Tag Archives: Virginia

Uncovering the Cox Family History

06 Sunday Sep 2026

Posted by in DNA Matches, Genealogy

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

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

DNA Updates

  • KB, a potential 6th cousin through Joseph Coppock and Jane Wilson. He’s one of my Revolutionary War Patriots. I only have the one child attached for them. I’ll need time to research and prove the line to KB.
  • LA, a potential 5th or 6th cousin through Nicholaus Sievers and Gesina Brake. I have part of her line proven, but not much time this weekend to dive in and complete. The surnames are very familiar names I grew up with. I’ll need to tag for later.

Coxes of Cox Creek Footnotes

32. Calendar of Virginia State Papers, III, p. 633; IV, p. 8. I found both volumes on Hathitrust. In Volume III, Gabriel Cox and others, as military officers of Yohogania County, Virginia, fronted money for the War effort. When they asked for reimbursement in 1781, they were residing in the area that had been relinquished to Pennsylvania and apparently Pennsylvania was denying reimbursement because they acted on behalf of Virginia.

In Volume IV, there is reference to a judgement levied against Gabriel and the others for costs and damages associated with the war effort. The judgement was handed down in Washington County, PA.

33. Deposition of David Cox in Deposition Book, Nelson County, Kentucky, Courthouse, B, p. 677. There is a deposition book for Nelson County, Kentucky, but it does not have a page 677. The name David Cox does not populate when searched. It may be that book B has not been digitized.

34. Draper MSS., typed copy of 9ZZ96-102, in the Filson Club. I will add this to my list of Draper copies to request.

35. The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society, XXI, p. 302; XXXII, p. 174. The Register can be found on JSTOR.

Volume XXI – Land certificate records issued for Nelson County, Kentucky for the following individuals: David Cox, Isaac Cox, Jacob Decker, James McDonald, and Benjamin Cox.

Volume XXXII – This article provides quotations from various entries in the Nelson County Deposition books, including the one cited in footnote 33 above. Unfortunately, it is not clear who the “he” David is referring to in his deposition. The relevance of the citation, however, is that David Cox was present at Cox’s Station in April 1780.

AI Tasks

None this week.

Error Resolution

Per Ancestry’s Tree CheckerThis WeekLast Week
Total Errors50245032
Potential Duplicates511515
No Documentation40914095
Other Errors422422
  • YD, a distant cousin who has a residency reference attached that is before her birth. She was born about 1939. When I added the 1940 census information, it also added a residency for 1935 which I should not have accepted. It has been removed.
  • SB, the father in law of a distant cousin. Since I am not keeping inlaws of distant family, I will be removing him and his wife.
  • William Polk, is identified as the grandfather of the wife of a distant cousin. He was married to Elizabeth Spratt. Since the Polks are a bloodline of mine and they intermarried with several other lines of mine over the years, I am going to keep him. After reviewing information in my Polk books, I believe William to be the son of William and Margaret Taylor Polk. Elizabeth Spratt’s sister Susan married William and Margaret’s son Thomas. It was rather common during the 1700s for siblings to marry siblings, especially in frontier areas found in Pennsylvania and North Carolina. In a biographical sketch for Headley Polk found in Polk Family and Kinsmen, William is attributed to the elder William and Margaret. Another family genealogy entitled The McLendons of Anson County makes mention of a William Polk who married Pricilla Roberts. This will all need to be sorted out at a later date. Also to be considered is the family genealogy entitled The Shelby Family by Gwen Platt.

Goals and progress
Beginning of Week: 28,004 people
End of Week: 28,009 people
Change = +5 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

Recent Findings on the Cox Family in Washington County

30 Sunday Aug 2026

Posted by in Genealogy, artificial intelligence

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , ,

DNA Updates

  • No new DNA Records with a common ancestor identified this week.

Coxes of Cox Creek Footnotes

Last week, footnote 23 referenced a court case between Alexander Wells and the heirs of John Decker. I attempted to obtain a copy of the entire court file. Since Brooke County is in West Virginia, I reached out to West Virginia to see if they had it. They did not. They did suggest that I try the Brooke County Clerk or try to find it in Augusta County, Virginia. For now, I’ll save the response in my files. If I decide I really need it, I will reach out to Brooke or Augusta County.

