Glen Sylvester Cooper 1882–1944

Result: THE QUESTION IS NOW SHARP RATHER THAN SETTLED, AND THE EARLIER REJECTION IS WITHDRAWN TO 'PROVISIONAL' -> [D.853]. SANTA BARBARA COUNTY HELD EXACTLY SIX COOPERS BORN ABOUT 1881-1883 IN 1930, AND ONLY ONE IS NAMED GLEN - the Township 5 hired man. The others are Elbert T (Nebraska), Edward F (California, Lompoc), Leroy J (Iowa, Ballard), Albert C (England, Lompoc) and Charles W (California, Township 7). So if he was enumerated in that county under COOPER, he is that man. AND TOWNSHIP 5 IS 'LOMPOC PRECINCT NO. 5' - the plate's own heading - where [N.69] has him registered to vote in 1930-1932, and where he lived in 1910, 1918 and 1920. He is also NOT in his parents' 1930 household [D.696], so he was living apart that year. BUT PULLING THE PLATE DID NOT DISSOLVE THE PROBLEM, WHICH IS WHAT IT WAS MEANT TO TEST: the three nativity columns read on a census_stitch stitch at 2x say CALIFORNIA / INDIANA / IOWA, exactly as the index does. Ancestry is faithful here; it is not an index error. He was born in Kansas of an Ohio father and a Michigan mother. SO: three wrong columns, or a man the county does not otherwise contain. The one thing that makes the error plausible is the informant - Alice Pittman, a schoolteacher answering for her live-in farm hand, which is the classic place for a householder's guess. THE CATALOG ASSERTS NEITHER; the entry row carries provisional: true.

Result: FOUND -> [N.69]. SIX entries, all Santa Barbara Co.: five date-ranged 1900-1918 with three different Lompoc street addresses (K St. bet. Chestnut and Laurel; L St. bet. Laurel and Maple; cor. K St. and Chestnut), occupation LABORER, party 'Declines to State'; and one reading 'Glen S Cooper, 1930-1932, Lompoc, Calif'. THAT LAST IS THE FIRST POSITIVE PLACEMENT OF HIM IN THE 1930 CENSUS YEAR. AND IT COMPLICATES THIS MORNING'S REJECTION RATHER THAN CONFIRMING IT: the Township 5 hired man I rejected on three nativity columns was on the 'Lompoc Buelton Road', and Township 5 IS the Lompoc district. The geography is now exact. The nativity columns still say California/Indiana/Iowa against his Kansas/Ohio/Michigan. UNRESOLVED, and the catalog asserts neither - a householder answering for a live-in hired man is exactly where nativity goes wrong, but three wrong columns is a lot. The unopened Great Register page may give an age or a precise address that settles it.

Result: NO NEW RECORD OPENED, BUT THREE WORTH OPENING AND ONE FALSE ALARM DISPOSED OF. The valuable finding is that a WWI DRAFT CARD exists for him in Santa Barbara County - the catalog has his 1942 WWII card but not this one - and that an 1895 Kansas state census and a member-uploaded image both exist. All three are todos. THE FALSE ALARM, recorded because the instinct was wrong: the California Death Index row gives his mother's maiden name as GINGRICH, which read as a new fact. It is not. Hannah A. (Gingrich) Cooper Hannah A. Gingrich already has a file carrying it. The catalog was asked before anything was written down, which is the discipline that failed three times this week.

Result: NULL, AND THE ONE CANDIDATE WAS OPENED AND REJECTED ON THE NATIVITY COLUMNS. FIRST, THE CATALOG WAS ASKED BEFORE THE ENGINE: [D.696] is this family's 1930 household at Santa Barbara City Ward 6 - Andrew P. 72, Hannah A. 71 and his brother Roly O. 36 - and GLEN IS NOT IN IT. So he was living apart from his parents in 1930, which is what makes the gap real and what the hired-man candidate below fits. THE CANDIDATE: 'Glen Cooper', 48, SINGLE, Hired Man / Lodger, Laborer on a general farm, Lompoc Buelton Road, Township 5, SANTA BARBARA CO., dwelling and family 207, ED 0040 sheet 8B, in the Alice Pittman household (coll. 6224 rec. 93069899). WHY IT LOOKED RIGHT: exact age, exact county, single, a farm labourer - and Lompoc is where this man lived in 1910 [D.694] and 1920 [D.695]. WHY IT IS NOT HIM: ALL THREE nativity columns are wrong. The index gives his birthplace CALIFORNIA, father INDIANA, mother IOWA. This man was born in Nickerson, Reno Co., KANSAS [G.615, J.465]; his father Andrew Peter Cooper Andrew Peter Cooper was born at Tymochtee, Wyandot Co., OHIO; his mother Hannah was born in MICHIGAN - and those last two are not inferred, they are on the 1920 plate against his own line, read on census_stitch stitches ([D.695] line 20: 'Glenn S.', 26, birthplace Kansas, father Ohio, mother Michigan). RECORDED AS THE [D.830] PATTERN AGAIN, with one honest caveat: a hired man's nativity is answered by the HOUSEHOLDER, who may simply not have known. But three wrong columns including his own birth state is a great deal to explain away, and the catalog's rule is that the nativity columns do the discriminating. NOT HIM unless something else overturns it. NOT RUN, AND THE OBVIOUS NEXT STEP: 'California, U.S., Voter Registrations, 1900-1968 - Glen S Cooper' sits on that record's suggested-records panel, unopened. California voter rolls are biennial and give an address, a party and an occupation, so they would place him in 1930 directly - and the middle initial S is his.

Result: 1900 and 1910 censuses; 1940 census 1:1:K9DP-JSN -> [D.781] (Brother, 57, single); California Death Index VGY8-BZ4 'Glen Sylvester Cooper', b. 15 Aug 1882 Kansas, d. 19 Jan 1944 Santa Barbara (index only).

Result: LRG6-19X 'Glen Sylvester Cooper' 1882-1944, b. Nickerson, Reno, Kansas, d. 21 Jan 1944 Santa Barbara (the tree's date; the records say 19 Jan); no spouse, no children. Leads only.

Result: Memorial 86795866 -> [G.615], with his 1942 draft card image. No spouse or children linked.

Result: Santa Barbara News-Press 20 Jan 1944 p. 8 obituary and funeral notice -> [J.465]: the only survivor named is his brother Roly. Not opened: 20 Jan p. 18, 21 Jan pp. 4 and 12, 22 Jan p. 4 (probably the funeral and later notices).

Result: Page 1 has no Santa Barbara title; not narrowed further.

Result: Find a Grave index, California Death Index (mother 'Gingrich'), member photos, censuses; tree 'BRADSHAW-JOHNSON-NEILL-KIRCHNER-HUDSON-COOPER LEGACY' (no spouse). Nothing new.