George, we hardly know ye
Okay, George Washington Cottrell, you’re getting me seriously annoyed now. I do not appreciate one bit the fact that I’m heading east out of Kentucky not a whole lot closer to finding your parents — my 3rd great grandparents — than I was when I arrived. What’s with you anyway?
First, some census taker in Tarrant County, Texas, in 1850 gets told that you’re 40 years old.1 By 1880, however, the next time the census guys find you, you’re only 59 — with a wife 15 years your junior.2 So which was it, George? Birth year of 1810 or 1820-21? You didn’t maybe fudge your age a little to be a tad more attractive to the young chick, now, did you, George?
I mean, I do have some reasons to doubt you, pal. Remember, you’re the one who applied for a Mexican War pension based on service that nobody can verify. Not the War Department back when you applied, first in 1887, not when you reapplied in 1890, not when your widow Louisa (Baker) Cottrell applied in 1897.3 And, sigh, not me when I poked through the Mexican War muster rolls of Texas troops.4
And you’re the one who once said you were married to Louisa Baker in Parker County, Texas, in December 1853.5 Then you said it was to Patsy Louisa Baker in Johnson County in December 1854.6 You do know the marriage was recorded in Johnson County in January, 1855,7 right? I know, I know. Details.
So when you told the pension folks that you were born on 5 March 1821 “3 miles from Lexington in Madison County, KY,”8 I don’t suppose it bothered you one bit that Madison County isn’t now, wasn’t then, and never has been within three miles of Lexington.
So okay… maybe it wasn’t within three miles of Lexington. But George, pal, buddy, your parents didn’t even leave footprints in that county, okay? No land records. No estate records. No deeds. No wills. No court records. Not even a hint on a tax record.
Maybe you really did mean three miles from Lexington, but you know what, George? That’d be Fayette County. And there’s not a hint of anybody named Cottrell in Fayette County, George! Not a Catrel, or Cattrel, or Catrell, or Cattrell, or Catral, or Cotral… you get the picture, pal?
Now don’t get me wrong, George. I’m deeply grateful to you for the fact that your DNA proves you’re really weren’t dropped off by space aliens. The Y-DNA you passed on to your great grandson, my uncle David, turns up with seven Cottrell-surname matches including two that are 67-for-67 marker matches. So I know I’m at least looking for the right surname.
But you know what, George? At least one of those 67-for-67 matches is to a descendant of the Shelby County, Kentucky, Cottrells. The same Shelby County Cottrells who had a son George who seems to have pretty much squandered his inheritance from his daddy in the 1830s and who’d high-tailed it out of Kentucky before 1840. Just about the time you showed up in Texas, George.
That Shelby County George showed up sporadically on the Shelby County tax rolls9 until his daddy died and then he popped right on there with all of his daddy’s acreage in his name.10 At least until his siblings forced the partition of the land in 1840.11
Seems to me that was a lot like the George Washington Cottrell who popped up in Colorado County, Texas, married the Gilbert widow and then showed up in the tax rolls there with all that lady’s acreage.12 At least until the bigamy rap in the county court there.13 You remember all that, don’t you, George?
Now I’m not saying that Shelby County George is you, George. He does seem to be just a tad older even than the 1850 census would suggest and it’s way too early in my research to be reaching any conclusions… but it does seem just a bit coincidental, now doesn’t it, George? You wouldn’t want to tell me anything about this, now, would you?
Sigh… someday you and I are going to have such a chat.
SOURCES
- 1850 U.S. census, Tarrant County, Texas, Navarro District, population schedule, p. 89 (stamped), dwelling/family 3, G W Cotril in the Archie Robinson household; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 18 May 2012); citing National Archive microfilm publication M432, roll 910. ↩
- 1880 U.S. census, Parker County, Texas, Justice Precinct 6, population schedule, enumeration district (ED) 139, p. 458(B) (stamped), dwelling/family 10, George W Cotrell; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 18 May2012); citing National Archive microfilm publication T9, roll 1232; imaged from FHL microfilm 1255323. ↩
- See pension application no. 7890 (Rejected), for service of George W. Cotrell of Texas; Mexican War Pension Files; Records of the Bureau of Pensions and its Predecessors 1805-1935; Department of Veterans Affairs, Record Group 15; National Archives, Washington, D.C. See also widow’s pension application no. 13773 (Rejected), for service of George W. Cottrell of Texas; Mexican War Pension Files; RG-15; NA-Washington, D.C. ↩
- Compiled Service Records of Volunteer Soldiers Who Served During the Mexican War in Organizations From the State of Texas, microfilm publication M278, 19 rolls (Washington, D.C. : National Archives & Records Service, 1959). ↩
- Survivor’s Claim, 23 March 1887, pension application no. 7890 (Rejected). ↩
- Ibid., Survivor’s Brief, 17 February 1890. ↩
- See Weldon Hudson, Marriage Records of Johnson County, Tx. (Cleburne : Johnson Co. Historical Soc., 2002). Also, Marion Day Mullins and Norma Rutledge Grammer, “Marriage records, Johnson County, Texas, 1854-1880,” manuscript; FHL microfilm 227498 Item 5. And see “Johnson County Marriage Records, First Book,” Footprints vol. 11, no. 4 (November 1968) 125-128. ↩
- Survivor’s Brief, 17 February 1890, pension application no. 7890 (Rejected). ↩
- See e.g. Shelby County, Kentucky, Tax Roll, 1828, p. 17, entry for Geo Cotrell; County Clerk’s Office, Shelbyville; Kentucky Department of Library and Archives (KDLA) microfilm, Frankfort. ↩
- Ibid., Tax Roll 1830, p. 22, entry for George Cottrell. ↩
- Shelby County, Ky., Deed Book G2: 152, deed of partition; County Clerk’s Office, Shelbyville; KDLA microfilm. ↩
- Colorado County, Texas, Tax Roll, 1844, p. 99, line 1, entry for G.W. Cotrell; Texas Comptroller’s Office, Austin, FHL microfilm 2282151. ↩
- Colorado County, Texas, Criminal Court Minutes Book A&B, p. 217, Republic of Texas v. G.W. Cottrell, Criminal Cause File No. 251 (1843); District Court, Columbus ↩
This is the most entertaining, concise and thorough analysis I have ever read. I enjoyed it so much that it doesn’t even matter that I’m awake and reading Facebook at 6:22am on Saturday. You made my day! Thank you and best of luck tracking down ole George!
