Sussex Co., N.J. PROCEEDINGS INDEX, vols. 4–5 — the three Cooper blocks the [A.128] Estate Index pointed at: Clark C. (file 13756), Clarence (15323) and a third, each listing every document in the probate.

Transcription and notes

Provenance, the two-step lookup this completes, the fact that the pointers paid off under [pr.103], and what an index cannot tell you are all in the source: and coverage: headers and are not repeated here.

1. Vol 5, page 194, block 7 — COOPER CLARK C, file 13756 [verbatim]

Image 355 (opening = pages 194 | 195). Block 7 is the second block of page 194's right-hand column; block 1 of that page is file 13750 and block 6 is file 13755, so the file numbers run consecutively down the page.

7 · Cooper Clark C · File No. 13756 · Res. and Date of Death: Mar 23 1943 · Andover Twp

PROCEEDING	Dkt.	Vol.	Page	Month	Day	Year
Nellie Cooper Admx
Pet and Order for Adm.	PR	M	28	Apr	27	1943
Bond	AB	J	373	Apr	27	1943
Letters of Adm	LA	F	68	Apr	27	1943
Power of Atty	Filed			Apr	27	1943

That is the entire block. Four proceedings, all filed on one day, and nothing after 27 April 1943.

2. Vol 5, page 354, block 6 — COOPER CLARENCE, file 15323 [verbatim]

Image 439 (opening = pages 354 | 355). Block 6 is the first block of page 354's right-hand column.

6 · Cooper Clarence · File No. 15323 · Res. and Date of Death: Green Twp · Nov 30 1950

PROCEEDING	Dkt.	Vol.	Page	Month	Day	Year
Cora Anna Stickle Admx
Comp & Order	PR	O	152	Dec	5	1950
Admr's Bond	AB	K	262	Dec	5	1950
Letters of Adm	LA	F	324	Dec	5	1950
Power of Atty	Filed			Dec	5	1950
Rule to Limit Creditors	RL	D	76	Dec	6	1950
Rule to Bar Creditors	RB	D	376	Jun	6	1951
Releases (6)	Rc	27	512	Jan	28	1952

(Note the Vol. column for the Releases row holds a numeral, 27, where every other row on the page holds a letter — the Receipts series had run past Z by 1952. Read at 6×.)

3. Vol 4, page 214, block 8 — COOPER THOMAS W, file 11928 [verbatim]

Image 129 (opening = pages 214 | 215). Block 8 is the third block of page 214's right-hand column; its neighbours are block 7 Shireman George (file 11927) and block 9 Kimble Evelyn (file 11929, Minor).

8 · Cooper Thomas W · File No. 11928 · Res. and Date of Death: Jun 22 1933 · Andover

PROCEEDING	Dkt.	Vol.	Page	Month	Day	Year
Sussex & Mchts Nat Bank Admr
Pet for Adm	PR	J	467	Jun	26	1933
Admr Bond	AB	I	123	Jun	26	1933
Letters of Adm	LA	E	372	Jun	26	1933
Rule Limiting Cred	OL	B	307	Jun	26	1933
Rule Barring Cred	OB	C	492	Dec	26	1933
Accounting	Ac	O	599	May	4	1934
Affidavit of money pd Ct	Filed
Receipt for money paid Ct	Rc	U	376	Aug	29	1934
Recpts (9)	Rc	U	381	Aug	29	1934
Pet for money pd ct	PR	K	191	Apr	11	1935
Order	Mn	T	354	Apr	20	1935
Release	Rc	U	496	Apr	20	1935

The last three rows are overprinted. The typist ran the block past its ruled bottom, so "Pet for money pd ct" / "Order" overlap each other and "Release" sits across the rule with block 9's printed "Res. and Date of Death" header struck over its date cells. All three were re-read at 10×; the digits are legible through the overprint, but they are the least clean values on this page and are flagged as such rather than presented as clean readings.

Docket abbreviations used in these blocks

Consistent with the list already recorded for the v.1–3 reel (DGS 005679623): PR Probate Records · AB Administration/Executor Bonds · LA Letters of Administration · In Inventories · Ac Accounts · Mn Minutes · Rc Receipts · OL Orders Limiting Creditors · OB Orders Barring Creditors · GB Guardian Bonds · WB Will Book. New here: RL Rule to Limit Creditors and RB Rule to Bar Creditors, which by 1950 have replaced OL/OB.

Page-to-image anchors read off the printed headers

Also read: image 236 is an End target card, 240 a Begin card, and 241 the PROCEEDINGS INDEX title board of volume 5 — so volume 4 occupies images 1–236 and volume 5 images 241–462. The page-per-image rate is not a clean 2:1 (194→268 is 74 pages across 40 images), so interpolate and then check the printed page number. Recorded in films/film.5679624.yaml.

2026-08-19 — TWO MORE COOPER BLOCKS ON THIS REEL, both the same unusual shape [verbatim]

Read live from DGS 005679624, signed in. Both images downloaded and filed per RULE ZERO-C; both blocks cropped at 4× with zoom.py off the 5379×3406 originals before any value was recorded, per RULE ZERO-B.

