Alvin George Cooper Sr 1908–1990

Catalog ID p.629 · Cite this page: njcoopers.com/p/629/

Alvin George Cooper Sr was probably born on 25 Sep 1908 in Newton, Sussex Co., New Jersey, the son of Albert Alvin Cooper. He married Letha McDaniels. He died on 31 Jul 1990 in Centra Medical Center, Freehold, Monmouth Co. NJ and was buried at Pequest Cemetery, Great Meadows, Liberty Twp, Warren Co. NJ. Four children are recorded.

Facts

Event	Date	Place / detail	Certainty	Sources
birth	25 Sep 1908	Newton, Sussex Co., New Jersey	probable	F.397, B.111
residence	1 Apr 1940	Allamuchy Twp, Warren Co., New Jersey - household 70, rented at $15 a month, not on a farm	certain	D.906
residence	1940	RD Great Meadows, Warren Co., N.J.	certain	B.111
residence	1950	Wantage Township, Sussex Co., New Jersey - Rd 6, dwelling 249 (a farm)	certain	D.905
occupation	1930	Laborer, Railroad (steam)	certain	D.368
occupation	1940	Farm hand, Dairy farm	certain	D.906
occupation		farmer; groundskeeper, Hanover Country Club and Battleground Country Club (retired 1989)	certain	J.306, J.307
death	31 Jul 1990	Centra Medical Center, Freehold, Monmouth Co. NJ	certain	Find A Grave #19493915, J.306, J.307
burial		Pequest Cemetery, Great Meadows, Liberty Twp, Warren Co. NJ	certain	J.306, J.307

Family

Parents

Father Albert Alvin Cooper 1878–1949

Spouses

Letha (McDaniels) Cooper 1913–1993 Find A Grave #19493915

Siblings

Children

Fred G Cooper 1935–2018
Alvin George Cooper Jr 1941–2023
Living
Alvina M (Cooper) Bigos 1933–2012 probable D.905, J.166, C.181

Family tree

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

In the documents

Every published document that names Alvin George Cooper Sr, in date order, with what that document itself records.

Date	Document	Role	What it records
25 Sep 1908	F.397 birth index Index of Births in New Jersey, Sussex County, 1908, page 388 - the C block, four Cooper rows including Cooper \| Alvan \| Sept. 25 \| vol. 7 \| p. 768. New Jersey S…	subject as "Cooper, Alvan"	birth: 25 Sep 1908, Sussex County, New Jersey
15 Apr 1910	D.885 federal census household Thirteenth Census of the United States 1910 - Population, Andover Township, Sussex County, New Jersey, Enumeration District 168, sheet 16 B, lines 78-82 - dwell…	child as "- , Alvin"	residence: 15 Apr 1910, Andover Twp, Sussex Co., New Jersey - dwelling 6 / family 6
1 Jun 1915	E.40 state census household Census of the State of New Jersey 1915 (Form 5), Andover Borough, Sussex County, sheet 4 side B, lines 84-88 - dwelling 108 / family 108, the Albert A. Cooper h…	child as "- Alvin G"	residence: 1 Jun 1915, Andover Borough, Sussex Co., New Jersey - dwelling 108 / family 108 occupation: 1915, Student
1920	D.367 federal census 1920 US Census — Albert A. Cooper household, Borough of Andover, Sussex Co. NJ [verbatim]	child as "Alvin G."
15 Apr 1930	D.368 federal census household Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1930, Population Schedule - New Jersey, Sussex County, Andover Borough, Supervisor's District 1, Enumeration District 19-…	child as "Alvin"
1 Apr 1940	D.906 federal census household Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, Population Schedule - New Jersey, Warren County, Allamuchy Township, Supervisor's District 7, Enumeration District …	head as "Cooper, Alvin G"	residence: 1 Apr 1940, Allamuchy Twp, Warren Co., New Jersey - household 70, rented at $15 a month, not on a farm occupation: Farm hand, Dairy farm
17 Apr 1950	D.905 federal census household Seventeenth Census of the United States, 1950, Population and Housing, Form P1 - New Jersey, Sussex County, Wantage Township, Enumeration District 19-47, sheet …	head as "Cooper, Alvan G"	residence: 17 Apr 1950, Wantage Twp, Sussex Co., New Jersey - dwelling 249, a farm occupation: 1950, Farmer, Farm

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

Still unknown, and where we have looked

Searches recorded

ancestry all 2026-10-26 · HIS SOCIAL SECURITY RECORD, OPENED TO TEST THE 1908-vs-1909 BIRTH YEAR FROM A THIRD DIRECTION. Collection 60901 (U.S., Social Security...