28. Deed Book, Washington County, Pennsylvania, IC, p. 283. This document can be found on FamilySearch. This transaction is between Isaac Cox and John Decker for a 400 acre parcel of land known as “Mingo Bottom”. The transaction was for six hundred pounds and was made on July 9, 1778. It was witnessed by George Cox, John’s son-in-law, and presumably two of John’s sons. Which Isaac Cox this land belonged to is not quite clear–George’s father or his brother.

29. Ibid. I, p. 1. This document can be found on FamilySearch. It details the transfer of a parcel of land identified as “Rich Hill” situated in Yohogania County from Gabriel Cox (Isaac’s son) to a James Logan for 1000 pounds of current currency. The transaction was completed on July 7, 1781, however it was not recorded until January 1, 1782. Gabriel was identified as a Justice of the Peace for Washington County.

30. Crumrine, op. cit., Pamphlet VII, p. 391. October 25, 1779, the Court of Yohogania County granted Isaac Cox the right to relocate to Kentucky County, Virginia.

31. Boyd Crumrine, The History of Washington County, Pennsylvania (1882), pp. 229, 239. This book can be found on Internet Archive. This passage refers to a letter from Colonel Marshall detailing the issues he was experiencing in 1781 organizing the militia after Pennsylvania and Virginia came to an agreement on the border dispute. The Virginians, led by none other than General George Rogers Clark were disruptive to say the least. Lieutenant Colonel Gabriel Cox, under the orders of Colonel Pentecost, committed a number of “outrages” against Pennsylvanians who were drafted into service under General Clark but refused to report for said service. Lt Col Cox’s men seized and destroyed property, threatened women and children, and held residents in confinement. Some individuals were ordered to be hanged. (Penn Archives, Series 1, Volume 9, pp 343-345, found on Ancestry.)

Page 239, mentions charges levied against Gabriel Cox in 1782 during the Court of Quarter Sessions for the acts committed on the residents mentioned above. Charges included assault and assault and battery. He was found not guilty of the two charges of assault. After the first two acquittals, the charges were dropped in cases 4 and 5. In a nutshell, Gabriel did what was ordered of him…he was to assemble troops for General Clark. Brute force probably should not have been employed in the process. Since the boundary between Virginia and Pennsylvania (extension of the Mason-Dixon Line) had not been completed at the time, Gabriel ideally should have kept his activities south of that line. Those that filed charges against him, were residents north of the Line. (Penn Archives, Series 1, Volume 10, pp 80-82, found on Ancestry.) It does sound like Gabriel was involved in some form of rioting after the acquittals.

The Centennial Celebration of the Organization of Washington County, Pennsylvania (1881), printer, E.E. Crumine, p. 49. This book is available on Google Books, however, I did not see anything on page 49 that would be relevant to the Cox family.

