Tag Archives: Newspapers

Researching Yohogania County, Virginia

01 Sunday Feb 2026

Posted by in Genealogy, Newspapers, Revolutionary War

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , ,

Last week I did not finish resolving the hints from the Cawood family that were identified as “new” by Ancestry. The last one was for my 8th great grandmother Anne Terrett. She married Stephen Cawood and then John Wynne. An article entitled “Berry Family of Charles County” postulates that after John’s death, Anne married James Berry in St Mary’s County, Maryland in 1686. It will be interesting to research the Cawoods as the published family genealogies surrounding this branch go back into the 17th Century Tidewater Region. I am excited to start this chapter at some point in the future.

As I review the many newspaper articles recounting historical information about Yohogania County, there is mention in the early days of the county that the sheriff was ordered to erect a “Ducking Stool” in the Monongahela River. So, what is a Ducking Stool? According to Google, it is a medieval punishment device, mostly used to publicly humiliate disorderly women for offenses like scolding, gossiping, or behaving like a shrew. It consisted of a chair affixed to the end of a long beam suspended over water. The offender would be strapped to the chair and repeatedly dunked into the water. In some instances, the dunkings were severe and resulted in death by drowning.

Most of the newspaper references to Yohogania in Allegheny County during the first half of the twentieth century were in reference to the Yohogania Chapter of the Daughters of American Colonists. The articles referencing the short history of the lost county usually mentioned the boundary struggles between Virginia and Pennsylvania, the commissioning of instruments of punishment such as the ducking stool or stocks, or identifying which counties now occupy the region. Little specific information is provided about individuals who may have resided in Yohogania County.

Articles written in Fayette County publications tend to focus on the roles Colonel William Crawford and Zachariah Connell played in the county’s history. One particular article1 goes into gross detail regarding the gruesome death of Colonel Crawford at the hands of British forces and their allies the Indians at Sandusky in 1782.

Little to no reference was made to my Cox family in the articles about Yohogania’s history. I attribute the lack of information to the fact that the family did not stay in the area. Yes, Colonel Isaac played a role in the county government and was a ranking member of the militia, however, their departure to Kentucky placed them in the honorable mention category at best. Having perused the papers on Newspapers.com from Allegheny, Fayette and Washington County, I will resume my search in Crumrine’s works.

Examination of all mentions of Cox in the History of Washington County, Pennsylvania show individuals with the surname Cox were in the area as early as 1756. These early individuals likely were not related to the family I am currently researching. Their presence, however, is a clear indication that I should proceed with caution.

On page 129, mention of an Isaac Cox is associated with a discussion about Colonel Crawford’s Sandusky Campaign. Since this event occurred in 1782, the Isaac Cox mentioned is likely not to be my 6th great grandfather or his son, as they had removed to Kentucky two years prior. This could be a son of either Friend or Gabriel Cox, brothers of Isaac Sr.

In 1770 (page 146), a Gabriel Cox acquired property on Peters Creek. The assessment roll for 1772 for Springhill Township, Bedford County included Gabriel Cox as well. This Gabriel is likely to be Isaac Sr’s brother.

In 1777 (page 186) at the Council of War at Catfish Camp, Gabriel Cox’s residence was named a proper place for magazines and 2.5 tons of lead and ammunition were to be delivered to that location. Also in 1777, the justices of the peace were tasked with obtaining the Oath of Allegiance from all males over the age of 16. The list of men who took the oath in Ohio County, Virginia2 in 1777 included Gabriel Cox, David Cox, Israel Cox, and Peter Cox. This was likely Isaac Sr’s brother Gabriel and his three sons. I have not yet found a similar listing for Yohogania County.

In late 1775 (page 205), Gabriel Cox, et al, were tasked with making a preliminary report for a road from Fort Dunmore to Henry Heath’s farm. This is likely Gabriel Cox, son of Isaac Sr. He was also involved with development of other roads within the county. Gabriel also inventoried various estates in probate. (page 210)

A George Cox served on a road commission in Augusta County in 1776 prior to the formation of Yohogania County (page 211). This is likely Isaac Sr.’s son. George’s residence was identified as Ohio County, Virginia in some of the land deeds in Nelson County, Kentucky, after his father’s death.

In 1777, Isaac Cox was part of the commission to build a courthouse and jail. (page 215).

In 1778, John Cox’s property was mentioned as a point of reference for a road commission. (page 217) His property was located near Peters Creek. He is believed to be another son of Isaac Sr as his residence was listed as Washington County, PA in the 1790 land deed.

