Arthur Robert Cooper 1891–1979

Result: DOUBLE NULL IN THE ANNOUNCEMENT INDEX, AND A COVERAGE ANSWER RATHER THAN A NULL IN THE THIRD. (a) In 52 Helen Kerrigan marriage announcements nationwide there is NO Cooper groom. The Pennsylvania rows are Shenandoah, Pottsville, Mahanoy City, Wilkes-Barre and Philadelphia - the anthracite towns, not Scranton. One Scranton row appears and it is the decoy this file already excludes: 'Helen' x Joseph Majerof, Scranton, 20 Aug 1934 - i.e. the Helen Kerrigan who married Joseph Mayernick, daughter of Anthony, set aside on 2026-10-05. Seeing it come back under a THIRD spelling of the groom's surname is worth recording: the index is AI-generated and Ancestry says it 'may contain errors'. (b) Fifteen exact 'Arthur Cooper' marriages are announced in the United States between 1930 and 1940. None is in Pennsylvania and none has a Kerrigan bride (the brides are Amsler, Kammerer, Johnson, Sheldon, Yates, Miller, Jenkins). (c) IS NOT A NULL AND MUST NOT BE READ AS ONE. Coll. 61324 returns ZERO Helen Kerrigans in the whole of Pennsylvania, 1845-1963. A surname as common as Kerrigan cannot really be absent from a statewide marriage collection for 118 years, so what this measures is the COLLECTION'S COUNTY COVERAGE, not her absence. Pennsylvania kept marriage licences at the county courthouse and Ancestry has filmed only some counties; on present evidence Lackawanna is not among them. => THE MARRIAGE IS STILL UNDATED, and the announcement route is now exhausted from both sides. What is left is a RETURN, and three places to ask for it: the Lackawanna Co. Orphans'/Clerk of Courts marriage docket (not online); Westchester Co., N.Y., since [D.831] puts him there in 1940; and New Jersey, which he had not necessarily left. Carried to the todo:.

Result: NO MARRIAGE NOTICE - BUT (a) MOVED THE WINDOW. Of the 12 'Helene Kerrigan' hits, exactly ONE is from Scranton: The Tribune, Friday 12 September 1930, page 5 (newspapers.com image 49486976), under the headline 'REPUBLICAN WOMEN CONDUCT MEETING' - the Independent Women's Republican club met at the home of Mrs. Terence Murphy, 1310 Luzerne street, and the new members enrolled include 'Miss Helene Kerrigan'; the same name appears again lower down, 'Entertainment was furnished by Mrs. Murphy and Miss Helene Kerrigan, pianists'. WHAT IT IS AND IS NOT. If she is our Helene, she was still unmarried in SEPTEMBER 1930, moving the opening of the marriage window five months later than the April 1930 census does, and she was a pianist. NOTHING IS ASSERTED AND NO HEADER KEY IS WRITTEN FROM IT: the only things tying the item to Helene (Kerrigan) Cooper are the city, the era and the distinctive spelling Helene that [J.408] also uses - and that is the same shape of argument that produced [D.830], which was refuted. The page was NOT downloaded and this is therefore NOT a citable reading; it is recorded here as a lead with its image id so it can be pulled if it ever matters. (b) THE CO-OCCURRENCE SEARCH IS NOISE, as expected of two common surnames: the Lackawanna hits are name LISTS, not notices. The 20 October 1943 Times-Tribune p. 20 / Tribune p. 12 page is a long alphabetical register of residents by occupation and street, and its row reads 'Arthur Cooper, gateman, 322 N. Bromley Avenue, Scranton'. NOT RECORDED AS HIS: no middle initial, an occupation and an address that match neither his 1942-1960 directory entries (spouse Helen M., and 1413 N. Lincoln Ave. by 1979) nor the 'Arthur C Cooper, wife Pauline' decoy, and the page was read whole, never cropped. => read only as evidence that at least two Arthur Coopers were living in Scranton in 1943, which this file already suspected.

Result: NULL FROM ALL THREE ANGLES. (a) Lackawanna County held ten Coopers born about 1890-92 and every one is Pennsylvania-born except a Lithuanian brother-in-law. The only Arthur among them is 'Arthur C Cooper', Pennsylvania-born, wife PAULINE, at Scranton - wrong middle initial, wrong birthplace, wrong wife. NOT him. (c) IS THE STRONGEST, because it cannot be defeated by a surname: about twenty-four people in the whole county are indexed as New-Jersey-born of his cohort, and NONE is an Arthur and none is a Cooper. WHAT IT MEANS: he was not in Lackawanna County in April 1930, or was enumerated with a wrong birthplace. He was born at Green Twp, SUSSEX CO., NEW JERSEY in 1891 [G.214] and died at Scranton in 1979 - the catalog has nothing between [D.351] and his obituary [J.408], so the move to Pennsylvania is undated. AND THE TWO NEW JERSEY COUNTIES ARE NULL TOO, both complete and both tiny: SUSSEX CO. held exactly TWO Coopers of that cohort in 1930 - Adam and Isabel E., both SCOTLAND-born, at Newton - and WARREN CO. held FIVE, all New-Jersey-born: Walter H. (Lopatcong), Herman (Washington), Floyd (Frelinghuysen), Ralph H. and Geneva C. (both Phillipsburg). No Arthur in either. SO THREE COUNTIES ARE NOW EXHAUSTED - the one he died in and the two he came from - and he is in none of them. His marriage to Helene (Kerrigan) Cooper Helene Kerrigan is still undated and would give a place to anchor on. NEXT: New York, since Scranton men of that generation often came through it; or find the marriage to Helene (Kerrigan) Cooper Helene Kerrigan, still undated, which would give a place to anchor on. Kerrigan is a Scranton-Irish name, so the marriage may well be in Lackawanna Co. and would date his arrival.

