made between John Cox of Hampshire County and Lord Fairfax in 1765 for 30 acres of land adjacent to that of Friend Cox illustrated in the map above. It might be reasoned that because John was granted a much smaller plot of land that he was significantly younger than Gabriel or Friend. This John could have been a son of any of the three elder Cox men. Isaac’s son John was born ca 1744 which would have made him 21 at the time of this transaction. Friend’s son John reportedly was born in 1747 which would mean he had not yet reached his majority in 1765. There is no evidence to date that Gabriel had a son named John.

I did briefly look through the original indices during the desired time period for family members. There were a couple Cox entries well ahead of when this group arrived and there were others who used the spelling Cocks. The given names associated with these records did not seem to fit with the known information on this family so I am not pursuing them further.

11. Land Records of Northern Neck of Virginia, Book K, p. 376. This document issued to Friend Cox of Hampshire County by Lord Fairfax references the land assigned to Friend Cox that was surveyed in 1750 by George Washington.

I will pick up with note 12 next week.

Error Resolution

The last available update via Ancestry ProTools: I have 5077 errors in the tree–514 possible duplicates, 4108 with no documents, 455 other errors. My Ancestry error resolutions this week included:

  • A presumably living 6th cousin without sources. Using information in his father’s obituary, I was able to track down a marriage record for him and a brother who was also lacking sources.
  • A distant cousin married two women with similar names. Ancestry is questioning whether they are a duplicate pair. Based on information gathered for both women, they are indeed two separate individuals. His divorce from his first wife was rather publicized. Since it came on the heels of their infant son’s death, her behavior leading up to the divorce may have been a result of grieving her child.
  • A 5th cousin who needed sources which were easily obtained.

Goals and progress…
Beginning of Week: 27,984 people
End of Week: 27,998 people
Change = +14 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
  1. FamilySearch, IGN 008358045. ↩︎

Mapping My Family History: Tips and Tools

19 Sunday Jul 2026

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I took a week off from research for our 30th anniversary trip. It was nice to get away from the heat and life for a few days. We stayed at 1906 Lodge in Coronado and had our anniversary dinner at Kinme in San Diego. We wholeheartedly recommend both. We did a lot of site-seeing we hadn’t done in previous visits and even took in a bit of the Sunday outdoor pipe organ concert at Balboa Park. While we were walking along the beach after breakfast on our anniversary, we saw this sandcastle.

Now we are back home and I’m ready to get back to the research.

The local genealogical society where I live has Special Interest Groups (SIGs) that meet on a regular cadence. A new SIG that has formed is one for Artificial Intelligence. During our discussion, I mentioned I am wanting to create migration maps for my lines. A site that was suggested to me is TreeAlive.com. This site can do some interesting things, however, the migration map function is animated. I was hoping for something that is static that I can include in my manuscript. Doing a Google search, I ended up using My Google Maps and manually plotting the locations I wanted. This map is for my DeMoss line.

DNA Updates

  • KA, a distant cousin through Rebecca Wilks. This one isn’t going to be straight forward like I had hoped. It would seem that Mary Hughes, Rebecca’s granddaughter, and her first husband John W Kidd divorced in the 1890s. Both remarried before 1900. Mary claimed on the 1900 and 1910 census that she had nine children and all were still living. I’m having a hard time finding all nine children. Corah, Clara, and Ida were listed on the 1880 census and were married by 1900. Charles, born of her second marriage, was living with her in 1900. Mary was living with daughter Allie in 1910. Allie’s obituary names sisters Stella and Beatrice still living. Beatrice was living with her grandparents in 1900. That is seven children. This match supposedly connects through a son named Frank who was born about 1892.
    A bit of searching located an 8 year old Frank Kidd at Gordon Children’s Home in Shelby County, Indiana in the 1900 census.1 The birth month doesn’t match that of Mary and John’s presumed son, but that may not mean much. Mary and her second husband were residing in Rush County which is adjacent to Shelby County. The connection is starting to sound more plausible with this finding. Unfortunately, a biography on Mary’s father names her children and it doesn’t include a Frank.
    Another researcher has a Frank Kidd born in Indiana enlisted in the army in Ohio in 1910. Frank was listed as a soldier on his marriage record in 1918 in Alabama where he lived out his life. Frank died in 1953. His death certificate lists his parents as unknown which would be consistent with someone who was orphaned at a young age.
  • KD, a distant cousin through John Wesley Fielden. This one proved to be a bit easier to incorporate as her mother is already a DNA match in my tree.