In October 1779, Isaac Cox applied for a passport to relocate to Kentucky County, essentially tendering his resignation as a justice of the peace for Yohogania County. It was also testified by Colonel Crawford that Isaac was a junior officer in the Virginia military in 1764.

In 1781 amid the turmoil of fixing the boundary between Virginia and Pennsylvania, it was alleged that Lt. Col Gabriel Cox and his men were terrorizing citizens who had previously been loyal to Pennsylvania as opposed to Virginia. In January 1782, Gabriel was brought up on four sets of charges–two for assault and two for assault and battery. Juries of his peers acquitted him of the two incidents of assault and the assault and battery charges ended with noli [sic] prosequi.3 When pressed, the court clerk provided an explanation to Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania. In a nutshell, certain male residents of the county had been “drafted” to serve under Colonel George Rogers Clark and they were evading the draft. Gabriel was tasked with rounding up these draft dodgers. His tactics were considered somewhat excessive, but warranted. It also didn’t hurt his cause that the majority of his jurors may have been former Virginians and sympathetic to his plight. (page 239)

That is going to do it for this week. I want to do another pass thru FamilySearch for Washington County before I move on to Frederick County and Hampshire County, Virginia. I’ll do that at the library on Saturday. I also want to go thru the rest of the hardcopy books they have on Washington County. I also need to create a few reminders for a future trip to the library in Salt Lake City. It’s been a month since I synced Family Tree Maker with my Ancestry tree, so I am doing that as I finish up this week’s notes.

Error resolution. The last available update: I have 4919 errors in the tree–380 possible duplicates, 4093 with no documents, 446 other errors.

  • The first error to resolve was the husband of a distant cousin. I had to trace back to the 1950 census for her before I could identify his first name and find a source for him.
  • The second is the father in law of a distant cousin. Considering the limitations I have imposed for my tree, this record was deleted.
  • Lastly, a 3rd great grandaunt down my Cawood line! What are they odds? I found several sources to update her record.

Goals and progress…
Beginning of Week: 27,075 people
End of Week: 27,081 people
Change = +6 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
  • Review Minutes of Yohogania Co, VA
  • Look for documents in Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Kentucky

  1. “The Hero-Martyr of the Youghiogheny,” The Daily Courier, (Connellsville, PA), Friday, June 25, 1976, page B-6, newspapers.com ↩︎
  2. “The Echoer”, volume 1, number 9 (April 1968), page 5, FamilySearch.org. ↩︎
  3. nolle prosequi – a formal entry on the record by a prosecutor which voluntarily ends a criminal case before a verdict. ↩︎

Researching Early Yohogania County Families for Ancestral Clarity

25 Sunday Jan 2026

Posted by in Genealogy, Newspapers, Revolutionary War

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , ,

As I was working on my errors this week, one of them was Penelope Cawood, a 6th great grandaunt. The source I found for her was a family history on the Cawoods. She was the aunt of my 5th great grandfather, Moses. Moses lived from 1725 to 1809 but I hadn’t done much research on this bloodline to date. In the biography of Moses, it mentioned that he served on the grand jury in Washington County, Virginia in 1782. This perked me up — to the best of my knowledge he is not a proven DAR Patriot and serving on a grand jury is considered patriotic service. I will definitely need to explore this line and see if I can adequately document back to Moses.

What I am starting to discover is that several of my family lines all lived in the same area at approximately the same time. The DeMosses were in Frederick County, Virginia, as were the Coxes and now the Cawoods. To date I have not found them in each others business, so they may or may not have been friendly with each other. From Frederick County, they all went in somewhat different directions.

I decided to first check the WikiTree to see what it contained for the older Isaac Cox to serve as hints. I wanted to scream! It is a total trainwreck! It would appear that information for no less than THREE Isaac Coxes were included on his record. I did not have the mental bandwidth to try and fix it. This record punctuates how much I hate community trees.

An speaking of community trees, I received my weekly notification for ancestor records I am monitoring on FamilySearch. To my 4th great grandparents Joseph Reeve and Sarah Ireland who were born in the United States and lived their until their deaths in Indiana, a woman attached an unknown John Reeve as a child and attached references from England! Oh, first names match so it must be a match! Seriously? I messaged her and asked that they be removed. I’ll give her a week then do it myself. Do not cross me and my ancestors!

