New Jersey, Return of Deaths in the Township of Independence, County of Warren, 1 May 1866 – 1 May 1867, printed page 589 — fourteen deaths, including the entry for John Cooper, aged 80.

What this document records

The printed header verbatim

"Return of Deaths in the Township of Independence County of Warren State of New Jersey, from the 1st day of May 1866 to the 1st day of May 1867." — printed page 589. Columns: Date of Death · Name of Deceased · Sex of Deceased · Married or Single · Age · Occupation · Place of Death · Place of Birth · Names of Parents · Cause of Death · Time of Making Record. Certified at the foot by A. V. Sexton[?], Town Clerk of Independence Township in the County of Warren and State of New Jersey, over the note "I certify the above is a correct list of names as handed in to me by the assessor", signed Robt. L. Garrison.

The john cooper entry verbatim

Second-to-last row of the return: | column | as written | |---|---| | Date of death | " 4 — the month dittoed from the row above (Feb 5) | | Name of deceased | John Cooper | | Sex | " (dittoed Male) | | Married or single | Married | | Age | 80 | | Occupation | Laborer | | Place of death | Settlement | | Place of birth | Meddows | | Names of parents | Isral Cooper | | Cause of death | Dropsy on heart | | Time of making record | 17 (June 17, dittoed) | The year is not written on his line. It is fixed by the return's own printed period — 1 May 1866 to 1 May 1867 — in which a February death can only be February 1867. ⇒ 4 February 1867.

The finding

THE FATHER'S NAME IS ISRAL COOPER — read at 10×, and it is not Benjamin. John Cooper John Cooper of Independence has carried father: p.2 (Benjamin, 1741–1794) since 2026-05-20, graded unproven, under the catalog's "six-brother Benjamin-paternity hypothesis". A contemporary official return now names a different man, and the catalog has never had any document naming John's father at all. What the column is worth: a death return's parent field is informant-supplied — it is what a family member told the assessor, not a record made at the birth. It is second-hand, and the informant for this row is not named. But it is contemporary, official, and made by people who knew him, which puts it in a wholly different class from the trees that are the only other evidence on this question. Only the father is given. The mother's name is not written.

It is this john and here is why

Five independent points of fit, and no conflict: 1. Place — the return is for Independence Township, Warren County, which is John Cooper's township in [D.4] (1850) and [D.470] (1860). 2. Occupation — Laborer, and [D.470] enumerates him in 1860 as "John 70 labourer". 3. Condition — Married; his wife Anna (Antrim) Cooper Anna Antrim survived him. 4. Age — 80, giving a birth about 1786–87 against the catalog's ABT 1785. 5. The date fits the probate exactly — [A.107] is his will, made 16 January 1867 and proved 19 February 1867. A death on 4 February 1867 falls precisely between the two, which is what a real sequence looks like. No other John Cooper is known in that township in that year, and none appears elsewhere in this return.

The index also calls him a widower and that is wrong too

Ancestry's index gives his marital status as Widower. The page says Married. Re-checked 2026-09-08 at 6× with autocontrast, and the page settles it on its own terms: Azariah Davis, two lines above John, is written Widower — so both words appear on this page, in one hand, within two rows, and they do not resemble each other. John's cell matches Edward Buckley … Married higher up the same column. THIS IS DECISION-RELEVANT, NOT A CURIOSITY. Ancestry's index also lists an Anna M Cooper who died in Warren County in February 1863, and John Cooper's wife is Anna (Antrim) Cooper Anna (Antrim). If John were a widower in 1867, that Anna M would be a strong candidate for his wife. He was not. ⇒ The identification is pushed AWAY, and on the page's own authority. AND THAT SUB-QUESTION IS NOW CLOSED, 2026-10-24, FROM THE CATALOG'S OWN SHELF. The Anna M return was pulled long ago: it is [F.281], the Independence return for 1862-63, printed page 514, which this entry already cites. She is a FIVE-YEAR-OLD CHILD - Anna M. Cooper Anna M. Cooper, daughter of William Shafer Cooper William Shafer Cooper, dead of diphtheria at Quaker Settlement beside her sister Emma E. ⇒ She was never a candidate wife for anyone, and the "he could have remarried" escape hatch had nothing to escape to. The item sat open for six weeks against an entry already in the catalog and already listed in this file's own entries: line. Worth noticing as a pattern, not just as a fix. RE-CONFIRMED INDEPENDENTLY 2026-10-24. The Married or Single cell was cropped again, without reference to the 2026-09-08 note, in a single 6× crop carrying three consecutive rows - Widower (Azariah Davis, 67), John's cell, and Single (the row below) - and compared against the control Married written for Edward Buckley nine rows up. Three plainly different words; John's matches the control. The strokes cutting through his cell are the descenders of Widower from the row above, which is the likeliest thing to have misled the indexer. Third index defect found in this one collection, after the 1866 death year below and the Single-vs-unknown condition at [F.217]. The index's derived fields are not its transcribed ones; go to the image for anything that decides something.

The index dates him 1866 and the index is wrong

Ancestry's index gives this death as 4 Feb 1866. It is out by a year, and three things say so. 1. The return's own printed period is 1 May 1866 – 1 May 1867; a February death inside it can only be 1867. 2. [A.107] quotes his will verbatim as dated the "sixteenth day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty seven" — he cannot have died eleven months before making it. 3. [A.107] had already bracketed the death between 16 Jan and 19 Feb 1867 from the making and proving of that will. 4 February 1867 falls inside that window — a third independent confirmation, established before this record was found. Same index, same volume, same class of defect as "Robert Coober 1862" at [F.217].

And it corrects the catalog s death date

John Cooper has carried death: 19 FEB 1867 — and 19 February 1867 is the date his will was PROVED, not the date he died. The return gives 4 February 1867. A probate date silently recorded as a death date is an easy slip to make and an invisible one afterwards, because both are real dates attached to the same man in the same month.

The places are local and specific

Place of death Settlement; place of birth Meddows. Both read as localities within Independence Township — "Meddows" for the Meadows / Great Meadows, the village in that township. ⇒ He was born where he died, and the catalog's birthplace of bare "NJ" can be narrowed to Independence Township, Warren County (then Sussex County — Warren was not created until 1824). Read as place names, not asserted as identifications; no gazetteer was consulted.