Searched for: HIS SOCIAL SECURITY RECORD, OPENED TO TEST THE 1908-vs-1909 BIRTH YEAR FROM A THIRD DIRECTION. Collection 60901 (U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007), Alvin*_Cooper, birth 1908 plus or minus 3. Exactly one row, which is itself worth noting for a name this common: the filter is the birth year, not the place. (link)

Result: FOUND, AND IT AGREES WITH THE REGISTER. Record 801910985, verbatim: Name Alvin G Cooper Sr - Gender Male - Birth Date 25 Sep 1908 - Death Date 31 Jul 1990 - Claim Date 25 Jun 1970 - SSN 141124324. 25 September 1908 is exactly what [F.397] gives - the 1908 Sussex County index of births, page 388, Cooper | Alvan | Sept. 25 | vol. 7 | p. 768. So the day and month now have four sources and the year has three: the birth register (1908), this claim (1908) and the NJ death index / SSDI family (1908), against his own 1940 draft card [B.111] (1909) and [E.40] (Sept 1909). IT CARRIES NO PARENTS, AND THAT IS WHY NO ENTRY WAS MADE FOR IT. This is a claim filed in June 1970, not an original application, so the collection's usual parent fields are absent - unlike [F.398], Lethia Cooper's record in the same collection, which names both of hers and therefore earned an entry and a filed transcription. This adds no fact the catalog did not hold; it corroborates one. The four fields above are recorded here in full so that nothing is lost by the decision not to make an entry.

ancestry all 2026-10-26 · THE 1940 CENSUS OF HIS OWN HOUSEHOLD, WHICH THE CATALOG HAD NEVER HELD - the only 1940 entry on this branch, [D.370], is his father's....

Searched for: THE 1940 CENSUS OF HIS OWN HOUSEHOLD, WHICH THE CATALOG HAD NEVER HELD - the only 1940 entry on this branch, [D.370], is his father's. Collection 2442, the complete-county recipe: surname Cooper, no given name, Lived In Warren County, New Jersey, residence_x=_1-0. 107 rows over three pages, EVERY ROW OF EVERY PAGE READ, paged with &pg=. THE PLACE ID WAS TAKEN FROM ANCESTRY'S OWN AUTOCOMPLETE AND READ BACK OFF THE RETURNED URL - _warren-new+jersey-usa_3036. That is worth recording: the catalog has the Sussex County id (_sussex-new+jersey-usa_2837) verified from earlier passes, but not Warren's, and guessing one is how a Find a Grave search returned a Nebraska memorial under a chip reading "New Jersey" earlier the same day. (link)

Result: FOUND - [D.906]. The household is rows 50-53 of the 107, straddling the page 1 / page 2 break: Alvin G Cooper (head, abt 1910, Allamuchy), Letha M (wife, abt 1913), Alvina M (daughter, abt 1933), Fred G (son, abt 1936). Opened, downloaded, filed under RULE ZERO-C and read on five census_stitch stitches. THE FIRST ATTEMPT AT THIS SEARCH SILENTLY DROPPED THE PLACE FILTER AND IS RECORDED AS A NON-SEARCH. Passing the county as free text - residence=Warren County, New Jersey, USA - returned 159,239 rows of Coopers from Idaho, Arkansas, Utah, Mississippi and Louisiana, and the returned URL came back as bare ?name=_Cooper&count=50, with no residence parameter at all. Nothing was filtered and no search happened. It was caught by reading the URL back, which is the only reliable check; the row count alone would have been suggestive but the first page of 50 looked like an ordinary ranked result. This is the sixth occurrence of a silently-dropped filter the sweep has recorded in three days, across four engines. AND THE FILTER IS EXACT FOR 104 OF THE 107 ROWS, NOT ALL OF THEM. The last three - a Lebrun Cooper of New York City, a Clark C. Cooper of Easton, Pennsylvania, and a Warren Cooper of Bath, Maine - are outside Warren County, so Ancestry appends a ranked tail to an exact-match list. The bounded-list check still holds, but the boundary is at row 104. ONE ROW OF THE 107 WAS ALREADY IN THE CATALOG AND IS NOT THIS FAMILY: Clarence Cooper, Hired Man, abt 1885, Allamuchy - he is in the Jesse R. Frantz household on sheet 5B, already filed in Docs/, and is NOT a member of this household, whose index membership is exactly the four above.

ancestry all 2026-10-25 · HIS MARRIAGE TO LETHA McDANIELS, carried on the John Cooper sweep's worklist as "no date; no search recorded for this gap". Collection...