Prior to migrating to Kentucky, the Cox family settled a few years in Yohogania County, Virginia. Yohogania County is sometimes referred to as a “lost county” because it no longer exists. It was formed in 1776 from Augusta County, Virginia. The northern boundary of the county consisted partially of the Allegheny and Ohio Rivers, while the Monongahela River bisected the area. Yohogania County ceased to exist after 1780 when the area was ceded to Pennsylvania and became parts of current day Washington, Fayette, Beaver, Westmoreland, and Allegheny Counties.

As I try to sort where my 6th great grandfather Isaac was living, as well as his children and siblings, it will be useful to track down the Oath of Allegiance that was mandated by the General Assembly of Virginia in May 1777. If my grandfather and my uncle were residing in two different counties, they would be on two different lists.

A quick newspaper search for Isaac Cox in Washington County, Pennsylvania returned some 500 results, many from the first half of the twentieth century. It would seem there still might be some distant Cox cousins who remained in that area. One historical article in particular caught my eye and made me reconsider my search parameters since I am only interested in information regarding Isaac and family during the time Yohogania County was in existence. This significantly reduced the articles returned to five. Removing the Cox restriction on the search expanded the available documents to 50. While these articles do not mention my Cox family, they do provide some general information on who the movers and shakers were at the time. For example, a Mrs. S Kussart had a regular column in the Monongahela publication The Daily Herald during the 1930s. One of the pioneers she shared was a Paul Froman. I do recall seeing some dealings between Colonel Isaac and a Froman, possible kinfolk of Paul, in the Kentucky records.

Also of note is a regular column entitled “Early Western Pennsylvania” which regularly discussed historical figures from Yohogania County. It was written by Richard T Wiley and published in same newspaper.

Because parts of Yohogania County eventually became part of Allegheny, Westmoreland, Beaver and Fayette Counties, surveys of newspapers in those areas should also be made.

Since today was a library day for me, I took the time to look through an actual book. One book that they had on the shelf was Virginia Court Records in Southwestern Pennsylvania by Boyd Crumrine. This is the consolidated edition that contains records from the District of West Augusta, Ohio and Yohogania Counties from 1775 to 1780. The index made this task a breeze. In two hours I summarized the publicly documented activities of possibly twelve men and one woman with the Cox surname. Some were brothers of Colonel Isaac and others were likely his cousins. I’m happy to have some sort of activities to include with their biographies when the time comes to write them.

History of Washington County, Pennsylvania with Biological Sketches, edited by Crumrine contains a significant portion of the court records from the previously mentioned tome, however, additional information has been incorporated to provide a more detailed historical narrative than the simple minutes transcription can provide. I will be continuing my data mining this week.

Error resolution. The last available update: I have 4917 errors in the tree–378 possible duplicates, 4093 with no documents, 446 other errors.

  • First up is a very distant cousin without any source records. I found a record with a birth date so that one is cleared.
  • Next is a 6th great grandaunt with no sources. Ancestry has a new collection titled “US, Family History Books” which has come up several times in my hints recently. There appears to be one for Cawood which I plan to make good use of when I get to that surname.
  • Finally, I have a “Jo” without a maiden name and no sources. She married into the family. A clue in her father-in-law’s obituary led me to her husband’s obituary and a plethora of hints, mostly school yearbook photos.

Goals and progress…
Beginning of Week: 27,071 people
End of Week: 27,075 people
Change = +4 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
  • Review Minutes of Yohogania Co, VA
  • Review History of Washington County, Pennsylvania.
  • Look for documents in Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Kentucky

2025 Week 43

26 Sunday Oct 2025

Posted by in Census, Genealogy, Newspapers

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , ,

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

Posted by in Census, Genealogy, Newspapers

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

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 37

13 Saturday Sep 2025

Posted by in Genealogy, maps, Newspapers

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , ,

This week I’m starting on the family of Harvey Innes Cox. I’ll get it started, but likely won’t finish it. His parents were Jonathan P Cox and Rachel Tigert Cox. He married Mary Nicholson in Knox County. They had nine kids that I know of. After he served in the Civil War, they picked up stakes and moved to Labette County, Kansas around 1868. This is where they remained until death.

Where exactly is Labette County? It is in the southeastern corner of Kansas, not too far west of Joplin, Missouri. Harvey’s family was mostly located in the Parsons area, in the northern part of the county, but over the years they could be found in the southern towns of Edna and Bartlett.

