Document F.215 · death return · transcription: verbatim
New Jersey, Return of Deaths in the Township of Frelinghuysen, County of Warren, 1 June 1850 – 1 June 1851, Vol. AH printed page 326 — the complete certified return, 16 entries, town clerk Frederick Cooke. Held as NJSA order #202606-87692 (PDF) and as Ancestry collection 62483, image group 004210793, image 339 of 623.
F.215: New Jersey, Return of Deaths in the Township of Frelinghuysen, County of Warren, 1 June 1850…People named
| As written | Role | Identified as | What this document says |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aaron Cooper | deceased | Aaron Cooper Sr 1784–1851 | |
| Margaret Cooper | deceased | Margaret (Bunn) Cooper 1795–1851 | |
| Frederick Cooke | town_clerk |
What this document records
Parentage
NULL — the 'Names of Parents' column is BLANK. This return neither confirms nor refutes the Benjamin-paternity hypothesis, and [pr.86] anticipated exactly that: 1850s NJ returns routinely left parents blank for an adult decedent. A blank column is a clerk's omission, not evidence about the parents.
Two entries
The page carries AARON and MARGARET as two BRACKETED entries, six days apart, both of MEASLES — which is how the record itself presents them as one household event.
Whole page
ALL SIXTEEN ENTRIES READ 2026-08-22, not just the Cooper rows. The page is the COMPLETE CERTIFIED RETURN for Frelinghuysen for the year ending 1 June 1851, bounded by its heading and by Frederick Cooke's Town Clerk attestation. EXACTLY TWO COOPERS on it — Aaron and Margaret — and NO COOPER CHILD. The other fourteen are Ashwell, Shafer, Swayze, Kerr, Cooke, Case, Mott, Wildrick, Shaw, Rogers, Case, an unnamed Infant, Bartow and Pittenger. This is what falsifies [pr.100] route 4.
The blank is a blank not a ditto
Worth stating precisely, because the neighbouring page got this wrong. On [F.217] (Vol. AH p. 536) Robert Cooper's parents cell holds a ditto mark whose chain resolves to the word unknown. Here it is different: Aaron's and Margaret's cells are EMPTY — no ditto, no word, white space — verified at 4x on 2026-09-07. A blank and a dittoed unknown are not the same record, and neither is the written Not Known at [F.216]. This series distinguishes three states and the catalog now records which is which.
Parents column
AARON'S AND MARGARET'S ARE THE ONLY BLANK 'Names of Parents' CELLS ON THE PAGE. Every other entry names parents (e.g. 'Job I & Caroline Shaw', 'James L & Elsy Bartow', 'Wm S & Alice A Pittenger'). Verified at 2x. The clerk knew the others' parentage and not theirs — consistent with the family being newcomers ([D.330] puts them in Green Twp, Sussex in 1840), though no cause is established.
Transcription and notes
Source: NJ State Archives, Returns of Deaths, May 1848–May 1878, Vol. AH, p. 326(Frelinghuysen Twp, Warren Co., year ending 1 June 1851; town clerk Frederick Cooke). NJSA Order #202606-87692. File (image held in the family archive).
Data from the document [verbatim]
- Date of death:April 12 [1851] · Name:Aaron Cooper · Age:65 · Occupation:Weaver · Cause:Measles
- Names of Parents:[blank] · (bracketed with the next entry — Margaret Cooper, female, 51, d. April 18, Measles — evidently his wife, both dead of measles within a week)
Notes
- = [p.13 Aaron Cooper Sr.]— d. 12 Apr 1851, Frelinghuysen ( matches F.60). Age 65 ⇒ b. ~1785/86(consistent with the L.55/L.56 "b. 1784 Andover"). Wife Margaret[Bunn] d. days later (18 Apr 1851), also of measles.
- 6-brother test (pr.86) = NULL for Aaron:the parents column is blank— this return does NOT name a father, so it neither confirms nor refutes the Benjamin-paternity hypothesis. (As pr.86 anticipated: 1850s NJ returns routinely omitted parents for adults.)
Cross-references
- p.13 Aaron Cooper Sr. · pr.86