A few years ago, our genealogical search had run into the proverbial wall. Our direct ancestor, Samuel Cox, was born in 1770, and he married a woman named Catherine Bruce who had grown up in Halifax County, Virginia. We believed Halifax County was where Samuel was born, but beyond that, we only had theories about his parents that have since proven to be wrong.
At that point, we made contact with two people, unknown to each other, who have since helped make that wall disappear with the morning mist. One, Idris Cox, was a cousin who had written a book outlining Samuel’s history through his son, Coleman. Idris probably knew, and knows, more about this family line than anyone in the world. The second, Allice Reynolds, happened to also be looking for her ancestors named Cox, who also happened to be born in Halifax County, Virginia, in the same time period as Samuel.
Conversations and questions soon led to a decision to gather a few men who would have their Y-DNA tested. That study has now grown to about 20 men, and it has done more to unlock the secrets of the ancestors than anything else we could have done. Not only did we prove that Allice’s Cox ancestors were related to Samuel and his ancestors, but we also discovered the grandparents and great-grandparents of those who had been born in Halifax County, Virginia. We have also added three uncles in Samuel’s family by tests completed by their descendants.
Y-DNA is not truly complete, of course, without the additional evidence of wills, court records, land records, census records, and the sort. That evidence is also included in this website.
As you browse the information, you will learn that Samuel had a father named Jacob, the feature character of this website. Jacob had a brother, also named Samuel, who was the progenitor of the family from which Allice descends. Their father, John Cox, lived and died in New Jersey. His parents were Phillip Cox, 1678-1736, and Dorcas Hull, who married in 1702, and spent their lives in Somerset County, New Jersey. (Our Y-DNA study includes three descendants of a different son of Phillip.)
There is plenty more story to tell within the pages of this website. Now you know, though, that the information listed here was compiled by amateurs who apparently have nothing better to do than spend their time looking for dead ancestors. We should have left this family line by now in order to search all those other family lines that have walls in the way. First, we have to get this information out of our home computers and into a place where others can enjoy it.
We hope you will take the time to converse with us, share information you have gathered with us, and challenge our conclusions. We usually get to the correct answers by starting with the wrong ones.
The organizer of the website is Steve Cox. He is a retired United Methodist clergy living in Independence, Missouri. His granddaughter, Kayla Marker, is assisting in the development of the website. Use our contact form to get in touch with us. We would love to learn from you!