The Coopers of Long Hill

Lethia (Smith) Cooper 1909–2003

Catalog ID p.2133 · Cite this page: njcoopers.com/p/2133/

Lethia (Smith) Cooper was born on 15 Apr 1909 in Allamuchy, Warren Co., New Jersey, the daughter of Lew C Smith and Lena (Reynolds) Smith. She married Roland Warren Cooper (1930). She died on 6 Nov 2003 in Honesdale, Wayne Co., Pennsylvania and was probably buried at Andover Cemetery, Andover, Sussex Co., New Jersey. One child is recorded.

Facts

EventDatePlace / detailCertaintySources
birth 15 Apr 1909 Allamuchy, Warren Co., New Jersey certain F.398, G.703, J.258, D.879, D.366, D.907, D.908, B.136
residence 15 Apr 1910 Allamuchy Twp, Warren Co., New Jersey - Road to Newton [index-tier], dwelling 147 / family 152 certain D.908
residence 1 Jan 1920 Frelinghuysen Twp, Warren Co., New Jersey - Hope Road [index-tier], rented certain D.907
residence 1 Apr 1930 Andover Borough, Sussex Co., New Jersey - dwelling 24 certain D.879
residence 15 Apr 1930 Andover Borough, Sussex Co., New Jersey certain D.365
residence 1940 Andover, Sussex Co., New Jersey - household 74 certain D.373
residence 1 Apr 1950 Andover, Sussex Co., New Jersey - Main Road [index-tier], dwelling serial 5, a farm certain D.366
residence 2003 Honesdale, Wayne Co., Pennsylvania certain J.258
death 6 Nov 2003 Honesdale, Wayne Co., Pennsylvania certain J.258, G.703
burial Andover Cemetery, Andover, Sussex Co., New Jersey probable G.703

Family

Parents

  • Father Lew C Smith 1879–1945
  • Mother Lena (Reynolds) Smith 1886

Spouses

Children

  1. Roland W Cooper Jr 1931 probable D.373

Family tree

Solid lines and outlines: certain. Dashed: probable or weaker. Open the full tree (four generations)

Roland Warren CooperRoland Warren Cooper1901–1971Lethia (Smith) CooperLethia (Smith) Cooper1909–2003Lew C Smith1879–1945Lena (Reynolds) Smith1886Roland W Cooper JrRoland W Cooper Jr1931

In the documents

Every published document that names Lethia (Smith) Cooper, in date order, with what that document itself records.

DateDocumentRoleWhat it records
15 Apr 1910 D.908 federal census household
Thirteenth Census of the United States, 1910, Population - New Jersey, Warren County, Allamuchy Township, Supervisor's District 5, Enumeration District 121, she…
 child
as "- Lethia"
residence: 15 Apr 1910, Allamuchy Twp, Warren Co., New Jersey - dwelling 147 / family 152
birth: New Jersey
1 Jan 1920 D.907 federal census household
Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920, Population - New Jersey, Warren County, Frelinghuysen Township, Enumeration District 153, sheet 5A, lines 31-36 - …
 child
as "- Lethia"
residence: 1 Jan 1920, Frelinghuysen Twp, Warren Co., New Jersey - Hope Road
15 Apr 1930 D.879 federal census household
1930 U.S. federal census, Andover Borough, Sussex County, New Jersey, ED 1-1, sheet 1B, dwelling 24 / family 24, lines 76-82 - the Warren Cooper household of se…
 other
as "Cooper Lethia"
residence: 15 Apr 1930, Andover Borough, Sussex Co., New Jersey
1 Apr 1950 D.366 federal census household
Seventeenth Census of the United States, 1950, Population and Housing, Form P1 - New Jersey, Sussex County, Andover, Enumeration District 19-1, sheet 1, lines 8…
 spouse
as "Lethia"
residence: 1 Apr 1950, Andover, Sussex Co., New Jersey - Main Road [index-tier], dwelling serial 5, a farm

5 further documents not published (they may name living people).

