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Digging Up My Roots

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Digging Up My Roots

Tag Archives: McDonald

Cox Family Research: Documenting Histories & Errors

02 Sunday Aug 2026

Posted by suzieg1969 in artificial intelligence, DNA Matches, Genealogy

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

ancestry, artificial intelligence, Braddock's Road, Cox, family-history, Genealogy, George Washington, Hampshire County, Hite, Jones, Keller, Mattox, McDonald, Mitchell, Moyer, Puckett, Stoker, Virginia

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. ↩︎

Roland Rudolph Willard

01 Monday Jun 2020

Posted by suzieg1969 in Genealogy

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Black Hawk War, California, Crawford, Gold Rush, Illinois, Lewis and Clark, McDonald, Missouri, Willard

Roland Rudolph Willard was born June 1, 1816 in St Louis City in what was then the Missouri Territory. His parents were Elinor McDonald and Alexander Hamilton Willard. Alex Willard was the youngest member of the Expedition of Lewis and Clark (1804-1806) which attempted to find a waterway that connected the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean. Led by Sacagawea, more than one hundred new animals and almost 200 new plants were documented during the first trip that explored the western territories of the United States.

Roland was one of twelve children born to Elinor and Alex. Those that have been identified include: Austin, Alexander II, Eliza, Christiana, Joel, Narcissa, Ellen, Lewis, George, and Nancy. The family lived in Missouri until about 1826 at which time they relocated to the Wisconsin Territory, living in Grant County.

Alex and four of his sons, including Roland, fought in the Black Hawk War. The Black Hawk War was a brief conflict between the United States and the Native Americans residing in the state of Illinois and Michigan Territory. The war lasted from April to August 1832. Other notable figures who also participated in the fighting included Abraham Lincoln, Zachary Taylor, and Jefferson Davis.

For a period of time around 1835, the family lived in Morgan County, Illinois, however, that was brief and they returned to Wisconsin Territory. Roland and his brother-in-law John Crawford purchased land in Iowa County in 1839. Roland sold off his lands in Wisconsin in 1847 and it is believed he, along with his brother Alex and John Crawford, headed west for California during the time of the Gold Rush. Alex and John were in Placerville listed as traders in the 1850 Census.

Roland’s whereabouts are a bit of a mystery until the state census of 1852. He is listed in Sacramento next door to John Crawford and family with the occupation of farmer. Little else can be found about Roland until his sudden death on Jun 11, 1859. He is buried in the Franklin Cemetery. His brother Lewis served as executor of his estate which appeared to be rather extensive. Probate documents indicated that his father Alex was the sole heir to the estate which would indicate that Roland was not married and had no children. However, there is a twelve year old Jackson Willard born in California listed in the 1860 Census with Alex and Elinor. It’s not clear who’s child he is, but some researchers have assigned him as Roland’s son.

Roland Rudolph Willard was my 2nd cousin 5x removed on my dad’s side.

REFERENCES

  • United States Census: 1850, 1860
  • California State Census, 1852
  • Illinois Compiled Census and Census Substitutes Index, 1835
  • California County Birth, Marriage and Death Records
  • California Wills and Probate Records
  • US Army Indian Campaign Service Records
  • US General Land Office Records
  • Find a Grave website
  • The Black Hawk War at Wikipedia
  • Lewis and Clark Expedition at Wikipedia

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