Additional Findings–Washington County Deed Books

  • Gabriel Cox and his wife Sarah Enoch Cox witnessed a land transfer between Abraham Morgan and Samuel Irwin on May 27, 1783 in Washington County, PA.1
  • Isaac Cox sold a parcel of land in Yohogania County to Andrew Nye for sixteen hundred pounds on August 16, 1779.2
  • Isaac Cox sold a 1000 acre parcel of land to James Ellison located on Plum(b) Run which branches off the Salt River and is about 40 miles from the Falls of the Ohio (present day Louisville KY). This transaction is dated November 29, 1777. Based on the description provided, this parcel is located in the Spencer and Nelson County area. In 1777, it was part of Kentucky County, VA.3
  • On February 9, 1778, a transaction between Isaac Cox and Garrett Vinnaman for land about six miles from the tract he sold to James Ellison.4
  • On March 30, 1778, Lemuel Davis was bound to Isaac Cox as an apprentice. Lemuel was eight years old and was bound to Isaac until he reached the age of 21. Seeing as how Isaac Cox relocated to Kentucky in 1780, it might be necessary to look for subsequent papers regarding this arrangement to see if Lemuel accompanied the Coxes to Kentucky or if his apprenticeship was transferred to someone else.5
  • February 9, 1778, a transaction between Isaac Cox and John McDowell for land in the same area as Garrett Vinnaman.6
  • Gabriel Cox sold land on Hard Bargain Creek to James Swolivan on September 22, 1777.7
  • Isaac Cox and James McMahan were briefly in a trading company partnership with several other gentlemen. The trading company was located about a mile outside of Pittsburgh. Isaac and James sold their shares to Dorsey Pentecost.8
  • This document was witnessed by both Isaac Cox and Gabriel Cox in 1787. Their location was noted as Nelson County, Virginia. This would be the younger Isaac since his father had died in 1783.9
  • On October 9, 1780 Gabriel Cox served as administrator to the estate of Thomas Cook in Yohogania County.10

Additional Findings–History of Washington County, Pennsylvania

  • Page 146: In 1770, Gabriel Cox acquired property on Peters Creek.
  • Page 148: Gabriel Cox was on the 1772 assessment roll for Springhill Township.
  • Page 185: Isaac Cox was named a Lieutenant Colonel in the militia in 1777. Gabriel Cox was listed as a captain.
  • Page 186: Gabriel Cox’s house was identified for storage of magazines in Yohogania County.
  • Page 188: Isaac Cox, as a court justice, assisted with the collection of signatures for the Oath of Allegiance to the Commonwealth
  • Pages 205, 207, 217: Gabriel Cox served on road commissions.
  • Page 211: George Cox served on a road commission.
  • Page 215: Isaac Cox was named to a commission to build a courthouse and jail.
  • Page 219: Isaac Cox was placed in charge of salt distribution.

AI Tasks

When I started on footnote 28, I discovered that the Washington County deeds included grantor and grantee indices from 1781 to 1924. Since the Cox information was split up alphabetically by given name, I decided to enlist CoPilot to help me combine all Cox grantor entries into one table. What I am learning about these AI bots is that you have to treat it like a 3-year old and provide directions for each step in the process. For example, in the past I have learned that you have to limit the number of files and/or size of the files uploaded at one time for processing. So my plan was to upload this is batches of 5 files at a time (I had 24 files to sort). I assumed that I could just upload each batch of 5 and CP would know what to do. WRONG! I took a step back, applied the same prompt to each batch, making each batch a separate data table. Then I instructed it to combine the 5 csv files that were generated.

Error Resolution

Per Ancestry’s Tree CheckerThis WeekLast Week
Total Errors50325037
Potential Duplicates515517
No Documentation40954098
Other Errors422422
  • KE, the husband of a distant cousin has no first name and does not have any references. I was able to find his first name and a few references, including an obituary.
  • JG, a distant cousin, has no records attached. I was able to find a census record among other things.
  • DC, a distant cousin, has no records attached. I was able to find an obituary and other records.

Goals and progress
Beginning of Week: 28,002 people
End of Week: 28,004 people
Change = +2 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.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSXB-PQ8V-T?view=fullText&keywords=Cox&searchForm=advanced&lang=en ↩︎
  2. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSNL-HYFH?view=fullText&keywords=Cox&searchForm=advanced&lang=en ↩︎
  3. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSNL-HTGV?view=fullText&keywords=Cox&searchForm=advanced&lang=en ↩︎
  4. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSNL-HYRD?view=fullText&keywords=Cox&searchForm=advanced&lang=en
    ↩︎
  5. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSNL-HTLZ?view=fullText&keywords=Cox&searchForm=advanced&lang=en ↩︎
  6. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSNL-HTLM?view=fullText&keywords=Cox&searchForm=advanced&lang=en ↩︎
  7. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSNL-HYNV?view=fullText&keywords=Cox&searchForm=advanced&lang=en ↩︎
  8. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSNL-HYFS?view=fullText&keywords=Cox&searchForm=advanced&lang=en ↩︎
  9. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSXB-PQ77-T?view=fullText&keywords=Cox&searchForm=advanced&lang=en ↩︎
  10. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSXB-PQ7F-Z?view=fullText&keywords=Cox&searchForm=advanced&lang=en ↩︎

Cox Family Land Records and Historical Insights

23 Sunday Aug 2026

Posted by in artificial intelligence, Genealogy

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , , , , , ,

DNA Updates

  • No new DNA Records with a common ancestor identified this week.

