New Jersey, Return of Deaths in the Township of Mansfield, County of Warren, 1 May 1863 – 1 May 1864, Vol. AH printed page 536 — the entry for Robert Cooper, aged 84, died at the County House. Held in two reproductions: NJSA order #202606-87692 (PDF, with an NJSA transcription) and Ancestry collection 62483, image group 004210793, image 568 of 623.

What this document records

The printed header verbatim

"Return of Deaths in the Township of Mansfield County of Warren State of New Jersey, from the first day of May 1863 to the first day of May [1864]." — Vol. AH printed page 536, entry line 31. Same columns as [F.215], [F.216] and [F.278]. Filed under MANSFIELD, not Independence — these are returns by township of death, and Robert died in the county poorhouse, which stood in Mansfield.

The robert cooper entry verbatim

November 16 1863 · Robert Cooper · sex dittoed → male · married-or-single unknown · 84 · occupation blank · place of death ditto → County House · place of birth do → Independence · names of parents ditto → unknown · cause Brain Fever · time of making record August 18, 1864.

How the three dittos resolve

All three were run back to the row where the words are written out, at 6x with autocontrast. Place of death — a chain up to Christopher Cole's row of 2 June 1863, County House. Place of birth — do, dittoing Patrick Donelly's row directly above, Independence. Names of parents — a ditto in an unbroken column of six ditto marks whose head is unknown, written on Christopher Cole's row, four rows up. The rows between are James McWilliams, Dennis Braun and Patrick Donelly; the intervening place-of-birth cells (Washington Tp, Independence) prove the rows are correctly aligned.

The parentage answer is unknown

His parents are not named. The value is unknown, carried by ditto. This CORRECTS a reading made on 2026-09-07 in the since-retired [F.279]/[F.280] pass, which recorded the cell as "a ditto mark and nothing else", said the chain "cannot be resolved", and declined the word unknown on the ground that it "is not written in his cell". The word is written — at the head of the chain, four rows up — and the chain resolves by exactly the method that same reading had already used successfully on the place-of-death column two cells to the left. ⇒ The NJSA transcription's Unknown was right.

And so was the birthplace

Independence — which is what this entry and Robert Cooper have carried since 2026-08-22, and which the 2026-09-07 pass wrongly demoted to an unresolved ditto. It matters: [F.216] gives Joseph Cooper Joseph's birthplace as Great Meadows and [F.278] gives John Cooper John's as Meddows — the same locality, in the same township, as Robert's.

An index error worth recording

Ancestry's index gives his marital condition as Single. The page says unknown. A different claim entirely — unknown is the clerk declining to state; Single is an assertion the record does not make. The same index also lists him a second time as "Robert Coober, 16 Nov 1862" — wrong surname and wrong year.

And the age

84, giving a birth about 1779. Robert Cooper carries ABT 1783 from the censuses — four years apart, neither asserted.