Continuing Research on Benjamin Cox descendants: Emma Taylor Thomas and Millie Taylor Canada

I still have a few of Emma’s children to wrap up, starting with Anna Thomas Linthicum. Nothing too remarkable regarding Anna’s family. I still have not found much on Laura and Zelora. It appears that the family relocated between February 1902 and December 1903. Nothing appears in searches of FindaGrave and Newspapers between 1900 and 1910 for these names in Kentucky or Oklahoma. For all we know, they could have taken ill while in transit or succumbed to the measles outbreak that was reported around 1909. I don’t want to invest much more effort in this family unit and will move on to Millie Taylor Canada.

Millie and Ebben Canada had nine children, mostly sons. Nothing too remarkable was found so far on this family. I will continue with this family next week, picking up where I left off today on Home Canada Sr.

  • Jesse Cox + Mary Waugh > John Cox + Mary Parks > Louisa Cox + David Taylor > William F Taylor + Mary Lucy Pearson
    • Taylor
    • Temple
      • California: Marin, Sacramento
      • North Dakota: Stark
    • Canada
      • Oklahoma: Ottawa, Delaware, Craig
      • Kansas: Johnson
    • Burch
      • Oklahoma: Ottawa
    • Onions
      • Missouri: Jackson
      • Kansas: Johnson

Error Resolution

The last available update via Ancestry ProTools: I have 5077 errors in the tree–512 possible duplicates, 4110 with no documents, 455 other errors. My Ancestry error resolutions this week included:

  • Husband of a distant cousin needs source documents. I was able to add a few for him and for their three children who also needed records.
  • A distant cousin who needs source documents. I was able to update him and his siblings with documentation.
  • The husband of a 3rd great-grandaunt is in need of documentation. A few records were located for him.

Goals and progress…
Beginning of Week: 27,910 people
End of Week: 27,984 people
Change = +74 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
  1. 1900 US Federal Census, District 0102, Addison Township, Shelby County, Indiana, Sheet 5A, line 24. ↩︎

Researching the Descendants of Emma Taylor: A Genealogy Journey

05 Sunday Jul 2026

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DNA Updates

  • This week my first DNA match is a distant cousin connecting through Joseph Cardinal, my 5th great-grandfather. She was pretty easy to track and connect. Ancestry was indicating that she was related through my dad’s side, though. Maybe there is a connection through a different branch with this cousin. Something to watch for, although none of the names rang a bell.
  • The second DNA match is another distant cousin connecting through Valentine Mattox, a 4th great-grandfather on my dad’s side of the family. Interestingly enough, it appears this cousin might also connect through my Puckett line. Normally I would set this one aside to flesh out later, but since there appears to be a double connection, I’m anxious to work it now. Filling in the Puckett line was straight forward, however, making the connections to Valentine Mattox will take some effort and I will save that for another day.

Unusual Place Name – Bucklucksy

In researching the Rennels family, they resided in Bucklucksy, Oklahoma for a period of time. I was curious how the name came to be. Since Google is my friend on most days, I asked and then I had CoPilot condense it down into a single paragraph.

Bucklucksy—originally named from the Choctaw phrase Bok Luksi, meaning “Creek with turtles”—was the first settlement at the crossroads of the California and Texas roads where J.J. McAlester opened a general store in 1869. The discovery of nearby coal and McAlester’s success in attracting the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad in 1872 transformed the area, prompting the railroad and post office to adopt his name. Though Bucklucksy later became known simply as McAlester, parts of the old townsite now rest beneath Lake Eufaula, leaving only its story to surface.