Coxes of Cox Creek Footnotes

22. Deed book, Ohio County, West Virginia, I, pp. 56, 57, 241. This took a bit of work to find, but is located on FamilySearch. In fact, page 241 is the same information that is in footnote 19 which was discussed a couple weeks ago. Mrs. Adams also named George’s brother Gabriel, however, a land survey in this book could not be found. Also, she mentions a total of 2664 acres, however, only 1566 acres are accounted for within these pages.

  • Friend Cox had 2 tracts totaling 708 acres stretching north along the Ohio River and east along Buffalo Creek.
  • George Cox acquired 400 acres north of Friend’s holdings.
  • Israel Cox held 258 acres along Buffalo Creek.
  • Peter Cox held a 200 acre tract along Buffalo Creek. Peter’s land lay to the east of Israel’s, sharing a boundary.

23. Lyman Chalkley, ed., Abstracts from the Records of Augusta County, Virginia (1912), II, p. 100. This book is part of a three volume set that is available on HathiTrust.org. It is actually titled Chronicles of the Scotch-Irish Settlement in Virginia (1745-1800). The referenced abstract refers to a dispute between Alexander Wells and the heirs of John Decker. George Cox married John’s daughter Susannah. This document provides pertinent timeline information regarding the migration of the Cox family. George Cox claims that he had erected a cabin on the land in 1772. Isaac Cox moved from the area in question to near Steubenville, Ohio in 1775. The abstract does not provide detail regarding where the land was.

A second case mentioned on page 106 involved a parcel of land near Steubenville that William McMahan had owned from 1775 to 1778. William married Isaac Cox’s daughter Ann. George Cox is mentioned as a despondent.

Deed Books, Hampshire County, West Virginia. The deeds for Hampshire County were discussed previously regarding footnote 14.

24. Deed Book, Brooke County, West Virginia, I, p. 45. This document is available on FamilySearch. In 1787, John Cox, as the heir at law of his father Friend Cox, sold 227 acres of land to Van Swearingen that Friend had intended on gifting to his son Benjamin. Referring back to footnote 19, two tracts of land totaling 708 acres were surveyed for Friend. This 227 acres was the northern part of the 400 acre tract. The remaining land was divided between Jonathan and Joseph. Jonathan and Joseph’s shares were sold to Charles Praither in 1788 who founded Wellsburg, WV in 1791.

25. Boyd Crumrine, ed., Annals of the Carnegie Museum (1903), “Minute Book of the Virginia Court held at Ft. Dunmore (Pittsburgh) for the District of West Augusta, 1775-1776” (reprint), Pamphlet XXI, p. 566. This part of the footnote refers to the renaming of Catfish Camp in the meeting proceedings. The reference can be found on Hathitrust.org.

supra, p. 18. This part of the footnote refers back to footnote 18.1

26. Crumrine, op. cit. “Minute Book of the Virginia Court Held for Yohogania County, 1776-1780“ (reprint), Pamphlets IV, p. 97; VII, pp. 211, 220, 234, 254, 277; Pamphlet XXI, pp. 528, 566. CoPilot was being helpful today and summarized the civic activities of various Cox family members while they resided in Yohogania County.

27. Ibid. Pamphlet VII, pp. 258, 397, 408, 411. This footnote references the Cox family members who participated in the militia during the Revolutionary War era in Yohogania County.

