Tag Archives: Cox

2025 Week 14

06 Sunday Apr 2025

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I use Family Tree Maker for my offline family tree. It syncs with Ancestry so I don’t have to do double entry and and I have a backup copy of my work. Backups are important. It has a Plugin called Family Book Creator. I use this to generate the rough drafts of my family bios. I like it because you can include an abbreviated family tree with the text. It incorporates the facts from FTM and has the ability to include citations as well. I personally do not use the citation function when I generate the bios because of the way I am assembling my final document. It gets all discombobulated with the formatting.

After I generated the rough draft for Gabriel Cox and Nancy Squires, I realized I did not have Nancy’s parents entered into the tree, and as a result, they did not show up on the chart. I also realized that I needed to at least research the DNA matches from Nancy’s parents so I could make my case for John S Cox being a child of Gabe and Nancy. So researching my matches through John Squires and Mary Gott has been this week’s research focus. I have 16 matches through John and 22 through Mary. John was much older than Mary and died a few years after their marriage. She remarried and some of my matches are from the second marriage.

I have seven DNA matches from the lines of Nancy’s siblings–one from her full sister Margaret Squires and six from her half-sister Mary Caplinger. Interestingly enough, the match through Margaret is only 8 cM. Several of the matches from Mary are close to double that. It’s likely that there is an amplification effect from Mary’s husband, Gabriel Lemen. Gabriel’s mother was Mary Cox Lemen, an aunt to Nancy’s husband Gabriel Cox. The fact that these matches through Mary Caplinger circle back to the Cox line muddies my reasoning that John S Cox is a child of Gabriel and Nancy Cox. However, the one match through Margaret does, in fact, help the case. Such a tangled tree!

This week Ancestry gave me three new errors to resolve. I have 5265 errors in the tree–384 possible duplicates, 4273 with no documents, 608 other errors.

  • This week’s first error to correct is for an unconnected person in the tree. I cannot figure why he was added. Maybe a distant collateral family? I have removed him.
  • My second error to “fix” is the mother-in-law of a 3rd cousin 6x removed. I have not attached any records to her. Since I typically do not include in-laws of distant cousins, I will remove her and her husband.
  • My last person to clean up is the husband of a 5th cousin. He I will keep. I updated him and his wife (my 5th cousin). I even added a bit to that family to bring it up to date.

This week in the past…
I’d like to take an opportunity to celebrate the anniversaries of births, marriages, and deaths of my bloodlines which will occur during the week ahead.
346 years ago – birth of Jean Baptiste Creely (8th ggf)
333 years ago – birth of Jeanne Duguay (7th ggm)
282 years ago – marriage of Anna Mohr (7th ggm) and Michael Katz (7th ggf)
133 years ago – death of Caroline Nagley Nagele (3rd ggm)
114 years ago – death of Eli T Butler (3rd ggf)
113 years ago – death of Joseph Nagele (3rd ggf)
89 years ago – death of Anna Gravel Cardinal (2nd ggm)

Goals and progress…
Beginning of Week: 27,622 people
End of Week: 27,760 people
Change = +138 people
Tasks for coming week:

  • Continue editing and footnoting the bio of Gabriel and Nancy Cox and their children.

2025 Week 13

30 Sunday Mar 2025

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One night this week when I checked my DNA matches, I had several older matches that suddenly had a common ancestor assigned to them…the same common ancestor…Temperance Posey. I do not have Temperance Posey in my tree at this time. Based on hints, she was supposedly married to Benjamin Lankford, my 5th great grandfather. From what I can tell, she was married to a Benjamin Lankford in Tennessee, but I’m not sure he is one and the same with my Benjamin. Making this more puzzling is that I have no matches for Benjamin…none. After a few minutes I could tell this would require some digging…more than I had for a Tuesday night.

This incident got me thinking. When will I be working on the Lankfords? I definitely hope to wrap up work on the Cox family this year, but what comes next? Here is the order of family lines I’m planning to work on. This should definitely take me a while. The lines after Carroll are rather spotty and that is where my tree turns to Swiss cheese.

  • Cox
  • Winkler
  • McCullough
  • Reeve
  • Lankford
  • Caywood
  • Frost
  • Lowe
  • Ireland
  • Gross (not sure if there is anything to find)
  • Mattocks
  • Gaston
  • McGill
  • Staton
  • Carroll

Gathering information on the family of Thomas P and Sarah Hollingsworth Cox has been, at times, daunting. Their son Joseph C married Rhoda Flock and they had three children. Joe and Rhoda disappeared by the 1900 census. I found Rhoda mentioned in an 1892 newspaper attending a party. I also found her in some 1913 court documents along with her siblings. She was listed as the deceased wife of George W Clark. I have not yet substantiated that with a marriage record. Not sure I will.

