Tag Archives: Yohogania County

Uncovering the Cox Family History

06 Sunday Sep 2026

Posted by in DNA Matches, Genealogy

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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

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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

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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 ↩︎