Error Resolution

Per Ancestry’s Tree CheckerThis WeekLast Week
Total Errors50375032
Potential Duplicates517517
No Documentation40984093
Other Errors422422
  • .AA, a distant cousin from the 1840s is suspected to be a duplicate and has no references. The duplicates are named Allison and Alice. They both were born in 1847. Alice lived a long life; Allison appears to have died as an infant. I’m guessing they were twins. I cannot find anything in my paper files regarding this family. Without any positive evidence of there being two girls, I feel compelled to remove Allison until some evidence of her existence surfaces. I will make a notation on Alice’s record that there possibly could have been a twin sibling named Allison.
  • MSB, a distant cousin from the early 1800s needs a reference. Several references presented themselves.
  • EK, a 2nd great grandaunt, needs a reference. Unfortunately, it seems that she lived her entire life in Germany and I do not have access to the international references at this time.

Goals and progress
Beginning of Week: 28,000 people
End of Week: 28,002 people
Change = +2 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/r17-114copiedsurveybooks/Books%20C1-C234/Book%20C025/Book%20C-025%20pg%20292.pdf ↩︎

Dunmore’s War: Documenting the Cox Family Legacy

16 Sunday Aug 2026

Posted by in DNA Matches, Genealogy, maps

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , ,

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

Posted by in artificial intelligence, DNA Matches, Genealogy, maps

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , ,

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

Posted by in artificial intelligence, DNA Matches, Genealogy

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

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

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

Posted by in artificial intelligence, DNA Matches, Genealogy, maps

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , , , , , ,

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. ↩︎

Honoring Legacy: Memorial Day and Family History

24 Sunday May 2026

Posted by in Civil War, DNA Matches, Genealogy

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

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

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

Tracing the Ancestry of Benjamin Cox in Montgomery County

12 Sunday Apr 2026

Posted by in Genealogy

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

This week I am researching Benjamin Cox, the son of Friend Cox. The Benjamin Cox who resided and died in Montgomery County, Ohio is believed to be this individual. A Revolutionary War Pension (S. file exists for the Benjamin Cox who resided in Montgomery County, Ohio. The affidavit collected on September 11, 1832 states that Benjamin is eighty years old. This would give his birth in 1752. Some sources provide his birth as early as 1742 or 1746. Photos of what is believed to be the original headstone are posted on FindAGrave.com. A nearby stone for his wife Rachel is intact, but barely legible. A more contemporary headstone now marks his grave.

Benjamin’s affidavit states he was originally from Pennsylvania, but was in North Carolina when he joined the military in the Spring of 1778 under a Captain Richard Graham and a Colonel Richard Grimes. He served a period of nine months.

The affidavit also mentions that Benjamin has a brother named David who lives in a nearby county.

The 1840 Census lists Benjamin as a pensioner at age 94. This isn’t too far off from the pension affidavit.

A land deed record from 1787 where John Cox sold land on behalf of Benjamin Cox from their father’s estate. Friend died intestate and his intentions to give this parcel of land to Benjamin was not documented. Benjamin was not present in Ohio County, Virginia to participate in the sale, so William McMahan served as power of attorney for him. Benjamin’s location is not mentioned in this document.1

A Simple Text Search on FamilySearch resulted in the following useful documents regarding Benjamin Cox who resided in Dayton, Ohio:

  • Benjamin’s date of death was attested to in Montgomery County Court–December 27, 1841 in Dayton. He left no widow. Children are identified as: John, William, and Lewis of Montgomery County. Jesse, Charles, and Benjamin of Ashton County, Kentucky. There is no mention of daughters living at the time of this court (May 6, 1842).2
  • 1865 Montgomery County probate records give Benjamin’s middle initial as “M”. This is likely Benjamin Jr. Lewis Neff was the administrator. There were five heirs identified: Mary Ann Breene, Nancy Hyre, Charles Franklin Cox, John S Cox, Lila G Cox. Charles, John and Lila are minors. Their guardian is Lewis Cox.3

A Simple Text Search for Friend Cox in Ohio County, Virginia in the 1700s, found the following documents:

  • Court Orders from November 1783. Friend Cox was named foreman of a grand jury. Jonathan and Benjamin Cox were sworn in as members of that grand jury.4
  • Court Orders from November 1784. Jonathan and Benjamin Cox sworn in as members of a grand jury, along with Peter Cox.5
  • A quitclaim deed in 1788 between John Cox and a Jane Cox, wife of Joseph Cox. John was named brother and heir of Joseph.