Searched for: HIS MARRIAGE TO LETHA McDANIELS, carried on the John Cooper sweep's worklist as "no date; no search recorded for this gap". Collection 61253, "New Jersey, U.S., Marriage Index, 1901-2016" - the right collection for a 20th-century New Jersey marriage, per [[feedback_ancestry_place_recipe_when_names_are_garbled]]. Three searches: (a) Letha*_McDaniel* - the bride, given name wildcarded and the surname wildcarded to catch McDaniel / McDaniels / McDaniell; (b) _McDaniels, surname only, no given name - the catalog's standard recipe; (c) Alvin*_Cooper - the groom.

Result: NO ALVIN COOPER MARRIES A McDANIELS IN THIS COLLECTION, AND THE NULL IS NOT WORTH MUCH. (a) ZERO rows. (b) 6,535 rows - the surname recipe fails here because McDaniels is far too common and the engine folds in McDaniel; NOT READ beyond the first 50, and recorded as abandoned rather than as a null. (c) 18 rows, ALL READ, and this is the useful one: no Cooper-McDaniels marriage, and nothing at all between 1907 and 1944. => THE GAP IN (c) IS PROBABLY COVERAGE. Their son James was born about 1930, so the marriage is likely 1929 or earlier, and the groom volumes of this collection are not indexed for 1920-1929 - established by control on Albert S Cooper the same day (two independent 1920s marriages present on the bride side, absent on the groom side) and written up at [C.175]. So his side could not show a 1929 marriage however it was searched. AND ONE ROW IS A LEAD WORTH FOLLOWING - see todo. "Alvin G Cooper, Sep 1964, Paterson, Passaic, New Jersey, spouse Phyllis L Steblinski." Albert S Cooper's 1967 obituary places his brother Alvin at Newfoundland, N.J., which is Passaic County. That is either this man remarrying at 56, or his son Alvin George Cooper Jr Alvin George Jr at 23. It is not resolved here - Alvin George Cooper Jr appears separately in the same result set marrying Carol J Harris in 1990, which does not settle it either way.

findagrave 2026-10-03 · Alvin Cooper, b. 1908 +/- 2, d. 1990 +/- 1, New Jersey (17 matches, none him); then Alvin Cooper, d. 1990 +/- 1, no birth year (132 matches).

Searched for: Alvin Cooper, b. 1908 +/- 2, d. 1990 +/- 1, New Jersey (17 matches, none him); then Alvin Cooper, d. 1990 +/- 1, no birth year (132 matches). (link)

Result: His own memorial 'Alvin George Cooper', birth unknown - 1990, is memorial 19493915 (already cited); it carries no birth year, which is why the birth-year search missed it. No other memorial for him.

familysearch tree 2026-10-03 · Alvin Cooper, b. 1907-1910, d. 1989-1991.

Searched for: Alvin Cooper, b. 1907-1910, d. 1989-1991.

Result: Profile GXBN-SJF, Alvin George Cooper: b. 25 Sep 1908 Newton, Sussex; d. 31 Jul 1990 Monmouth Co.; parents Albert Alvin Cooper (GWTY-3K9) and Sadie Ann McDavitt; spouse Letha McDaniels (LYKQ-BVL, 1913-1993). Attached sources the catalog does not hold: 'New Jersey, Reclaim the Records, Geographic Birth Index, 1901-1929' (Alvan Cooper), 1910 census, NJ state census 1915, 1940 and 1950 census (Alvan G Cooper), Social Security Death Index, a GenealogyBank obituary index entry and 'United States, Obituary Records, 2014-2023'. Leads only.

ancestry all 2026-10-03 · Alvin G Cooper, b. 1908 +/- 1 New Jersey, d. 1990 +/- 1, all collections (211 results).

Searched for: Alvin G Cooper, b. 1908 +/- 1 New Jersey, d. 1990 +/- 1, all collections (211 results).