Thanks so much for the kind words… And for the good wishes. I have a feeling I’m going to need all the luck I can get with this character!!!!
These ancestors are meant to try us, Judy. One more of those character-building sets of experiences that we could do without! On the other hand – hey, he got you going in lots of directions, didn’t he? Wonder how he was seen by all the other people in his life? Great post! I’m off to my writers’ group this morning, my other passion in life. Helps to have something else to distract from these challenging ancestors of ours, at times. Cheers.
He’s trying me, all right — mostly my patience!!
Excellent! So entertaining and enjoyable to read. I felt your emotions and you completely drew me in. The best analysis I’ve ever read.
Thanks for the kind words.
Personally, I think he was probably hanging out with my 3rd great-grandfather in Texas–Shelby County, Red River County, Fayette County, the Mexican War, etc., etc.– John came from Mississippi (I think) and left wife Patsy there–and then rambled around Texas before dying in Mexico. Lots more questions than answers for this guy. Good luck with George. 🙂
Oh my… Are we cousins or something??? At least George died where I can find his grave (unmarked, of course)!!
SO, I change the name, and the place(s) and maybe a few dates and I have several of my ancestors that will fit this post.
Laughing through the frustrations with ya!
And, then, sighing!
These guys are just sooooooo frustrating, aren’t they??
I love your sense of humor with George! Good luck on finding him! 🙂
Thanks! I’m gonna need all the luck I can get, I fear!
By George, what an interesting character! He has some explaining to do.
By George, you’re right, Jay! And if I could just get him in a closed room for 10 minutes…
Look out George! She has your DNA and she knows how to read it! Perhaps you should be pleading with the ghosts of George’s contemporaries who probably would just love to see the truth finally come out about his scalawag behavior. I imagine a ghost ‘intervention’ taking place with him right now….cough up the documents, George. Good luck – and thanks for the chuckle….
If you can figure out how to arrange that intervention, I’d love you forever!
Now that was funny! George has not intention of being found, but I think you will track him down. Good luck!
I’m sure as heck gonna keep trying, Joan! I keep trying to console myself that at least this is my Cottrell ancestor — not the world’s most common name. If it were my John Jones ancestor, I might be tempted to give up!
Love your posts. Especially, since George ran around the same places in Texas as my ancestors, makes me wonder if they knew each other. LOL. Hope you find him, and keep writing great post.
Thanks, Tina! And I’ll keep chasing this reprobate, for sure. If I find your ancestors, I’ll tell them to report in, pronto!
I think you’ve got old George on the run now, Judy! Keep on his tail and I bet you’ll corner him before long. In the meantime, thanks for the fun read. Don’t you wish you could really make him cough up his story?
Thanks, Shelley — and if I just just get my hands around his scrawny neck– um, er, on him, I mean, my hands on him, I’d be very happy.
Haha! I have one of these guys in my ancestry and I’ve often said your last words in the post to him….gonna have a CHAT with you buddy! I don’t think he was a scalawag, but he managed to make himself quite elusive. Didn’t help that I went all the way to Indiana to see his tombstone, only to find it had disappeared. (It was there when the reading of the cemetery had been done many years before.) Wonderful post, very entertaining!
Lisa, I seem to have MOSTLY these guys in my ancestry! And if I manage to find the cemetery at all, they never had a tombstone. Sigh…
A Love/Hate relationship, I see. From the ‘Adventures of Sherlock Holmes’, “when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.” I think you’ve got him, but that darn paper trail… Hilarious post, by the way!
Love/hate for sure. I love to hate this guy!!! And thanks for the kind words.
Too funny! Ain’t genealogy grand? Have the same, perhaps a few more, frustrations with my Case line. DNA proves that Joshua didn’t pop up out of the dirt in Illinois, he is from the New York / Connecticut Cases, but from which of the cast of thousands is he descended?
Sigh… it’s nice to know I’m not alone, but… sometimes I think space aliens (or popping out of the dirt) would be an easier explanation!!
I wonder if he meant Lexington, Tennessee. It is in Henderson county which actually borders Madison County which is to the west of Henderson County.
I don’t think so. All of his information otherwise is absolutely consistent as to Kentucky, not Tennessee.