Still unknown, and where we have looked

Searches recorded

findagrave 2026-10-26 · findagrave.com/memorial/search?firstname=Lethia&lastname=Cooper - given name Lethia, surname Cooper, no year range and no location...
Searched for: findagrave.com/memorial/search?firstname=Lethia&lastname=Cooper - given name Lethia, surname Cooper, no year range and no location token. The location filter was deliberately omitted: a guessed Find a Grave locationId returned a Nebraska memorial under a chip reading "New Jersey" earlier the same day, and with a given name this distinctive no filter was needed. 148 matching records; she is row 1 of page 1. (link)
Result: FOUND, AND IT IS [G.703]. Lethia Cooper, 15 Apr 1909 - 6 Nov 2003, Andover Cemetery, Andover, Sussex County, New Jersey, memorial 27719490. The death date matches [J.258] to the day, which is the identification. PARSED, NOT TRANSCRIBED - fetch_findagrave.ps1 -Memorial 27719490 - which returned the family panel's memorial IDs and five Ancestry links that the rendered page does not show: parents Lew C Smith (1878-1945, 27719562) and Lena Reynolds Smith (b. 1886, 27719580), siblings Walter R (1905-1962), Chester L (1907-1959) and PFC Ellsworth Sr (1921-1978). The parents' names match her obituary's "daughter of Lew C. Smith and Lena Reynolds Smith" exactly. WHY IT WAS NOT FOUND BEFORE, WHICH IS THE REUSABLE PART: every earlier Find a Grave sweep on this family searched Coopers against Cooper relatives. Her panel contains no Cooper at all - not even her husband, whose own memorial 27719462 is in the same cemetery and has been recorded on Roland Warren Cooper since 2026-10-03. The two memorials sit unlinked, so no amount of working outward from his would have reached hers. The rest of page 1 is noise and is named so it is not re-read: a Lethia Cooper of Macedonia Cemetery, Marion County, Texas (1854-1884), and then bare L Cooper initial matches in Wales, Pennsylvania, Cornwall, South Africa, France, Mississippi, Arkansas, Georgia, Texas, Colorado and Louisiana.
ancestry all 2026-10-26 · Not a name search. The 1950 census record linked from [G.703] was opened directly -...
Searched for: Not a name search. The 1950 census record linked from [G.703] was opened directly - ancestry.com/search/collections/62308/records/164485711, indexed Lethia Cooper, 40, Wife, Andover, Sussex, New Jersey - and its Suggested records panel was then worked, which is what the CLAUDE.md rule asks for. (link)
Result: THE RECORD RESOLVED TO A SHEET THE CATALOG HAD HELD SINCE JUNE AND HAD NEVER READ FOR HER. Ancestry 62308 record 164485711 is ED 19-1 sheet 1 of Andover - [D.366], whose artifact was already filed in Docs/ and whose image, re-downloaded to check, proved byte-identical to it. Her four "missing" censuses were never missing records; they were missing fields. Opening it produced three things: her own 1950 row, plate-read; a correction to [D.366], which had named the neighbouring head Margaret E. Cooper when the plate reads Myrtle E. (Myrtle E. (Cooper) Current, her sister-in-law, next door); and the discovery that she signed the sheet as enumerator.
google 2026-10-26 · In the signed-in browser, not the search tool, per [[feedback_google_search_for_modern_obituaries]] - she died in 2003, so the rule...
Searched for: In the signed-in browser, not the search tool, per [[feedback_google_search_for_modern_obituaries]] - she died in 2003, so the rule applies. "Lethia Cooper" obituary Honesdale 2003, the given name in quotes so the engine could not drop it. (link)
Result: NULL, AND A CLEAN ONE. Google returned "No results found for "Lethia Cooper" obituary Honesdale 2003" and fell back to an unquoted search whose every hit is noise - a regulations.gov docket, a bankruptcy filing, an OSHA mailing list, a Trinity College class note, a car-dealership database that happens to contain the word Honesdale. Not one result mentions a Lethia Cooper. WHAT THIS DOES AND DOES NOT SAY. The rule exists because Google reaches what the subscription engines do not - newspapers' own web archives, Legacy.com, funeral-home sites - and for a 2003 death in a small Pennsylvania town those are exactly the places a notice might sit. It is therefore a meaningful null: there is no indexed web obituary for her. It says nothing about the printed Wayne County papers, which is where Lethia (Smith) Cooper t1's remaining newspapers.com and GenealogyBank searches still have to look. [J.258], the obituary the catalog already holds, is a New Jersey notice.