I have concerns about some of the information out there for Harvey’s descendants and families. His daughter Eliza appears in the 1860 census as a one year old, however, there is no trace of her after that. Some trees, and print books, list an actual date of birth and death, however no sources have yet to be found with this information. I would only hope there is a family bible out there somewhere that contains that information.

There is also erroneous information regarding the family of Benjamin F Cox, Harvey’s son. Benjamin married Etta Pond when she was 19. Some sources claim her maiden name was Stark based on her headstone, but this is incorrect. Benjamin’s obituary claims Etta died before his second marriage, but that is also incorrect. Scouring the newspapers, Etta filed for divorce from Benjamin in February 1916 according to The Times-Journal. It was granted in May. A marriage license for Etta Cox, 51, to William Wright was located in the South Kansas Tribune in January 1918. This was followed by a legal notice in the Parsons Daily Sun on April 21, 1921, where Etta Wright sues a William Wright for divorce. Part of her suit is to return her name to Etta Cox. Prior to 1930 Etta seems to have remarried to Eugene Stark, which explains the Stark name on her headstone. Pulling information from two very different obituaries for Etta ties the two women together.

I actually made more progress than I thought I would on this family this week. Three of the sons–Henry, and the twins Jonathan and Simon–appear to have never married so there wasn’t much drama to try and unfold. Two of the daughters–Eliza and Irene–seem to have died as small children so there was little to be found about them. The 1900 census mentions that Mary Nicholson Cox had 12 children, however, I have not been able to account for two of them. There does seem to be a significant gap between Harriet (b. 1851) and Henry (b. 1855). Researchers on FamilySearch have indicated there was a baby born in January 1853, however, no source is provided. The gap between Benjamin and Irene is likely due to Harvey being away at war for three years, so I would not expect a child to be hidden there.

This week in the past…
I’d like to take an opportunity to celebrate the anniversaries of births, marriages, and deaths of my bloodlines the week ahead.
281 years ago – death of Louise Arrivee Cardinal (8th ggm)
258 years ago – birth of Lydia Smith (6th ggm)
242 years ago – death of Rev. William Smith (7th ggf)
228 years ago – marriage of Mary Gott (5th ggm) and John Squires (5th ggf)
193 years ago – birth of Benjamin Coppock (3rd ggf)
193 years ago – death of Richard Puckett (5th ggf)
179 years ago – death of George Boord (6th ggf)
148 years ago – marriage of Joseph E Cardinal (3rd ggf) and Elisabeth Carrie, his 2nd wife

Goals and progress…
Beginning of Week: 27,020 people
End of Week: 27,029 people
Change = +9 persons
Tasks for coming week:

  • Continue focus on Jonathan P. Cox and family – Harvey Innes Cox
  • 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 9

02 Sunday Mar 2025

Posted by in Genealogy, Newspapers

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , ,

I was pleasantly surprised this week when I discovered one of my first cousins had submitted an Ancestry DNA kit and she appeared as a match! Easy enough to assign her to the tree. I decided to sort all of my common ancestor matches by branch. I may choose every now and again to briefly work on one of those lines just to change things up. There were actually a couple of matches that were easily added to the tree since those lines were built out pretty well. I am still bit frustrated with the algorithm Ancestry uses to predetermine matches. It has at least a dozen matches that are attributed to my 4th great grandmother Elizabeth Lowe DeMoss that should be attached to her sister Catherine Elizabeth Lowe Ishmael. Also, why did they remove “5th cousin” on the relationship dropdown? I am forced to call these individuals a generic “distant relationship” and add notes.

I made some decent progress on the Arnold-Cassidy family. This week the focus was on their daughter Martha who married Jerome McCain. I’m about half finished researching their family. One of their grandsons, Maurice Delaney, served in World War II. He was in the US Navy, stationed in the Marshall Islands in the South Pacific. He sadly lost his life while trying to help another sailor who was caught in an undertow while swimming, as reported in The Pharos-Tribune on October 10, 1947. His remains were shipped home in 1947.

I looked a bit more into the tree score. I have a feeling mine will be stuck at 9.4 for a long time. Apparently I have 5232 possible errors, with 4235 of those being people with no documentation. Resolving three a week will be like paying down the national debt.

  • The first one was another floater which I decided to delete.
  • The second was for a distant cousin who had an approximate birth date but no documentation. That was easily fixed
  • The third one was a descendant of my DeMoss line, but for some reason I had not fully reviewed all the hints. I went back and completed my review of him and ended up adding several more distant cousins in the process.

