Document F.216 · death return · transcription: verbatim
New Jersey, Return of Deaths in the Township of Independence, County of Warren, May 1852 – 1 June 1853, Vol. AH printed page 365 — the entry for Joseph Cooper, aged 60, of Great Meadows. Held in two reproductions: NJSA order #202606-87692 (PDF) and Ancestry collection 62483, image group 004210793, image 377 of 623.
- repository
- New Jersey State Archives, Returns of Deaths May 1848 – May 1878, Vol. AH (Warren Co. marriages + deaths 1848-1867), p. 365. Also filmed as FHL 584584 / DGS 4210793 and published by Ancestry as collection 62483, volume Marriages, Deaths Warren Co. v. AH 1848-1867, image 377.
- identifier
- Vol. AH, p. 365 — Independence Twp, Warren Co., year May 1852 – 1 June 1853
- date
- 1852
People named
| As written | Role | Identified as | What this document says |
|---|---|---|---|
| Joseph Cooper | deceased | Joseph Cooper 1785–1852 | death: Oct 1852, Great Meadows, Independence Twp, Warren Co., New Jersey birth: about 1792, Great Meadows, Independence Twp, Warren Co., New Jersey |
What this document records
The joseph cooper entry verbatim
Oct 1 [1852] · Joseph Cooper · male · 60 yrs · Farmer · place of death Great Meadows · place of birth Great Meadows · Names of Parents: Not Known · cause Black Jaundice.
The null is the point
Not known is a NEGATIVE THE CLERK TOOK THE TROUBLE TO WRITE. Someone was asked and did not know. That is what gives [F.278] its force: on the same printed form, in the same township and the same bound volume, a clerk who had no answer wrote one down — so Isral Cooper on John's line is a positive answer given where a negative was equally available, not a form-filling reflex.
Both brothers born at great meadows
Joseph's place of birth is Great Meadows; [F.278] gives John Cooper John's as Meddows, and [F.217] gives Robert Cooper Robert's as Independence — the township Great Meadows sits in. All three were born in Independence Township, recorded across fifteen years by three different clerks. Consistent with brothers, and the first documentary support the catalog has for the [D.4] cluster being a family. Not proof — Great Meadows is a village, not a household.
An age discrepancy recorded not smoothed
Age 60 ⇒ b. ~1792, against Joseph Cooper's census-derived ABT 1785. Seven years apart, neither asserted.
A second joseph exists
Ancestry's index to this collection carries a second Warren County Joseph Cooper, died 29 Sep 1851 — thirteen months before this one. Either a different man, or this man double-indexed with a wrong year, which that index demonstrably does elsewhere in this very volume (it lists Robert Cooper Robert twice, once as "Robert Coober, 16 Nov 1862"). Only the images can say. Unpulled.
Transcription and notes
The entry, the null and the birthplace point are in the coverage: header.
The answer is Not Known
Oct 1 [1852] · Joseph Cooper · 60 yrs · Farmer · Great Meadows · Great Meadows · Not Known ·
Black Jaundice.
⇒ This record cannot name his father. His father: p.2 link to Benjamin — graded unproven —
is neither helped nor harmed by it.
But the null is worth having
A clerk who had no answer wrote Not known. That is the control that gives [F.278]'s
Isral Cooper its force: same form, same township, same volume, opposite outcome.
And the three brothers share a birthplace
Joseph Great Meadows · John Meddows ([F.278]) · Robert Independence ([F.217]).
All three born in Independence Township, per three clerks across fifteen years.