familysearch tree 2026-10-26 · THE LAST OF THE SIX REQUIRED ENGINES. familysearch.org/search/tree/results - the tree, not the records index - given name Lethia,...
Searched for: THE LAST OF THE SIX REQUIRED ENGINES. familysearch.org/search/tree/results - the tree, not the records index - given name Lethia, surname Smith (her maiden name, not Cooper), birth 1907-1911. Run on the parameters [F.398] had supplied an hour earlier; a day before, the catalog could not have specified the birth window this tightly. (link)
Result: FOUND, AND THE PROFILE MATCHES ON EVERY FIELD THE CATALOG HOLDS. Lethia Smith, female, 1909-2003, PID GK8L-9D5 - Birth 15 April 1909, Allamuchy Township, Warren, New Jersey · Marriage 1930, New Jersey · Death 6 November 2003. Exact birth date, exact birthplace to the township, exact death date, right marriage year, right state. AND IT CARRIES THREE MORE PIDs FOR PEOPLE THIS CATALOG HOLDS: parents Lew Smith (1879-Deceased, GM5Z-WVX) = Lew C Smith and Lena Reynolds (1886-Deceased, GM5Z-Q67) = Lena (Reynolds) Smith; spouse Roland W Cooper (1901-1971, GSTD-Z17) = Roland Warren Cooper, whose dates match his file exactly. ALL FOUR fsid: KEYS WERE SET, with fs_status: matched and - deliberately - no fs_last_synced:: nothing has been reconciled yet beyond the vitals visible in the search result, and writing that key would claim a pass that never happened. ONE SMALL CORROBORATION FALLS OUT OF IT. FamilySearch gives Lew Smith's birth as 1879, where [G.703]'s memorial panel says 1878. The catalog settled on ABT 1879 this afternoon from his age of 31 in the 1910 census - independently of FamilySearch, and before this search was run. Two further entries on the first page are other women: Lethia S Smith b. 1909 Virginia** (GN9R-D3G) and Lethia Louada Smith b. 1908, neither of them ours.
newspapers com 2026-10-26 · SIGNED IN (no free-trial prompt). Exact phrase "Lethia Cooper", chosen over a first-and-last search because the given name is...
Searched for: SIGNED IN (no free-trial prompt). Exact phrase "Lethia Cooper", chosen over a first-and-last search because the given name is distinctive enough to carry the search alone and a quoted phrase cannot be loosened by the engine. 77 matches; the first page read. A second run added &location=us-nj. (link)
Result: HER OBITUARY IS THERE AND THE CATALOG ALREADY HOLDS IT. New Jersey Herald, Page A6, Sunday 9 November 2003, Newton, New Jersey - 1 of 4 matches on that page. She died on 6 November 2003, and that is [J.258]. THE OTHER SIX RESULTS ON PAGE 1 ARE A LOUISIANA NAMESAKE - Denham Springs and Livingston Parish News, Denham Springs, Louisiana, six issues of October and November 1936, three matches on each page. Ours was 27 and in New Jersey in 1936. The 77 are plainly dominated by that woman. THE LOCATION FILTER WAS SILENTLY IGNORED, SO THE NEW JERSEY SUBSET IS NOT BOUNDED. Adding &location=us-nj returned the same 77 matches with the Louisiana results still at the top, and the parameter still sitting in the URL. This is the tenth silently-dropped filter this sweep has recorded and the second on newspapers.com - see [[feedback_ancestry_place_recipe_when_names_are_garbled]], which already carries a newspapers.com instance where location AND date were both dropped from a 425-row search. => So this is NOT a null for New Jersey. It found the obituary the catalog has; it did not establish that there is nothing else. To bound it, filter by the PAPER (New Jersey Herald) rather than by location, or page through all 77. Recorded as partial.
genealogybank 2026-10-26 · genealogybank.com/explore/newspapers/all/usa/new-jersey with kwinc="Lethia Cooper".
Searched for: genealogybank.com/explore/newspapers/all/usa/new-jersey with kwinc="Lethia Cooper".
Result: NOT RUN - NOT SIGNED IN. THIS IS A RESULT, NOT A NULL, AND THE TO-DO STAYS OPEN. The page returned offers Login and Get Started Now, with no account in session. Per CLAUDE.md a GenealogyBank search counts as done only if it was run while signed in, and no credentials were entered - that is off-limits. The engine did not even receive the term: its own message reads "Your search for did not match any items", with the search term missing from the sentence, so the kwinc parameter was not read either. Nothing about this run says anything about whether GenealogyBank holds her. It matters more than usual here, because the two services do not hold the same papers - that is the whole reason CLAUDE.md requires both - and the question still open on her is a Wayne County, Pennsylvania notice, where [J.258] is a New Jersey one.

Documents