Joe and Rhoda’s children weren’t challenging to document. They had scattered by 1900 which further supports that he had passed and she had moved on without her children, or was deceased herself. Their middle child, Thomas, married and had a child, then apparently divorced, but later was found listed as a boarder in his ex-wife’s household after she remarried. Rather unexpected, if nothing else.

Henry Clay Cox and his wife Lydia Parker were a bit easier to document. There was actually a decent write up when they celebrated their golden wedding anniversary. The article mentioned that Henry had three older brothers that served in the Civil War and two of them did not make it home. This will help with my argument that John S Cox was a child of Gabriel and Nancy.

The last two children of Gabriel and Nancy Cox that needed review were Nancy Jane and Susan. There isn’t a lot of information on either of the girls, but they do have headstones. Susan’s stone leaves me scratching my head. It’s old and weathered. The death date barely fits on the stone and it is unclear what the full year stamped into the stone is. Most researchers have called it 1837 but that does not correlate with other family events. Gabriel died in March 1836 so Susan could not have been born in April 1837 as this interpretation might suggest. Enlarging the photograph posted by Cathy Griggs on Find A Grave (memorial 57751282), I almost want to say it is 1832. This would fit with the birth gap between Henry and Nancy. Please let me know if you agree in the comments.

This week Ancestry gave me three new errors to resolve. I have 5281 errors in the tree–402 possible duplicates, 4271 with no documents, 608 other errors.

  • My first error to correct this week was the father-in-law of my 4th cousin 5x removed. To keep myself from diving down every gopher hole, one of the guidelines I set for myself is to not research the extended families of those who marry into my tree. That includes the parents of the “inlaws”. If it becomes necessary to FAN out, I will. But as a rule of thumb, I leave them out of my tree. So, Mr. Edgerley and his wife will be removed from the tree to resolve the “issue” of having no records attached.
  • The next person to fix was the husband of a 3rd cousin 2x removed. This was easy since he had several Ancestry hints. Updated him, added a few family members and I was done!
  • The last error to correct this week was for Sebastian Catt, my 6th great-granduncle. Not sure why I need 5 references for his marriage to Sebra Conger, but at least he’s documented now. There are also several pay vouchers for him during 1810 when he served in the Indiana Militia.

This week in the past…
I’d like to take an opportunity to celebrate the anniversaries of births, marriages, and deaths of my bloodlines which will occur during the week ahead.
320 years ago – birth of Nicholas DeVore (7th ggf)
97 years ago – death of Rebecca Coppock Mattox (2nd ggm)

Goals and progress…
Beginning of Week: 27,605 people
End of Week: 27,622 people
Change = +17 people
Tasks for coming week:

  • Generate a rough draft of Gabriel and Nancy’s family and start editing and footnoting.

2025 Week 12

23 Sunday Mar 2025

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I started this week’s research working on the family of Joseph D Cox and Nancy Sartor. Nancy is a bit of a a conundrum. For some reason I had her death in 1882 Missouri. I had no idea where that information came from since there weren’t any citations attached–bad younger me.

After thinking on this for a bit, and devoting a couple hours trying to find where this information came from, I remembered in 2019 a historian from Knox County had found a ledger notebook that may have belonged to J F Nicoson that included various dates for JD and Nancy’s family. Some of the information was entered into the notebook in 1889. Based on the variety of handwriting, it would appear that multiple people contributed to this information. In this ledger, it states, “Nancy Jane Cox departed this life June 22, 1882 of quick consumption in Joppa, Massac County, Illinois”. Unfortunately, I have not yet found anything to corroborate this information or to explain why she was in extreme southern Illinois.

Image from the Norbert Brown Collection.

Also on this week’s to do list was finishing up the family of Sarah P Cox and Philip Smith. Several of the daughters’ obituaries stated they were one of thirteen(!) children. The problem I was facing was a couple of the obituaries I first looked at named the only living brother as Clarence so I thought Harlan had died before them. Of course, when I was researching Harlan (he was the youngest), things were not adding up. He was alive after these sisters had passed. So, back I went, rereading the obituaries a bit closer. As it turned out, Harlan outlived all of his siblings.