Result: A COMPLETE-COUNTY NULL. There is no Arthur R. Cooper of about 1891 anywhere in Sussex County, New Jersey, in 1920. The only two Arthur Coopers in the whole county are "Arthur Cooper, abt 1877, head at Montague, wife Eva" - fourteen years too old - and "Arthur Cooper, abt 1914, son of Edison and Mattie at Sussex borough" - a child of six. IT ALSO CONFIRMS [D.352] FROM THE OTHER DIRECTION. His father's Green Twp household appears in the list complete: Amos K (abt 1868), Rose A (abt 1869), Clark C (abt 1889), Fred D (abt 1895), and two GRANDSONS - Harry C (abt 1907) and Robert A (abt 1917). Arthur is not in it, which the file already said; now that is a reading of the whole county rather than of one household. ONE OBSERVATION WORTH NOT RE-NOTICING, recorded for Clark Caleb Cooper rather than pursued here: those two grandsons in Amos's house in 1920 are the right ages to be Clark Caleb's children by Laura Ackerson, whom he married in 1906 [C.155] and who died in 1918 - a widower's sons living with their grandparents. Not asserted; Clark Caleb Cooper's own children: are Harry Clark Cooper, Robert A Cooper, Dorothy (Cooper) Dowling and Charles G Cooper. WHERE HE ACTUALLY WAS IN JANUARY 1920 IS NOW GENUINELY OPEN. Discharged to Sussex Co. in June 1919, not in Sussex Co. in January 1920, in Mt. Kisco, N.Y. by 1940 [D.831] and Scranton by 1942. The honest answer is that the catalog does not know, and the next angles are the 1920 lists for the counties he is later found in - Lackawanna, Pa. and Westchester, N.Y.

Result: THE VETERANS' RECORDS DID NOT CONFIRM THE 1920 ARIZONA ROW. THEY DISPROVED IT, AND THE SAME-DAY ENTRY [D.830] IS NOW FLAGGED refuted: true. [B.132], the Pennsylvania burial card, gives DATES OF SERVICE 29 NOVEMBER 1913 TO 13 JUNE 1919, organization 78th Military Police Company, rank Private First Class - against a birth date, a death date and a cemetery that are all exactly his. The VA Master Index agrees to the day on the discharge. ⇒ He was out of the army seven months before the January 1920 census, and he was never a sergeant of cavalry. The Camp Harry J. Jones sergeant is a different Arthur R. Cooper. WHAT THIS EPISODE IS WORTH KEEPING FOR. [D.830] had FOUR corroborating details - age 28 exact, birthplace New Jersey, BOTH PARENTS born New Jersey, and a military rank matching an obituary that called him a WWI veteran - and every one of them was true of the man on the plate. The identification was still wrong, because not one of the four was unique to him. The detail that felt most like confirmation, the cavalry rank, is the one that destroyed it as soon as a real service record turned up. It cost nothing to unwind because the entry was written provisional: true and graded only probable: two keys withdrawn on this file, one flag set on the entry, and the transcription itself untouched. WHAT IS GAINED IS LARGER THAN WHAT IS LOST: five and a half years of documented army service, a unit, a rank, an enlistment date and a discharge date, where the catalog previously had the four words "World War I veteran". AND THE 1920 GAP IS OPEN AGAIN, BUT BETTER AIMED. He was discharged on 13 June 1919 to Greendell, Green Twp, Sussex Co., N.J. ⇒ Look for him in SUSSEX COUNTY on 1 January 1920. He is NOT in his father's household [D.352], which has already been checked, so the search is the complete 1920 Cooper list for Sussex Co. (place id 2837) - and, because he may be boarding under a mangled surname, the Green Twp EDs by image.