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.
318 years ago – Birth of Elizabeth Bennett (7th ggm)
227 years ago – Death of Eleanor Robinson (6th ggm)
224 years ago – Death of Joseph Coppock (5th ggf)
222 years ago – Birth of Joshua Frost (4th ggf)
207 years ago – Death of Reuben Staton (5th ggf)

Goals and progress…
Beginning of Week: 27,340 people
End of Week: 27,485 people
Change = +145 people – goal MET!!
Goal for coming week: Add 50 new people and continue researching the Isaac and Rebecca Arnold descendants, specifically the Martha and Jerome McCain family this week.

2025 Week 8

23 Sunday Feb 2025

Posted by in Genealogy, Newspapers

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Mary Frances Arnold has been found! I did not locate her in the Pike County Newspaper, but I did find her in her sister Bertha’s obituary before locating her own obituary in the April 30, 1938 edition of the Princeton Daily Clarion (shown here). Mary Frances married Marcellus Chew and they had two children. Other researchers trees with Mary Frances in them make my head hurt. One such tree has documents with three different sets of parents. How does that even make sense?

The Chews are providing me with plenty of material this week. A second interesting puzzle was found in the 1940 census for Clarence and Audi Fowler Chew. Clarence was the son of Mary and Marcellus. In 1940, Clarence and Audi were in their early 50s. There was, presumably, a 7 month old girl named Carolyn Sue listed as their daughter. While not completely impossible, the probability of Carolyn Sue being the biological daughter of this couple is not very high. Checking the birth records for Pike County in late 1939, a birth certificate for Carolyn Sue Roberts born in Jefferson Township in September was found. Checking FindAGrave, Carolyn’s birth parents Floyd and Jewel lived long lives and Carolyn’s memorial was attached to theirs. Still not convinced Carolyn was a Chew, I flipped a couple pages back and found Floyd and Jewel at the bottom of Sheet 10A. Clarence and Audi were at the bottom of Sheet 10B. Carolyn was listed at the top of 11A. I then compared the household numbers…BINGO! The pages were recorded out of order! What a mess!

Tip of the Week: Leverage those FAN Clubs!

This week’s take away…check those FAN Clubs! You would be amazed how many questions can be answered by checking out those Friends/Family, Associates and Neighbors.

Sadly, I have discovered several individuals who died at a relatively young age for various reasons. One was an apparent suicide, one an overdose, and two were casualties of war. Sgt James Herschel Arnold (1916-1945) served in the US Army 152nd Infantry during World War II. His younger cousin, Pfc. Charles Ajay Arnold (1924-1945), was a member of the 132nd Infantry and fatally wounded assisting a wounded teammate to safety during battle. Both men lost their lives in the Philippines. We will be forever grateful for the sacrifice they made for our country.

I added two new DNA matches on my mother’s side of the family tree. One was fairly easy to add as his daughters are already tagged as matches in my tree. The other only required a small number of updates to add.

With the new updates Ancestry has added to their site, they now give trees a score. Mine is 9.4. They then give you hints to bring that score up. I was given three tasks to do.

  • One was for a floater which I decided to delete.
  • The second was for a distant cousin who did not have any dates associated with her. I found her marriage record which listed her approximate birth year to clear that one.
  • The last one had a census record dated before her assumed date of birth. Considering she was born around 1870, there was no official record of her birth. The birth year on her death certificate likely was a guess and her age was actually underestimated. I made an executive decision that she was born in 1869 not 1872.

We’ll see what my new score is tomorrow.

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.
217 years ago – Birth of Gesina Brake Sievers (4th ggm)
217 years ago – Birth of Eva Korz Keller (4 ggm)
196 years ago – Marriage of Isaac Lowe (5th ggf) and his second wife Sarah Beckner
186 years ago – Marriage of Suzanne Board (4th ggm) and Isaac Catt (4th ggf)
185 years ago – Birth of Amanda Newcomb Butler (3rd ggm)
161 years ago – Death of Sarah Ireland Reeve (4th ggm)
152 years ago – Death of Zeresh Puckett Coppock (3rd ggm)
115 years ago – Death of Joseph E. Cardinal (3rd ggf)
113 years ago – Death of Michael Kaiser (2nd ggf)
107 years ago – Birth of Samuel T. DeMoss Sr (gf)

Goals and progress…
Beginning of Week: 27,220 people
End of Week: 27,340 people
Change = +120 people – goal MET!!
Goal for coming week: Add 50 new people and continue researching the Isaac and Rebecca Arnold descendants. Barring any rabbit holes, it could take into early or mid April to complete.

