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Author: grnarledroots
Surnames: Cobb, Bear,
Classification: queries
Message Board URL:
http://boards.rootsweb.com/surnames.cobbs/175.1/mb.ashx
Message Board Post:
Hi - I wish I could wave my magic wand and give both of us the answer we are looking for.
You are searching for an answer during a period of time when people were moving about the country, staying 'for a time' and moving on, Nothing is going to pop out and say here I am because records were great for those who stayed put long enough to send down roots - buy land, pay taxes, etc. Many of our Cobb men had itchy feet as my grandmother used to put it - they were always on the move.
You are searching for something many of us researchers need - a venue for those of us who know 'something' about our families, but not enough to move back a generation or two or three and that is how you need to do it - one generation back at a time. Maybe this can help in your thinking about solving the problem.
My problem is similiar in that I have my great-great-grandfather's John Cobb's published biography, without his parents names of course. We had his birth date of 19 May 1814 and that he was born in Kentucky. Of course I focused on Kentucky looking for his parents. From census records John said his parents were born in Virginia. Not much to start with going back in time.
Then by posting my problem online, I slowly gathered information as well as finding a possible 'cousin' who, after years of seaching together, we discovered that we were related. This 'other' person was a descendant of (one of) the siblings of my John - so now we knew about John and Mary Cobb but still no parents,. Mary was born in Indiana about 1815. John said his father farmed on both sides of the Ohio River - still moving and not staying long in one place. He was living on his in-laws land so he didn't need to purchase land.
Along the way, one of my Cobb cousins - actually he was my third cousin - and it had to be a 'he' to donate his DNA sample. Through this DNA project, we learned that our DNA goes back to Ambrose Cobbs of Virginia in the 1600s - Nice, but two hundred years to jump in a long time in between.
None of the other Cobb families in the group seemed to know anything about my John and Mary Cobb of Kentucky-Indiana and they didn't follow the same migratory path down the Ohio River from Virginia..
After years and years of searching and posting online - out of the blue, an email came to me saying that my John Cobb was a son of their Hester Bear who married a Cobb in Kentucky about that time.. John Bear (of Pennsylvania) moved his family of wife and 4 children to Kentucky - Hester was one of these children and they knew she married a Cobb. It is from chance bits of knowledge that great leaps of genealogy happen.
Frantic emails passed between Indiana, California and Washington State until we concluded that Hester Bear had to be the mother of our Cobb children. We had no actual records with their Cobb names together but years of finding them in the same place at the same time.
Then came another problem.
There were two Cobb men -William and Thomas who were moving about the country together - first in Kentucky and then in Indiana. We knew from John's biography that there were more children in his family, another sister and a brother. We have since learned that one sister was Hester and another unknown sister was in there somewhere. Their brother was named George W. Cobb and he disappeared somewhere about 1850 when all the family was living in Muscatine County, Iowa. But I am ahead of myself in the story.
The 1820 Census in Indiana listed all the Cobb and Bear families living on the Bear family farm in Milton, Indiana and on this census, Will Cobb was married with one son under 10 and 3 daughters under 10, Thomas was married and had all daughters no sons. So of course we chose Will (we later learned that another son was born just after the census). The Cobb children of MY family were John, Mary, Hester, an unnamed sister and George born after the enumerator came around.
The clincher for which Cobb man to be the father of our children was this: from the biography, John said his father went to Arkansas where he died - and from Indiana records, we learned he was last found about 1822 working on the river road. So sometime after that our Cobb Papa went to Arkansas and did not return to his family. Then in the 1840 census, back on the Bear family farm in Indiana is Thomas Cobb and not William. Where was he in the between years? I still don't know. Thomas still has only daughters.
I do have the story from there - the migration continued west to Oregon and California - and the Bear family stayed in Indiana - they found us a couple of years back and not the other way around.
John Cobb married twice while living in Quincy Illinois, his first wife and two children died in one of the epidemics, he married Esther Deming of Ohio, they moved to California.
Mary Cobb married Isaac Lathrop in Indiana, moved to Iowa where she had a son before all three died leaving a daughter, Hester Lathrop whose descendant lives in Washington State.
Hester Cobb married John Marble (from Vermont), they moved first to Oregon, then to California - I have their story and know some of their descendants
One sister remains unnamed. She was born just before 1820. moved to Muscatine Iowa, maybe married and became lost because of a name change or she may have died. We would love to know about her - contact us if you are descended from this lost cousin.
George W. Cobb also is lost in Iowa about 1850, and if he married, somone out there knows about him - please contact me.
I guess what I am saying is DON'T GIVE UP SEARCHING. And post your family on message boards, tell others your problem - let others know who you are looking for and what you know - with the time frame as you know it. Something is bound to appear.
I still don't have the whole migration from Ambrose to William's family and my John but we continue to look and someone knows a bit more that can help solve the puzzle.
Margie Hinton - a Cobb descendant. twigsnbranches(a)earthlink.net
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This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list.
Author: aef180
Surnames: Cobb Cobbs Terrell
Classification: queries
Message Board URL:
http://boards.rootsweb.com/surnames.cobbs/175/mb.ashx
Message Board Post:
This seems to be a brick wall for many, or I might just be getting confused by all the Cobb/Cobbs. The earliest record I can find is a Quaker document showing these two were married. I am hoping to find Robert's parents eventually. There are two schools of thought, but no proof that I have found. One is he is a son of Vinkler Cobb(s) the other, a son of Robert Cobb(s). There is a really detailed Cobb/Cobbs DNA project website, but it's not easily searchable and there are MANY Roberts! Anyone out there have any insight? Thanks!
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