CONCLUSION: From the documentation I have been able to find, I am not convinced that the Benjamin Cox who served during the Revolutionary War in North Carolina and died in Montgomery County, Ohio in 1840 is the son of Friend Cox. I’ll need to keep searching to truly prove this connection.

Error resolution. The last available update: I have 5025 errors in the tree–515 possible duplicates, 4062 with no documents, 448 other errors.

  • Husband of a distant cousin needs resources. No hints immediately populated for him, but his wife had several including a reference to their marriage which they shared.
  • A distant cousin with no references attached. Marriage and divorce records for Wisconsin were located.
  • A floater who was removed.

Goals and progress…
Beginning of Week: 27,321 people
End of Week: 27,334 people
Change = +13 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.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CS4T-69QY?view=fullText&lang=en&groupId= ↩︎
  2. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSTZ-BS6S-L?view=fullText&keywords=Benjamin%20Cox%2CDayton%2Cdied&lang=en&groupId= ↩︎
  3. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:9392-F4SV-T8?view=fullText&keywords=Benjamin%20Cox%2CBenjamin%2CCox%2CDayton&lang=en&groupId= ↩︎
  4. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QSQ-G9VT-Q9BT?view=fullText&keywords=Cox%2COhio%20County&lang=en&groupId= ↩︎
  5. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QSQ-G9VT-QSSD?view=fullText&keywords=Cox%2COhio%20County&lang=en&groupId= ↩︎

Uncovering Historical Documents of the Cox Family

29 Sunday Mar 2026

Posted by in Genealogy

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

Researching Friend Cox this week. Adams’ “The Coxes of Cox Creek, Kentucky” mentions that Friend had four sons–John, Jonathan, Joseph, and Benjamin. We’ll start our research with John.

The following records were found in a volume titled “Ohio County Records Referring to Brooke County Property”. Brooke County was formed from Ohio County in 1797. These records would have been recorded prior to that date.1

  • Survey Book #1, Page 241 – Land survey for George Cox in 1785. George is a son of Isaac Cox. It is mentioned that the land was settled in 1774 and a certificate was obtained in 1780.
  • Survey Book #1, Page 241 – Land survey for Friend Cox in 1785. Land was settled in 1771 and certificate was issued in 1783. Land is next to George Cox’s land. While the fact they were neighbors is not definitive proof that they are related to each other, it makes the possibility more probable.
  • Book #1, page 50 – Bill of sale between David Cox and George Glaze recorded in 1783. Gabriel Cox was also named. David and Gabriel are likely to be Isaac’s sons.
  • Book #1, page 111 – A land record indenture between John and Mary Cox and Van Swearingen made in 1787 mentions that John Cox is heir at law to Friend Cox. Friend Cox died intestate but had intended to give all or a portion of the property to Benjamin Cox. Also mentioned was William McMahan who holds the power of attorney for Benjamin. William McMahan was the husband of Ann Cox, daughter of Isaac. This would be another clue connecting Isaac and Friend’s family.
  • Book #1, page 119 – Land transfer from John Cox, heir at law of Friend Cox, to Jonathan, Joseph and Benjamin Cox. This track of land was at the mouth of the Buffalo Creek. It is mentioned that Joseph lived near Friend. This deed transfer was witnessed by George and Gabriel Cox, sons of Isaac.
  • Book #1, page 149 – A land transfer made in 1788 where John, Jonathan and Joseph sold property to Charles Praether, the founder of Wellsburg.
  • Book #2, page 60 – An indenture made in 1790 between Peter and Hannah Cox and Benjamin Wells. This tract was along Buffalo Creek. Peter was the son of Gabriel.
  • Book #2, page 372 – An indenture made in 1793 between Israel Cox and Benjamin Wells in the Buffalo Creek area. Israel was the son of Gabriel.

