Thoughts about Perrin Cooley

From: Michael Cooley <michael_at_newsummer.com>
Date: Sat, 14 Jul 2012 14:42:27 -0700

It's common for a genealogist to put a person with the family that he
seems to most fit and hope that the evidence, yay or nay, will show up
eventually. So far as I can tell, we have evidence by way of the 1800 and
1810 census that Perrin had a large family, but we have not a single piece
of identifying record of any of his children or wife/wives. This is likely
due to the two fires at the Randolph county court house.

I believe that any name associated with him is there because the person
just doesn't fit elsewhere--as a child of Joseph, Daniel, or James.
Somewhere along the line, Tallant, Walker, or others--even myself--simply
made an educate guess. (Pat Walker was especially adept at that.)

This is one of the reasons I'd like to be sure we have the other lines
straight. Those left over will then be that much more likely to be
Perrin's. But there are problems. I've already suggested that one of
Perrin's unidentified older sons might have died as a young man with a
child or two and does not show up anywhere on the record. And there could
be any number of other unidentified Cooleys who went to the area early,
died young and left no record.

I have these four men as possible sons of Perrin's (he may have had as
many as six):

James Cooley (1797-1850+) m poss Polly Massey
John Cooley (1802-1860+) m1 Millie m2 Elizabeth Masa?
William Cooley (c1804-1850+) m1 ___ m2 Sarah Ann Ballinger
Perrin Cooley Jr (c1813-1880+) m Lucinda Carter

Unless I'm missing something, we're unable to attribute any children to
James and John. I have a Frederick as a possible son for Perrin Jr, but I
cannot now find why. It may be a mistake. And through our recent
discussions, I found that I had the Williams turned around and that the
William who married Ballinger was likely his.

The placement of these men are all best guesses. But we've possibly had a
peek at Perrin's DNA--through the Perrin C Cooley descendants. But, again,
we don't know how he fits. William had a large family. And we know that he
had married prior to his marriage to Sara Ballinger and have no idea how
early he might have married. It would be worth tracking his descendants
with the aim of nabbing some DNA. (It occurs to me that Perrin C could
possibly have been William's. He was old enough to have been out of the
household as early as 1840.)

Just some thoughts.

-Michael
Received on Sat Jul 14 2012 - 15:42:27 MDT