Whenever I see a secondary source that has two successive generations of women with the same maiden name I get very suspicious. Generally, one of the names is incorrect and was provided by the haziness of memory of a descendant. However, you can check the accuracy of such statements by going back to the primary source records. Michael has two successive generation of Ridpath men marrying Cox women.
1. James Ridpath married Elizabeth Cox on 24 June 1792 at Rockbridge County, Virginia. ["Rockbridge County Marriages 1778-1850" by Dorthie and Edwin C. Kirkpatrick (Iberian Publishing, Athens GA, 1985), p. 179].
2. Their son, John married Mary (or Polly) Cox on 30 March 1814 at Snowville in Montgomery County, Virginia. ["A Brief of Wills and Marriages in Montgomery and Fincastle Counties, Virginia, 1733-1831" by Anne Lowry Worrell (Genealogical Publishing Co., Baltimore, 1976), p. 33].
Sadly, I still do not know the parents of either woman. In fact the surname Cox is the bete noire for Michael's ancestry. His great-great-grandfather,George Joshua Carman married a Mary Jane Cox about 1849 in Missouri and I don't know her parents either. Her maiden name is derived from her children's death certificates. That leaves Hannah Cox, the wife of George Lamkin of Westmoreland County, Virginia and daughter of Vincent Cox, whose history is not known. [Westmoreland Deeds 1665-77 on 6 Jul 1672 from Vincent Cox to George Lamkin.]
Posted by: |