At this point I could only account for eleven of the thirteen. I started looking at when each person was born and checking the gaps. In the mid-1800s, it was common for women to be perpetually pregnant…new baby every fifteen to twenty months. I noticed a couple bigger gaps of three years or so. Remembering that the 1850 and 1860 censuses don’t always populate full family units at once in Ancestry, I checked those documents again. I found Mary who was born in one of the gaps showing up on the 1850 census as a newborn, and George who was born in another. George was listed as a seven year old in 1860 census but not included in 1870. I have no idea what might have happened to them. Both were very likely deceased by 1900 when Philip’s will was written. He only named the other eleven children. At least I have accounted for everyone’s birth.

This week Ancestry gave me three new errors to resolve. I have 5280 errors in the tree–392 possible duplicates, 4280 with no documents, 608 other errors.

  • A living 5th cousin 2x removed from my Cox line who did not have any documentation attached. Surprisingly, she was in the Nebraska Birth Index and I was able to update her sisters and her parents all at the same time!
  • A living 6th cousin 2x removed from my DeMoss line who also did not have any documentation attached. Being fairly young, little could be found for her. I was able to add a reference for one of her brothers as a consolation.
  • The last error assigned this week was for Abigail Bonnell, a 6th great-grandaunt on my paternal side. Very little is available about Abigail or her husband Jonathan Johnson, but I was able to find a couple facts in Genealogies of the First Settlers of Passaic Valley, New Jersey. Copies of this 1851 compilation can be found on Ancestry and archive.org.

This week in the past…
I’d like to take an opportunity to celebrate the anniversaries of births, marriages, and deaths of my bloodlines which will occur during the week ahead.
267 years ago – birth of Mary Magdalan Catt (7th ggm)
249 years ago – birth of Mary Catt (6th ggm)
189 years ago – death of Gabriel S Cox (4th ggf)
160 years ago – marriage of Apollonia Braun (3rd ggm) and Georg Keller (3rd ggf)

Goals and progress…
Beginning of Week: 27,584 people
End of Week: 27,605 people
Change = +21 people
Tasks for coming week:

  • Sort out the family of Thomas P. Cox and Sarah Hollingsworth.
  • Continue to look for documentation connecting John S Cox to his siblings as further proof that he was a child of Gabriel and Nancy.

2025 Week 11

16 Sunday Mar 2025

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One of the Facebook groups I follow is Genealogy Tip of the Day by Michael John Neill. On a daily basis, he’ll post interesting little tidbits related to genealogy. I recommend genealogists of all levels subscribe to his posts. On Monday, Michael led off a post with “Is it necessary to research your fifth cousin’s third mother-in-law whose daughter he was only married to for a few weeks?” That made me stop and think. Was I doing something similar by researching all the descendants of my 4th great grandparents? My end goal isn’t to do a descendants report on the Cox family. My goal is to research the lineage of my grandfather Samuel T DeMoss Sr. When I started the project, I decided that the end product would contain biographies of each couple for each bloodline that I could reasonably prove. As part of the biographies, I would include a list of any children either parent had, with limited details on the children and their spouses. To keep the project manageable, I would not delve further down the lines in my manuscript. So, I ask myself, why am I spending so much time right now researching people who will not make it into my book? I did this before when I was working on the DeMoss line. Ultimately, I checked myself and got back on track. I think I need to check myself again and get back to the current topic at hand, namely the children of Gabriel and Nancy Cox.

There was a mini-rant in one of my Facebook genealogy groups this week about how women were just extensions of their husbands–Mrs. John Doe, Mrs. Harry Smith, etc. They were never listed by their given names. I chuckled and moved on. At least it was funny until it hindered me from finding an obituary for Elizabeth Mabes, aka Mrs. John Mabes.

Sadly, women were considered extensions of their husbands. Can’t find her? Check under ‘Mrs. His Name’

This week Ancestry gave me three new errors to resolve. I have 5281 errors in the tree–390 possible duplicates, 4283 with no documents, 608 other errors. That’s 10 more than I had last week. Must be some of those sixth cousins or so that I added or their spouses or their kids.

  • A 6th cousin from my DeMoss line. He had several hints and I was able to clean up his record.
  • My second error to clean up was for Margaret Cowhick. I *think* she is my 5th great grandfather William DeMoss’s sister-in-law. She married Lewis DeMoss in 1802 in Fleming County, Kentucky. Someone posted an image of the marriage bond, so I attached that to her and she should be good to go now.
  • The last error is for a living 3rd cousin. She’s probably about the same age as my daughter and doesn’t have any hints available yet. I gleaned her name from her grandfather’s obituary. Won’t be able to fix that one for now.

