I could use the help of the people on this list.
My grandmother was born Martha Rhuama "Rhuie" Coffin, 2-17-1883, in
Grant County, Indiana, and I am seeking to trace her line back, right
now concentrating on the Coffins. (She married Isaac Newton Miller,
of Delaware Co., in 1901, and then at the time of WW I, moved to
Phoenix, AZ when it was a small desert town of a few tens of
thousands. My Dad, though, was born in Gaston, in Delaware Co., in
1915.)
Martha's father, William Henry Coffin, was born on Jan. 21, 1847, in
Delaware County, Indiana; he married Mary Melinda Needler around
1873. William Henry's father, Isaac Coffin, was born on Nov. 18,
1821, in Ohio, marrying Mary Reed Doty, who was born c. 1814 in Ohio.
In the 1850 Census, Isaac, 28, and Mary, 36, are shown as living in
Harrison Township, Delaware Co., (section 22, according to Ellis,
1898), and Isaac's father, Samuel Coffin, 64, [whom Isaac in a later
census indicates was born in Massachusetts] and mother, Rachel, 53,
are living on the farm, with George, 21, Anne, 21, Eliza, 18, and
Eunice, 16, as well. Isaac, though, is shown as the farmer, by this
time.
The Early Marriage Bans of Ohio, for Hamilton Co., Ohio, show Samuel
Coffin and Rachel Waring as marrying there on 2-15-1820.
Judging by the 1850 Census, Samuel was born around 1786, and the
later Census suggests in Massachusetts. The International
Genealogical Index only shows two Samuel Coffins born around about
1786 in Massachusetts, both on Nantucket Island!, a place crawling
with Coffin seafarers. (There is even a Coffin mentioned in the first
chapter of the novel Moby Dick.)
The comprehensive "The Coffin Family" book of 1964, shows one of
those Samuel Coffins as being born on 5-24-1786 to Elihu Coffin and
Eunice (Folger.) I am pretty sure that this is our family's Samuel,
since in his generation he is shown as marrying a --- Warren
(=Waring?), daughter of Joseph, in Ohio (oh, for a first name there!).
The thing is, that I would like to get 70% certainty up to over 90%.
I need some good source showing that Samuel Coffin (of Delaware Co.
in 1850) had parent(s) named Elihu and/or Eunice.
By the 1860 Census, he is no longer on the Harrison township farm,
and, since he would have been 74 in 1860, I suspect he died between
1850 and 1860, and is probably buried in Delaware Co., or
thereabouts. IF I confirm his parents' names, I have our family tied
into literally thousands of Coffin family members and some pretty
interesting people such as Levi Coffin and Lucretia (Coffin) Mott.
Can anyone on this Delaware County list give me any help here? It
would be much appreciated. I am looking for likely cemeteries and/or
their records, church records (it is quite possible Samuel was a
member, at least in his youth, of the Friends), death certificate (if
they had such a thing in the 1850's in rural Delaware Co.), Coffin
family bibles, your own GEDCOMs or petigrees. I live in Ohio, so I
could make a run over if a good lead turns up.
(Of course, I am interested in any other information about my
relatives in the Coffin or Needler, Miller (Adam Harvey) or Hayden
(Sarah Jane) families, and their lives.)
Thanks. Sorry to have written in such tedious detail.
Jim Miller