Result: FOUND, AND IN A STATE NOBODY HAD LOOKED IN: "Arthur Cooper, 48, b. New Jersey, Head, with wife Helen, 33, b. Pennsylvania - 161 East Main Street, Mt. Kisco, Westchester Co., NEW YORK". Downloaded, filed and read on five census_stitch bands = [D.831]. HOW A LACKAWANNA COUNTY LIST REACHED NEW YORK STATE, which is the transferable part: the 1940 schedule asks where each person lived on 1 APRIL 1935, and this household's answer is Scranton, Pennsylvania. Ancestry indexes that as an "Inferred Residence in 1935" and a residence filter matches it. ⇒ A 1940 county list reaches people who had already LEFT the county - they sit past the exact-residence matches, near the end of the result set, which is why all four pages had to be read rather than the first. THE IDENTIFICATION IS FIRM, on the wife rather than on him: a New Jersey-born Arthur Cooper of 48 with a Pennsylvania-born wife HELEN who was at SCRANTON in 1935 is the man [D.711] has at Scranton in 1950 with a wife Helen, and whom the city directories have there from 1942. AND IT FILLS A HOLE: the file had him in New Jersey before the war and in Scranton from 1942, with nothing between. In April 1940 he was 120 miles away in New York, renting at $32 a month and working as a DRILLER, having been in Scranton five years earlier. He went back - [J.408] says he lived "in the Scranton area most of his life". ONE DISAGREEMENT RECORDED AND NOT RESOLVED: his wife's age is 33, i.e. born about 1907, against 1903 on her memorial and 47 in [D.711]. The sheet's own informant mark (⊗) is after HER name, so it is her own age, given by herself. NO OTHER COOPER IN THE 182-ROW LACKAWANNA LIST IS HIM. The near-miss already on this file - "Arthur C Carper, abt 1891, Pennsylvania, Scranton, wife Pauline" - is on page 1 and is excluded as before: Pennsylvania-born, wife Pauline.

Result: FOUND: The Scranton Times (newspapers.com 'The Times-Tribune') 10 May 1979 p. 20 obituary [J.408], downloaded. Also hits in The Tribune 10-12 May 1979 pp. 5, 12 and Times-Tribune 11 May p. 19 (probably the same notice; not opened).

Result: Not run.

Result: Not run.

Result: Not run.

Result: Not run.

Result: FOUND: 1950 Scranton [D.711], son-in-law in the Kerrigan household with wife Helen, 47. Already held: 1900 [D.351], 1905 NJ [E.25], 1910 [D.357]. Helena Kerrigan, dau. of Patrick and Margaret, was SINGLE in their 1930 Scranton household (1:1:XH3R-TSN, index only) - so the marriage is after Apr 1930. NULL: no WWI draft card for an Arthur Cooper b. 11 Apr 1891 or born NJ 1891 (FamilySearch 48 read; Ancestry 6482 exact-DOB and b. 1891+-2 NJ); no 1920 in Amos's household [D.352]; no 1930 hit b. NJ; no PA county marriage Arthur Cooper x Kerrigan. NOT HIM: Arthur C. Cooper of Scranton (b. PA 1891, wife Pauline) in 1930/1940/1950 and his WWII card 1:1:VQFF-43M; Helen Kerrigan who married Joseph Mayernick 15 Aug 1934 (dau. of Anthony).

Result: UPGRADED 2026-10-17 FROM 'LEAD (low)' TO A FILED ENTRY GRADED PROBABLE - see [D.830]. The plate was downloaded, filed under Census/Arizona/Cochise County/ and read on four census_stitch bands, and it turned the lead into something much better than the index row suggested. THE INDEX ROW SAID 'b. New Jersey'; THE PLATE SAYS BOTH PARENTS BORN NEW JERSEY TOO, which is the column that does the work, since Amos Kennedy Cooper Amos Kennedy Cooper and Rose Anna (Whyms) Cooper Rosa Anna Whyms were both New Jersey-born and an index search never reaches that cell. With age 28 exact for 11 Apr 1891, SINGLE (right - Helene (Kerrigan) Cooper Helena Kerrigan was still unmarried in April 1930), and a rank of SERGEANT OF CAVALRY against the 'World War I veteran' of [J.408], four independent things fit. STILL NOT CERTAIN, and the reason is stated in the entry: a barracks roll names no kin, so nothing on the sheet ties this sergeant to Sussex County except the three birthplaces, and 'Arthur R. Cooper, b. New Jersey about 1891' is not a rare man. IT ALSO EXPLAINS THE FILE'S STANDING ODDITY - no WWI draft card has ever been found for him across two providers; a man already enlisted would not have one. ORIGINAL 2026-10-05 WORDING KEPT BELOW. LEAD (low): 1920 census, Douglas, Cochise Co., Arizona - 'Arthur R Cooper', 28, b. New Jersey, one of a long list of unrelated young men under head William H Harris (Ancestry 6061/83545691; apparently a military post) - fits the WWI-veteran obituary, not opened or downloaded, not asserted. WARNING: an Ancestry tree person 'Arthur Robert Cooper V.M.' (b. 11 Apr 1891 Green; d. 9 May 1979 Scranton; father Amos K., mother Rosa A. Whims) gives a spouse 'Isabella Bolmer' and child 'Leila Roberta', but its attached WWI card (6482/32606673) is ARTHUR J. Cooper of 220 Miller St, Trenton, b. 15 Feb 1892 - a different man - so the tree has merged two Arthurs; its wife and child are NOT recorded here.

Result: NULL - no record matching name and birth year among the candidates.

Result: FOUND (index rows only, not opened): 'Arthur R Cooper', Scranton, Pennsylvania, directory years 1942, 1946, 1949, 1951, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1960; spouse given as 'Helen M Cooper' (1942-1958) and 'Helene K Cooper' (1960).