This week in the past…
I’d like to take an opportunity to celebrate the anniversaries of births, marriages, and deaths of my bloodlines which will occur during the week ahead.
235 years ago – marriage of Mary Overlin (6th ggm) and Christian Hibner (1st husband)
189 years ago – birth of John W Fielden (3rd ggf)
183 years ago – birth of George Winkler (3rd ggf)
180 years ago – birth of Joseph Nagele (3rd ggf)
32 years ago – death of Phyllis Keller DeMoss (mother)

Goals and progress…
Beginning of Week: 27,549 people
End of Week: 27,584 people
Change = +35 people – goal not met
Goal for coming week: Finish research on Sarah Piety Cox and Philip Smith family. Start research on Joseph D Cox family. Continue to look for documentation connecting John S Cox to his siblings as further proof that he was a child of Gabriel and Nancy.

2025 Week 3

19 Sunday Jan 2025

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Making headway in the Rhodes branch of the Cox family this week. YAY! Time was spent building out the family of Anna Rhodes Meehan. The migration of this family was somewhat interesting and seems to be driven by Anna’s husband, Walter. Walter had been married twice before Anna, and she was a bit older than most first time brides at 34. Walter was originally from Iowa and had lived for a time in Gallatin County, Montana. I’m not exactly sure how he became connected with Anna who had lived her entire life in Perry County, Indiana. I do not see anything obvious in my tree where Walter would have crossed paths with a Rhodes or Cox family member in either Iowa or Montana. There could have been a friend of a friend who put them in contact with each other. Or Anna could have been a mail order bride. According to newspaper announcements of their marriage, he was highly respected by his pastor. This would support the first theory. It is an interesting question to pose, but not one I have the time to explore fully. After returning to Iowa for a few years, the Meehans moved to South Dakota until the late 1930s when they relocated to Merced County, California.

A mail-order bride was a woman whose introduction to her husband came through the mail, and one who made plans to marry him before meeting in person. -National Postal Museum

Just two Rhodes children to finish researching. I should be able to complete this task by month end.

Beginning of Week: 26,878 people
End of Week: 26,954 people
Change = +76 people – GOAL MET!
Goal for coming week: Add 50 new people

2025 Week 2

12 Sunday Jan 2025

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It was a rather uneventful research week for me.

On the DNA front, no new matches that I could easily insert into my tree were produced. There were tons of new matches with little to no helpful information. What strikes me funny is there were a couple people who tagged themselves “willing to help”. These individuals did not have a linked tree associated with their results. You know what would be helpful? BUILD. YOUR. TREE.

I did some place name clean up. It will take forever and a day to clean up my place name list in Family Tree Maker. Some time ago I tried to do a clean up. It was a rather discouraging task and I hardly made a dent. I focused this week on places in Perry County, Indiana since that is where the family I am working on is located. I think it is important to have a system established for place names and try to adhere to it for clarity. It can be quite confusing if the place is listed as “Perry, Indiana”. Is this Perry County or a Perry Township? How many counties in Indiana have a Perry Township? It could be as many as ninety-two!

Perry County, Indiana 1876
Indiana Historical Society

I’m continuing with my build out of the descendants of Gabriel and Nancy Cox through their granddaughter Martha Cassidy Rhodes. The thing that captured my attention this week is that a couple of the women in this line, sisters in fact, married late in their thirties and tried to have children. Unfortunately, the babies only lived a couple days. The cause of death for one of the infants was Bandl’s Ring. Not familiar with this term, I looked it up.

Bandl’s ring occurs when the uterus retracts during contractions, but the cervix doesn’t dilate quickly enough. The ring forms around the baby’s neck or shoulders, obstructing labor. 
–Google AI

How tragic! Family history research is definitely filled with learning opportunities on many different topics, including geography and medicine.

I still have three of Rhodes children to finish up before moving on. Hopefully, I can do that by the end of January.

Beginning of Week: 26,821 people
End of Week: 26,878 people
Change = +57 people – GOAL MET!
Goal for coming week: Add 50 new people

2025 Week 1

05 Sunday Jan 2025

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I do this every year. Resolve to blog regularly and then it falls to the wayside. Let’s see how long I stick with it this year. I’ll start with a summary of what I accomplished last year and move on from there.