The proximity of landholdings by members of the three Cox families supports that possibility that these families were related. I’ve always been skeptical of this assumption made and accepted by others. These documents help to ease my cynicism on the topic.

A Simple Text Search on FamilySearch produced 226 possible documents with mention of “John Cox”. If I had performed the search at an affiliate library, I’m sure there would have been more. A good number of them merely referenced property owned by John Cox when describing a tract of land. There were also many that identified a John Cox purchasing an item from a probate inventory. The following is a list of those that stood out to me, providing a timeline of sorts and relationships.

  • 1788, Washington County, PA – A pair of indentures between James Chambers and John Cox.2
  • 1788, Washington County, PA – An indenture between John and Mary Cox and the Baptist Church on Peter’s Creek. It was drafted in 1788 and recorded in 1815.3
  • 1809, Washington County, PA – An estate file for John Cox who died in 1807. Abraham Cox, administrator and father of John, died prior to August 18, 1827. Henry Cox was an executor of of Abraham’s estate. Henry was the only heir to John and he still had an assigned guardian in 1827. Elizabeth Cox is John’s widow. 4
  • 1813 & 1817, Washington County, PA – A pair of property transfers to Enoch Cox, son of John Cox, from his siblings James Cox (wife Peggy) of Washington Co, PA; Benjamin Cox (wife Elizabeth) of Breckinridge Co, KY; Rachel Cox McMahon (husband Richard); Susanna Welsh (husband Joseph); Catherine Fentress (husband Pleasant) of Hardin Co, KY. James died between the execution of the two transfers.5
  • 1833, Washington County, PA – A pair of indentures between John Cox and Joseph Chester. Enoch and Rachel Wright are mentioned in both.6
  • 1835, Washington County, PA – An indenture between Levi and Rachel Finley and John Cox and Joseph Chester.7
  • 1835, Washington County, PA – an indenture between John Cox and Joseph Chester and their wives and Samuel French. Since John and Joseph were selling the land, their wives had to waive dower rights. John’s wife was named as Eliza Jane.8
  • 1836, Washington County, PA – An indenture between Richard Dewhurst and John Cox.9
  • 1834 & 1837, Washington County, PA – An indenture between John and Susannah Cox and Samuel Barr. It appears that the tract was left to Susannah by her late father, James Lauler in 1818.10
  • 1839, Washington County, PA – An indenture between Joseph Graham and John Cox. Recorded in 1843.11
  • 1841, Washington County, PA – An indenture between John & Eliza Jane Cox and Enoch and Mary Cox.12
  • 1845, Washington County, PA – The Last Will and Testament of Zachariah Cox. Widow is Amelia. Children: Rebecca Cox, Benjamin Cox, Thomas Cox, John Cox, Zachariah Cox, Lucy Huston (husband John), Alethea Powers (husband John), Susannah Cox, Amelia Notel (husband Matthias), Robert. Zachariah did not think highly of John Huston.13
  • 1850, Washington County, PA – A series of quitclaims issued to John Cox. Those transferring ownership included Zachariah Cox (wife Mariah), Susannah Cox Miles (husband Elijah), and Thomas F Cox (wife Mary), all who inherited property from presumably their father Zachariah. Recorded in 1852.14
  • 1850, Washington County, PA – A quit claim from John and Margaret Cox to Andrew and Samuel Herron. This John is a son of Zachariah Cox.15

These documents answer some questions I had and raise others. While I had a list of John and Mary (Collins) Cox’s children from the Adams’ article and some dates from The Cox Family in America, the property transfers in 1813 and 1817 shown above in red provided me with so much more information about several of his children. I still do not have an exact date of death for John or a copy of his will. Since he was listed in the 1810 census, I have estimated it to be between 1810 and 1813. John’s wife Mary was not mentioned in the property transfers; had she predeceased him? Also, several of their children are not mentioned–Nancy, Isaac, and Friend. Were they also deceased? Were they left out of the will? Or, did they choose to keep their portion of the estate? I will want to investigate each of John and Mary’s children a little more in the next week before I move on to John’s brother Benjamin.