2025 Week 7

16 Sunday Feb 2025

Posted by in Genealogy, Newspapers

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

I feel like I have made some progress this week, closing out the family of Martha Cassidy Rhodes on Monday. She has quite the extensive family that was and still seems to be mostly concentrated in Central Illinois and in Central California.

Moving on to Martha’s sibling Sarah, I cannot find any information on her after the 1850 Census. She was born about 1849 most likely in Perry County, Indiana. After that it would seem she has vaporized. I can only speculate at this time that she died as a young child between 1850 and 1860 in either Perry County or Pike County, Indiana…or somewhere inbetween. Her mother died in 1855 in Pike County and the remaining family was still there in 1860. Maybe something useful will surface as I flesh out her other siblings. There is at least one researcher on Ancestry who has attributed some facts to her that belong to her sister Rebecca Jane who is now the focus of my research. I’m fairly confident that they were two different persons as they were both listed in the 1850 Census.

Rebecca Jane married Isaac Arnold in Pike County, Indiana. I’m a bit remiss in that I don’t know a whole lot about this county which borders the one I grew up in. On initial review, it would seem the Arnolds, for the most part, remained in the Pike County area. As best as I can tell Rebecca and Isaac had seven children. Their oldest, Mary F, is already giving me heartburn.

There seems to be no trace of Mary after 1880, and other researchers seemingly are confusing her with her younger sister Martha. I usually try not to fall head first down rabbit holes, but I really want to try and find something about Mary Arnold. The Pike County Democrat is available on the Hoosier State Chronicles website and the pages are transcribed using OCR technology. The newspaper is a weekly publication and issues up to 1900 are available for viewing. Local community information is included on page 3 of the paper and I’m up to 1886 at the moment looking for any trace of the Arnolds. Hopefully I can find something about Mary.

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.
311 years ago – Marriage of Jeanne Duguay (7th ggm) and Jacques J. Cardinal (7th ggf)
273 years ago – Birth of James C Butler (6th ggf)
244 years ago – Death of Abraham Short Jr (7th ggf)
199 years ago – Marriage of Sarah Carroll (4th ggm) and Joshua Frost (4th ggf)
197 years ago – Death of Sybilla Braun (5th ggm)
187 years ago – Marriage of Francoise Courtright (4th ggm) and James D. Cardinal (4th ggf)
130 years ago – Birth of Magdelena Kaiser Keller (ggm)
107 years ago – Death of Mary Sievers Gravel (3rd ggm)

Goals and progress…
Beginning of Week: 27,182 people
End of Week: 27,220 people
Change = +38 people – goal not met.
Goal for coming week: Add 50 new people and continue researching the Isaac Arnold descendants.

Leave no stone unturned

11 Wednesday Sep 2024

Posted by in Genealogy, Miscellaneous, Newspapers

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Currently I am working to build out the Cox line of my family tree. I hate to leave a branch completely unresearched. I try to find a minimal amount of information on everyone that I might share DNA with just in case it becomes useful to someone someday. Even if that person is not me.

Today I was fleshing out a fifth cousin, Nell. Granted, she will not make it into the family history I am assembling, but my genealogy OCD is alive and well and I felt obligated to learn what I could about my cousin. Nell was listed in both her parents’ obituaries in 1989 and 1991 with a married name. When I was sorting through her hints on Ancestry, it gave me a marriage record, but the name did not match what I had for 1989. A divorce record was located prior to 1989 so the next logical step was to search the newspapers for a second marriage announcement. Her surname in 1989 did not appear to be overly common so I went with that.

A marriage announcement for Nell in the four year window in California did not populate using the new surname, however, there were a few articles with a byline for the night city editor with the Los Angeles Times. What were the chances? Could this guy be Nell’s husband? I clicked on one. It started out “I did not want to go: I didn’t believe in doctors.” The writer proceeds to describe how he’s been getting in shape in the past few years and this doctor’s visit. Unfortunately, the EKG was abnormal and the doctors thought he was in the middle of a heart attack! He then mentions his wife’s name, Nell. BINGO! I found the second husband…and several genealogical details about Nell.

I almost skipped over the article by Nell’s husband…but I didn’t. Something made me read it. It’s important to turn over all those stones, even if they are the size of pea gravel. You never know what is hidden underneath.