Block 9, vol 4 page 321 (image 192) — COOPER, JOHN J · file 12968

9 · Cooper John J — File No. 12968 — (See Book 2, Block 3, page 24) Res. and Date of Death: Sep 8 1883 · New York

PROCEEDING	Dkt.	Vol.	Page	Month	Day	Year
Frances and Charles A Cooper Exrs
Exem copy of will	WB	27	65	Oct	7	1938

That is the entire block — one proceeding line.

This is the continuation [A.133] was pointing at. File 1672 at vol 2 p. 24 blk 3 carried "(See Book 4, page 321, block 9)"; this block carries the reciprocal "(See Book 2, Block 3, page 24)". Death date and place match exactly. But it carries a DIFFERENT file number — 12968, not 1672 — a 1938-series number, because the 1938 filing was docketed as new business fifty-five years after the death.

Block 10, vol 4 page 309 (image 186) — COOPER, MILDRED K · file 12855

Found incidentally while calibrating toward p. 321; no index pointed at it.

10 · Cooper Mildred K — File No. 12855 Res. and Date of Death: Nov 1 1937 · N Hampshire

PROCEEDING	Dkt.	Vol.	Page	Month	Day	Year
Robert L Roy Exr
Exem copy of will	WB	Z	416	Mar	28	1938

Again a single proceeding line. → [name.500].

A pattern worth naming: the out-of-state decedent with Sussex property

Both are exemplified copies of wills — an authenticated copy of a will proved elsewhere, recorded in Sussex — and both decedents died out of state (New York; New Hampshire). Neither block carries letters, bond, inventory, account or distribution, because Sussex was never the primary jurisdiction; the filing exists only to put the will on the Sussex record, and the ordinary reason is land in the county.

⇒ Consequence for searching, and it cuts both ways: a Cooper who died in New York or New Hampshire can still appear in the Sussex probate index — so an out-of-state death is not a reason to skip these books. And conversely, the file itself will be thin: the substance is in the will, not in the Sussex proceedings.

The block's own date is the RECORDING date, not the death. Both were recorded in 1938; John J. died in 1883. Do not read a proceeding date as a life event.

What this adds to [pr.103]

Neither is filmed. The filmed Sussex Wills run ends at volume M / 1905 (fhl-films-registry.md); volumes Z and 27 are 1938. ⇒ Surrogate request.

THE SUSSEX QUESTION IS ANSWERED FOR MILDRED — [K.78]. The Sussex Grantee Index of Deeds p. 425 shows Mildred K. Cooper acquiring Sussex land in 1918 (Liber R11 p. 175, grantor Helen F. Cooper), alongside Louis I. Cooper two pages earlier (R11 p. 173, grantor Margaret Schabehorn). ⇒ she owned Sussex real estate when she died, which is exactly why a New Hampshire will was recorded here as an exemplified copy. The filing was never evidence of a Sussex family — it was evidence of a Sussex deed. AND IT DOES NOT TRANSFER TO JOHN J. — TESTED AND FALSE. He is [p.1748] John J. Cooper (1814-1883), son of [p.399] Capt. Elias Cooper of Wantage, and his Sussex deeds were already in the catalog: he took Liber I4 p. 50 in the 1848 partition of his father's estate ([K.76]), and the Wantage farm was SOLD on 1 April 1890 by Charles A. Cooper as surviving executor ([K.77]). ⇒ the land was gone forty-eight years before the 1938 filing, so he did not die owning it.

The reading that does fit, as a hypothesis: an executor's deed is only good if the will conferring the power of sale is of record in that county. The 1875 will was proved in Orange Co., New York ([A.121]); recording an exemplified copy in Sussex in 1938 would cure a gap in the chain of title on the farm Charles A. had sold in 1890. Not asserted — no document here says so, and the 1938 owner has not been looked for.

WITHDRAWN LATER THE SAME DAY — [K.79]. The Sussex Grantee Index pp. 421-422 shows NINE John J. Cooper acquisitions, 1848-1860, two of them sheriff's deeds. The reasoning above assumed he owned one property; [K.77] records the sale of one (the Wantage farm), and nothing establishes what became of the other eight. ⇒ He may well have died still holding Sussex land, and the ordinary explanation may apply after all. The question is open, not closed. A single documented disposal does not establish that a man died landless — count what he bought first.

A weaker but surviving point: these two blocks need not share one explanation. Mildred's Sussex land was bought in 1918 and still held at death; John J.'s was inherited in 1848 and sold in 1890. A shared record-type is not a shared explanation.

And a cheaper prior step for John J.: the will was proved in New York, so the original probate is a New York record — potentially reachable without the Sussex Surrogate at all. Not searched.

Cross-references

• A.128 — the Estate Index that produced all three citations.
• A.129 — U. Grant Cooper, file 15839, whose Proceedings block (vol 6 p. 238 blk 6) is on the unread reel DGS 5679625.
• The v.1–3 reel's Cooper page (book page 24, files 1670–1676) is filed under Death/Wills and Probate/New Jersey/Sussex County/Probate docket index DGS 005679623/.