Aitkin 1912 NJ Index of Wills — Annin / Dayton / Haas sections across all three volumes — the search that found Capt. Benjamin Cooper's daughters' families under their MARRIED surnames.

What this document records

Why search married surnames

THIS IS THE STRUCTURAL POINT, AND IT IS WHY [A.36]'s SOMERSET NULL WAS NEVER A REAL NULL. Capt. Benjamin's three daughters were probated under their husbands' surnames, so the Cooper section can never find them, however carefully it is searched. ⇒ searching Haas, Dayton and Annin instead found them immediately. Generalises to every married woman in the catalog: a null in a surname index is uninformative unless the married name was searched too.

The three finds

THREE EXACT MATCHES, each corroborated by an independent death date: Haas, Charity, 3600R, Inv. 1857 — John D Cooper Yellow Frame Charity (Cooper) Haas died 31 Dec 1856 per [M.27], so an inventory the following year fits exactly; Haas, Jacob, 2947R, Inv. 1845 — her husband, died 15 Jan 1845, same year; Dayton, Amos, 3594R, W. 1857 — Amos Dayton Amos Dayton, whose 1852 will is [A.11], recorded 1857 after his 1855 death.

The annin candidate

"Annin, John, 1999R. W. & Cod. 1824" — a strong candidate for Mary (Cooper) Cross/Annin Polly (Cooper) Annin's second husband. Polly died 14 May 1817 ([G.20]); a will with codicils in 1824 fits a widower's end-of-life timeline. Candidate, not identified — Annin is a common Somerset surname and the index gives no wife.

The daughters own probates

NEITHER POLLY NOR CATY HAS A PROBATE OF HER OWN IN THIS INDEX. For Caty there is no Catharine/Caty/Catherine Dayton entry in the Somerset Dayton section at all. Three ordinary explanations, none adopted: death after 1900 (outside Aitkin's coverage), probate retained at the county Surrogate rather than the Secretary of State, or no probate at all — a widow's small estate distributed informally. The third is quite likely for Caty, who [A.11] and Caty Cooper Dayton show inherited everything and had no children.