I’m continuing to work on the ancestry of my paternal grandfather, Samuel Thomas DeMoss, Sr. I moved on from the DeMoss line to the Cox line in 2024. With the release of the Full Text Search functionality on FamilySearch last year, I have found some interesting details about the family of my 4th great grandparents William J. DeMoss and Elizabeth Lowe DeMoss. Divorce records and land deed records cleared up several details that were still out there for me. Their son Isaac (my 3rd great grandfather) has a ton of land deed transactions on the books in both Knox and Daviess Counties. Every month or so I will do a quick follow up search to see if anything new and exciting pops up.

I put the DeMoss line on pause with my 4th great grandparents. The documentation currently available for Fleming County, Kentucky, in the early 1800s doesn’t amount to much for William and Polly DeMoss. It doesn’t appear that he was too involved in local politics or was at odds with the law, but it’s not clear exactly who he descends from or where he was prior to Fleming County. At this time, the only thing that might solve this riddle is if we had Y DNA results from my male cousin or his male descendants.

I’m about a year into my research on the Cox line. I am cleaning up what I already had and filling in the branches downward. My 2nd great grandfather Frank Cox lived quite the life and I continue to find more documents on him every time I search. He’s now up to four (4) wives! I’m still looking for definitive proof that John S Cox (my 3rd great grandfather) is the son of Gabriel and Nancy Cox. There is a lot of circumstantial evidence that needs to be sorted through before I can feel confident in this parental assignment.

I am currently building out the descendants of Martha Ann Cox who married Luke Cassidy. I have six confirmed DNA matches through Martha. Luke and Martha had six known children and resided in Perry County, Indiana. Some of their descendants still live in the general area in south central Indiana, while others have migrated to the Pacific Northwest. This week I am specifically working on the family of Martha Henrietta Cassidy Rhodes and discovering my “5th cousins”. She and Sylvester had six children that I am aware of. I’m currently working on daughter #2. I expect the Rhodes family will take me a month to complete, depending on how much basic information I can find.

There were two individuals that stood out to me this week. These are usually younger individuals that catch my attention. The first was a 30 year old male in the late 1940s who died of a stabbing to his femoral artery. According to the man who ultimately was convicted of manslaughter, the victim had tried to rob him and he was merely acting in self-defense. The other was a 23 year old woman who was driving to work at a hospital in Evansville. Apparently the roads were slick and she was trying to pass another vehicle on or near a bridge. She lost control and died instantly from her injuries.

Unrelated to my Cox research, I had one new DNA match that I was able to place in my tree down my Roderick branch.

Progress: Tree contains 26,821 people
Goal: Add 50 new people this week

UPDATE: Cox and McCullough

25 Sunday Feb 2024

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I’ve set aside my DeMoss research and am moving on to my Cox ancestors. I don’t know why but my Cox ancestors are some of my favorites. Maybe it is because of the snippets about great-grandma Blanche I’ve been told by my aunt over the years…how she stepped in on behalf of my uncle during my grandmother’s difficult second marriage. Maybe because Blanche’s grandfather died in the Civil War. Maybe because of the well-documented stories that already exist about the Cox family members who came before. If nothing else, this is not a boring bunch of skeletons in my closet!

So, I’m working on the Cox line and the first family unit to clean up for the manuscript is that of my 2nd-great grandfather Frank Cox. I’ve written about Frank before, exposing some details that other researchers in the family hadn’t yet discovered. The one detail that really bugged me that I didn’t have was the date that Frank married Jennie Hollingsworth. I had searched the Knox County marriage records forward and backward with no luck. This time, I decided to try the newspaper. I simply love the fact that the Knox County library has digitized so many of the old papers and I can access them from 2000 miles away! I plugged in my search criteria and voila! They were married on July 4, 1876 in LAWRENCEVILLE! That would explain why I could not find them in the Knox County marriage database. For those of you that don’t know, back in the day, Lawrence Co, IL was Knox County’s very own Gretna Green. Yay! Now I have another source to confirm they did get married and now we have a date.

Of course, I don’t work on just a single person at one time. I’m also unraveling the generation before and after at the same time. This was especially true today with Frank Cox’s family. In building the timeline for this family, it seems they kept moving back and forth between Cape Girardeau County, Missouri and Knox County, Indiana…and so did the McCullough family. I wrote about Arabelle’s parents, Oliver and Rachel, way back in 2014. I basically lost track of them after the 1880 census. Re-examining Arabelle’s marriage license from Cape Girardeau, she was under 18 and it has a notation that her father OP McCullough gave written permission for her to marry. This means Oliver was alive in 1888. Then, as I was scouring the land and court records for Frank down there, I came across a land transaction listing Rachel McCullough and Francis M Cox as grantors in 1891. Since Frank was listed on the transaction instead of Oliver, either Oliver and Rachel had divorced or Oliver was deceased. At this point in time, I’m leaning toward deceased. I haven’t found any additional information on Rachel.