While John (son of Friend) did not name any of his children after him, there were several men named John in the next generation that bear mentioning. It is not clear if these men are somehow related to my Cox family or if they are part of a separate line. Only time and research may tell. There were potentially three additional John Coxes identified in Washington County, PA, during the period 1830 to 1850. John (son of Zachariah) had a wife named Margaret; a John who married Susanna Lauler; and a John married to an Eliza Jane. Building out the tree a bit more might help to sort these individuals out.

The properties mentioned above in Ohio/Brooke County were located where Buffalo Creek meets the Ohio River. I was curious as to where that was. As I was scanning the topo map of West Virginia, I came across Tomlinson Run and the state park by the same name. Since Isaac’s wife Susannah was a Tomlinson, I wanted to know more. The tributary and the park are named for the Tomlinson family who were pioneers of the area. While I cannot be sure it is my Tomlinsons, there is a possibility. Maybe I can convince the husband to check it out when we do our retirement RVing in a few years.

I did find Buffalo Creek on the map. It empties into the Ohio River just south of Wellsburg.

Error resolution. The last available update: I have 5023 errors in the tree–512 possible duplicates, 4062 with no documents, 449 other errors.

  • Father-in-law of a distant cousin. I’m pruning the tree so he will be deleted.
  • A floater. He will be deleted.
  • The last error is for a second husband of the wife of a distant cousin. He needed citations and a first name. I finally found him on FamilySearch in the Indiana marriage records. The information on the marriage record produced a multitude of Ancestry hints to resolve the error.

Goals and progress…
Beginning of Week: 27,236 people
End of Week: 27,279 people
Change = +43 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. Survey Land Records, 1777-1801, Ohio and Brooke County, VA, IGN 007901647, FamilySearch. ↩︎
  2. Deeds, 1786-1789, Washington County, PA, volume 4, page 243, IGN 008036003, image 135, FamilySearch. ↩︎
  3. Deeds, 1815-1817, Washington County, PA, volume 25, page 462, IGN 008036011, image 246, FamilySearch. ↩︎
  4. Probate Estate Case Files, 1792-1813, Washington County, PA, File C, packet 32, IGN 005552438, images 2328-2353, FamilySearch. ↩︎
  5. Deeds, 1818-1820, Washington County, PA, volume 28, pages 293-295, IGN 008084637, images 165-166, FamilySearch. ↩︎
  6. Deeds, 1834-1836, Washington County, PA, volume 42, page 14, IGN 008084642, image 14, FamilySearch. ↩︎
  7. Deeds, 1834-1836, Washington County, PA, volume 42, page 428, IGN 008084642, image 237, FamilySearch. ↩︎
  8. Deeds, 1834-1836, Washington County, PA, volume 42, page 428-429, IGN 008084642, image 237, FamilySearch. ↩︎
  9. Deeds, 1834-1836, Washington County, PA, volume 45, page 397, IGN 008036100, image 515, FamilySearch. ↩︎
  10. Deeds, 1834-1836, Washington County, PA, volume 42, page 28, IGN 008084642, image 21; Deeds, 1837-1839, Washington County, PA, volume 47, page 460, IGN 008084643, image 514, FamilySearch. ↩︎
  11. Deeds, 1842-1844, Washington County, PA, volume 52, page136, IGN 008084646, image 79, FamilySearch. ↩︎
  12. Deeds, 1839-1840, Washington County, PA, volume 50, page 301, IGN 008030736, image 170, Family Search. ↩︎
  13. Wills, 1841-1848, Washington County, PA, volume 6, page 378, IGN 005537971, image 206, FamilySearch. ↩︎
  14. Deeds, 1851-1853, Washington County, PA, volume 61, pages 108-109, IGN 008084673, images 431-432, FamilySearch. ↩︎
  15. Deeds, 1850-1851, Washington County, PA, volume 58, page 496, IGN 008036113, image 285, FamilySearch. ↩︎