Continuing Research on Benjamin Cox descendants: Emma Taylor Thomas

I am continuing my research on William Taylor’s descendants. This week’s research starts with a search for Emma Taylor Thomas’s daughters. Emma died in 1910 and is buried in Ottawa County, Oklahoma. Her obituary places the family near Needmore and there apparently was a measles outbreak at the time of her death.1 Information on her husband Joseph Thomas was hit or miss early in the search. A 1919 army transport manifest for their son George mentioned that Joseph was in Gore, Sequoyah County, Oklahoma. This is also the location where George was married later that year. George and his bride were enumerated in Wharton County, Texas in 1920. Laura and Zelora seemed to have vaporized during this time. Joe resurfaced in 1930 living with George and his family and they had returned to Oklahoma.

Emma and Joseph’s daughter Hazel was a little easier to track…she married and ended up with the rest of the family in California. Her obituary listed two sisters as living, however, they were not Laura and Zelora. Researching Edith and Anna, I found them and their father in Wharton County, Texas…next door to George. As it turns out, Anna married George’s brother-in-law in 1922 who was a widower with two children. They raised a sizeable family (Linthicum) which I likely will not finish assembling this week.

Eventually Joseph appeared in the 1910 census…in Delaware County, not Ottawa County. Afton, where Emma reportedly died, is near the county line so they very well could have been residing in Delaware County all along. Laura and Zelora are not named. Laura was fourteen so maybe, and that’s a big maybe, she had married by 1910. Zelora would have been about ten, so likely she had died. No mention of either girl was found in the family obituaries.

In a last ditched effort to find Laura and Zelora, I checked Mount Hope Cemetery on Find a Grave. I didn’t find them, but I did find an infant daughter of Joseph and Emma’s named Lenna. She was born on January 5, 1910 and lived about six weeks. There is also an unnamed infant son with no photo of the stone. The notes state he is a son of Joseph, but it is not clear where that information came from. From the information provided, these two could have been preemie twins.

Emma’s sister Millie Taylor reportedly had the measles in the summer of 1909 in Afton.2 Millie was working for a Mrs. Mason after she recovered from her illness.3 Another researcher had provided a death date for Millie so I followed up in the newspapers and confirmed it was the same person. She remained in the general area, married, and raised a substantial family. I will need to follow up with more research on her family (The Canadas).

  • Jesse Cox + Mary Waugh > John Cox + Mary Parks > Louisa Cox + David Taylor > William F Taylor + Mary Lucy Pearson
    • Taylor
      • Oklahoma: Ottawa
    • Rennels
      • Oklahoma: Pittsburg
      • California: Stanislaus, Butte
      • Oregon: Marion
    • Rogers
      • Oklahoma: Pittsburg
      • California: Stanislaus
    • Peeples
      • California: Butte, San Francisco
      • South Dakota
    • Mayer
      • California: San Francisco
    • Linthicum
      • Iowa: Polk
    • Mitchell
      • Missouri: Cole
    • Canada
      • Oklahoma: Ottawa
Map courtesy of Mapsius.com

Error Resolution

The last available update via Ancestry ProTools: I have 5074 errors in the tree–510 possible duplicates, 4108 with no documents, 456 other errors. My Ancestry error resolutions this week included:

  • A dangler not connected to anyone. She will be pruned.
  • A husband of a wife of a cousin. He will be pruned.
  • Husband of a distant cousin needs records. This took some effort. I did not have a first name for him and I did not have his mother-in-law’s name either. It took some process of elimination before I could identify and document this individual.