So, to sum up my new findings…

  • Frank married Jennie Hollingsworth in Lawrenceville, IL on July 4, 1876
  • Oliver McCullough likely died sometime between 1888 and 1891, in either Missouri or Indiana
  • Rachel McCullough died sometime after 1891, probably in Missouri

Naomi Cox

26 Tuesday May 2020

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On May 26, 1865, a daughter named Naomi was born to John L. Cox and Naomi Steen of Washington Township in Knox County, Indiana. Naomi had four older brothers and three half-brothers from her father’s first marriage. A couple years later her parents would give her a little sister named Caroline.

Naomi attended school as a girl and lived on the family farm until her marriage to Samuel Kitts on September 7, 1904. She took on the role of farmer’s wife as she and Samuel settled into their life together. They did not have any children of their own, but did have several nieces and nephews.

In October 1947, Naomi suffered a fall which broke her hip. She did not fully recover from the injury. She died eight months later on June 16, 1948 at Good Samaritan Hospital from heart failure at the age of eighty-three.

Naomi Cox was my second cousin, 4x removed on my dad’s side.

REFERENCES

  • United States Census, 1870, 1880, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930, 1940
  • Indiana Marriage Index
  • Indiana Death Certificates
  • Vincennes Sun-Commercial, October 14, 1947

Mura Mae Cox

10 Sunday May 2020

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Mura May Cox

On May 10, 1897 in Vigo Township, Knox County, Indiana, Mura Mae Cox was born to Emily Arabelle McCullough and Frank Cox.  She was the third of five siblings that lived to adulthood–Raymond and Blanche were older, and Anna and Jessie were younger.  Her father supported the family through farming.

Soon after the birth of Jessie in 1904, the family moved to Welch Township in Cape Girardeau County, Missouri.  Frank remarried in 1907 to Mollie Bugg Givens Schwepker.  It is unclear what Arabelle’s fate was between 1904 and 1907.  The Deed Record Index for the land purchase in Welch Township indicated that both Frank and Arabelle were listed in the transfer.  That would lend credence that she possibly perished in Missouri.

With the addition of a step-mother, the 1910 Census actually has the five siblings rather scattered.  Raymond and Mura were living at home with their father.  Blanche worked as a servant for a private family.  Anna and Jessie could be found back in Knox County living with different families.  The exact circumstances surrounding this situation are unknown.  Anna was listed as a ward of Mr. and Mrs Bode Goodman in Bicknell.  Ann and Charles Rogers were raising Jessie in Westphalia.  Ann was Frank’s sister and Jessie’s aunt.

Mura Mae saw both of her older siblings marry in 1911.  In January 1915, her father died of tuberculosis in Vincennes.  It’s possible they were back in Indiana visiting family over the holidays.  Since her father did not have a will, the widow was placed in charge of the estate and Mura Mae basically was homeless.  She was found in 1920 to be living with her father’s cousin Nathan Killion and his wife Cordelia in Daviess County, Indiana.  In November 1920, Mura Mae married Jesse Thomson and they moved to Indianapolis.

Mura and Jesse had three children: Colleen, Shirley and Ramon.  In 1930, they were living on Sugar Grove Avenue, just a few miles from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  The house they lived in then may still be there today.  It is possible it was a duplex at the time.  Jesse supported the family as a sales manager for a hardware store.  By 1940, he had risen up to the rank of territorial manager.  They had moved to the Crown Hill part of Indianapolis which not far from the present day Children’s Museum.

Over the years, their children grew up and started families of their own while Mura and Jesse continued to live in Indiana’s capital.  Despite the lack of a cohesive childhood together, pictures of Mura and her brother and sisters would indicate they remained close throughout the years.  In 1965, her sister Blanche died of colon cancer.  Raymond followed in 1968.  On December 22, 1975 at the age of 78, Mura was a victim of breast cancer.

Mura Mae Cox

Mura Mae was my 2nd great aunt on my dad’s side.

REFERENCES

  • United States Census – 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930, 1940
  • Indiana Death Certificates
  • Indiana Marriage Certificates
  • Find a Grave website
  • Deed Records 1805-1910, Cape Girardeau County MO
  • Missouri Marriage Records
  • Missouri Wills and Probate Records

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