Five distributive receipts in the estate of Andrew J. Cooper of Green Twp., Sussex Co., N.J. — Sussex Receipts Book M, pp. 559–564, taken 30 January 1912 and filed 9 February 1912. Each receiptor is styled “one of the children of Andrew J. Cooper.”

What this document records

What it is

A SWORN ROLL OF ANDREW J. COOPER'S CHILDREN, in a county record. Each of the five instruments opens in the same words — "I, [name], of [place], one of the children of Andrew J. Cooper, late of the Township of Green, in the County of Sussex… am held and firmly bound unto Grant Cooper, administrator of Andrew J. Cooper…" — and each acknowledges $410.33 as that child's distributive share. This replaces inference with record. The catalog had assembled the same five from census households, an obituary and an estate index; here they say it themselves, under seal, and the administrator is one of them.

What is newly recorded

ONE genuinely new fact, and two upgrades in grade. ① NEW — Sadie B. Cooper's married surname and household. She is Sadie B. Beers, wife of Peterson Beers, of Frelinghuysen Twp., WARREN Co. Andrew J. Cooper had her only as a name with tree-tier dates and no husband at all; she is the last of the five children without a file. ② UPGRADE, not a discovery — Della. "Della R. Newman, wife of William C. Newman, of the City of Scranton, Lackawanna Co., Pennsylvania." The catalog already had this: the Newman marriage is at [C.88] (12 Sep 1895, Port Morris) and Scranton at [L.156]. What this adds is record tier for both, and a middle initial R against the file's A. ③ Clarence's middle initial — W, not previously recorded.

A correction made before it landed

An earlier draft of this entry claimed the Newman marriage as new to the catalog. It was not — Della A. (Cooper) Howell is titled "Della A. (Cooper) Newman, later HOWELL" and carries the marriage, the Scranton residence and six Newman children. Recorded here because the mistake is the ordinary one for a big delivery: a document that states plainly what the catalog reached by inference feels like a discovery, and is not. The value is the grade, and the grade is worth saying — but it is not the same claim.

The arithmetic

Five equal shares of $410.33 ⇒ a distributable residue of $2,051.65. Each bond is in the penal sum of $820, i.e. double the share, which is the ordinary form.

What it does not say

It does not say these are ALL his children, and it names no spouse of the decedent. Andrew J. married twice (Andrew J. Cooper); a child of the second marriage who predeceased him, or who took nothing, would not appear here. The catalog's independent evidence also gives five, which is why the agreement is worth something — but the agreement is the argument, and it lives on Andrew J. Cooper.