Goals and progress…
Beginning of Week: 27,684 people
End of Week: 27,910 people
Change = +226 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
  1. https://www.newspapers.com/image/606543616/?match=2&clipping_id=200814310 ↩︎
  2. https://www.newspapers.com/image/606541946/?match=1&terms=Millie%20Taylor ↩︎
  3. https://www.newspapers.com/image/606542838/?match=1&terms=Millie%20Taylor ↩︎

Roderick Family History: Exploring Kansas Research

28 Sunday Jun 2026

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DNA Updates

  • A DNA match on my mother’s side (Catt line) that I was able to add fairly easily. This branch is fairly easy to document at this time. She is a 3rd cousin 2x removed.
  • A second DNA match was revealed this week on my mom’s side. He descends from both the Catt line and Thompson line which explains why there are a few more centimorgans than normal for a 5th cousin. This one took a little effort since he is about the same age as my daughter and his tree isn’t very well built out. Most individuals are still living, but a great-grandfather on his mother’s side had an obituary available. It also helped that I went to school with his mother’s sister and I just happened to have purchased my high school’s alumni directory back in 2000. Quite the puzzle if you must know.

Rodericks in Kansas

One of my errors to fix this week was for Catera Roderick (see below). She could be found at age 4 months in the 1870 Census in the household of John Roderick in Kansas. John was born in 1790 so the idea that she was John’s daughter might seem far-fetched, although not an impossibility. John married a much younger woman, Almira Julian in 1865. A newspaper article about assistance for the poor briefly mentioned John, his wife, and four children.1 He died later that year.2

Hints for Almira or Catera do not readily populate. The Roderick Genealogy written by David Paul Roderick in 1999 listed an incorrect date of birth for Almira and made the assumption that Catera was John’s grandchild, not the daughter of Almira and John.

From the 1870 census, it would seem that Catera has a brother William who is two years her senior. The Roderick Genealogy mentions that William married a Viola Parrett. I was able to find their marriage record in Jefferson County, Kansas which would mean John’s family remained in the Valley Falls area until at least 1890. The 1880 Census for Almira, William or Catera is not populating in the hints so a manual search of the 1880 census is warranted.

A survey of the 1880 census for Deleware, Jefferson, Osawkie, Norton, and Rock Creek Townships in Jefferson County did not turn up any Rodericks. It’s possible that

  • Almira remarried between 1875 and 1880 and the children were enumerated under the new husband’s surname.
  • Almira died and the children were orphans.
  • The family relocated to another part of the county or another county for a period of time.
  • They were missed in the 1880 enumeration.

Continuing Research on Benjamin Cox descendants from Montgomery County, Ohio

I am continuing my research on William Taylor’s descendants. This week’s research starts with Emma Taylor. Emma died in 1910 before the census was taken and her family “disappeared” in Oklahoma. Emma’s headstone is in Afton, OK. Their son George was a military transport back from Europe in 1919. His father’s address was listed as Gore, OK. I’ll concentrate my search there to find Emma’s daughters.

  • Jesse Cox + Mary Waugh > John Cox + Mary Parks > Louisa Cox + David Taylor > William F Taylor + Mary Lucy Pearson
    • Taylor
    • Thomas
      • Kentucky: Estill
      • Oklahoma: Sequoyah, Wagoner
      • Arizona: Maricopa
      • California: Stanislaus
      • Texas: Wharton
    • Starkey
      • California: Stansilaus

Error Resolution

The last available update via Ancestry ProTools: I have 5023 errors in the tree–502 possible duplicates, 4066 with no documents, 455 other errors.

My Ancestry error resolutions this week included:

  • A stepson of a distant cousin is identified as a potential duplicate. This record falls under the criteria I have for pruning.
  • A mother in law of a distant cousin has no records. Another candidate for pruning.
  • a distant cousin who has two errors–no records and born more than 75 years after her father. Catera/Kittura/Katurah Roderick is listed in the 1870 Census with John P Roderick who was born ca 1790. John’s wife was of childbearing age so there is no reason why Catera could not be John’s daughter. Unfortunately, this type of error cannot be cleared or ignored.

Goals and progress…
Beginning of Week: 27,534 people
End of Week: 27,684 people
Change = +150 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
  1. The Valley Falls New Era, February 13, 1875, page 2. ↩︎
  2. The Valley Falls New Era, August 7, 1875, page 3. ↩︎

Discovering Ancestors: Overcoming Genealogy Challenges

31 Sunday May 2026

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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

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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

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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