My fourth great grandparents, Jacob Coppenbarger (1769-1841) and Catharine Ann Snavely (1780-1857) had a dozen known children: 7 sons & 5 daughters. Last week, I came across a newspaper article which was published by the Circuit Court and involved the estate of Jacob Coppenbarger. Jacob’s oldest four daughters are listed alongside their husband’s names. His fifth daughter, Emily, was only 15 years old when her father died. Though she wasn’t yet married, she would marry shortly after her 16th birthday. Jacob’s son, Peter Coppenbarger (my direct ancestor), is the complainant. The list goes on to list Jacob’s other 11 children,...
This week I had a breakthrough on my Snavely ancestors. I knew my 4x great grandfather, Jacob Coppenbarger (1769-1841) married Catherine Ann Snavely. But, Catherine Ann was the only Snavely I had found. My great aunt’s files had Catherine Ann’s father as “John Snavely” and said in the notes: His Will, proved 14 Mar 1826 in Smyth Co, VA (signed with a mark X). A lot of the info on his data and children was taken from his Will. Book 3: 186-187. Though I thought my great aunt was probably correct, I’d never seen a copy of the will. And,...
Of course we expect to find death records of our relatives. But, this is the kind of death you don’t want to find. Sylvester Perry Coppenbarger (1839 in De Witt Co, IL – 1893 in OK) was my 1st cousin four times removed. His grandfather, Jacob Coppenbarger Senior (1769 in Wythe Co, VA – 1841 in De Witt Co, IL), was my fourth great grandfather. Sadly, “S. P.” evidently died at the age of 53 by an “accidental discharge of a gun.” Do we have ancestors in common? I’d love to talk! Please leave a comment or email me at...
As I discussed in Part 1 about Lena, I found that the land being sold and partitioned between 32 members of my family originally belonged to Lena R. Tremlett. But, I’ve never heard of Lena. I decided to search for her on Ancestry and see what I could find. When I searched for Lena R. Tremlett in Missouri, I came up with 4 good hits – 3 death records and an 1880 census. The 1880 census is for John Tremlett, who appears to be running a hotel & whose occupation is listed as rooms provider (unsure of second word), and...