Result: Tree 'Denham Family Tree' (b. 25 Sep 1909 [sic] Newton; d. 31 Jul 1990 Cream Ridge; parents Albert A Cooper and Sadie A McDavitt; wife Letha M McDaniels; son Fred G; residence 1915 Andover). Index records for him, as the results page shows them: 'New Jersey, U.S., Death Index' - Alvin G Cooper Sr, 25 Sep 1908 - 31 Jul 1990 Freehold, Monmouth; 'U.S., Social Security Death Index' - Alvin G. Cooper, 25 Sep 1908 - 31 Jul 1990, SSN issued before 1951 New Jersey; 'U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index' - Alvin G Cooper Sr, 25 S[ep 1908] (not opened - would name parents); private member photo 'Alvin George Cooper' 25 Sep 1908 - 31 Jul 1990. See to-do.

newspapers com 2026-10-03 · SIGNED IN. (a) "Alvin G. Cooper", New Jersey, 1925-1991 (25 matches); (b) "Alvin Cooper", New Jersey, 1990 (7 matches).

Searched for: SIGNED IN. (a) "Alvin G. Cooper", New Jersey, 1925-1991 (25 matches); (b) "Alvin Cooper", New Jersey, 1990 (7 matches). (link)

Result: TWO NEW OBITUARIES, downloaded and catalogued: New Jersey Herald 1 Aug 1990 p. A-2 [J.306] (full name 'Alvin George Cooper Sr.'; farmer and golf-club groundskeeper; interment Pequest Cemetery, Great Meadows, Liberty Twp.) and The Times (Trenton) 1 Aug 1990 p. D4 [J.307] (same text). The Trentonian obituary is already [J.165]. Other hits not opened: New Jersey Herald 24 Sep 1953 p. 4, 17 Sep 1964 p. 31, 13 Jun 1968 p. 23; Paterson News / Morning Call 1959-1972 items.

genealogybank 2026-10-03 · SIGNED IN (chris_2535). Alvin Cooper, New Jersey papers, 1925-1991 (226 results, too broad); narrowed with keyword 'Cream Ridge' (7 results).

Searched for: SIGNED IN (chris_2535). Alvin Cooper, New Jersey papers, 1925-1991 (226 results, too broad); narrowed with keyword 'Cream Ridge' (7 results).

Result: Trentonian 1 Aug 1990 (= [J.165]) and Trenton Evening Times 1 Aug 1990 (= [J.307]); also Trenton Evening Times 2 Oct 1985, 27 Jul and 17 Aug 1941, 30 Mar 1931, and New Jersey Herald 17 Sep 1964 - not opened.

Documents

D.367 1920 US Census — Albert A. Cooper household, Borough of Andover, Sussex Co. NJ [verbatim]
D.368 Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1930, Population Schedule - New Jersey, Sussex County, Andover Borough, Supervisor's District 1, Enumeration District 19-1, sheet 2A, lines 3-12 - dwelling 29, family 29. Enumerated 15 April 1930 by Mrs Mabel Wilson.
D.885 Thirteenth Census of the United States 1910 - Population, Andover Township, Sussex County, New Jersey, Enumeration District 168, sheet 16 B, lines 78-82 - dwelling 6 / family 6, the Albert Cooper household; enumerated 29 April 1910 by Edgar Hunt[?]; NARA T624 roll 909, FHL microfilm 1374922.
E.40 Census of the State of New Jersey 1915 (Form 5), Andover Borough, Sussex County, sheet 4 side B, lines 84-88 - dwelling 108 / family 108, the Albert A. Cooper household; enumerated 21 June 1915 by Roy C. Van Sickle; NJSA reference L-15, film 59.
D.905 Seventeenth Census of the United States, 1950, Population and Housing, Form P1 - New Jersey, Sussex County, Wantage Township, Enumeration District 19-47, sheet 24, lines 15-20 - dwelling 249, a farm. Sheet started 17 April 1950. Ancestry collection 62308, record 166724766, image 43290879-New_Jersey-157892-0025; NARA roll 4225, NAID 43290879.
D.906 Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, Population Schedule - New Jersey, Warren County, Allamuchy Township, Supervisor's District 7, Enumeration District 21-1, sheet 4B, lines 57-60 - household 70. Enumerated by Helen F. Anderson. Ancestry collection 2442, record 135862627, image m-t0627-02391-00013; NARA T627 roll m-t0627-02391.
F.397 Index of Births in New Jersey, Sussex County, 1908, page 388 - the C block, four Cooper rows including Cooper | Alvan | Sept. 25 | vol. 7 | p. 768. New Jersey State Archives birth indexes; Ancestry collection 61252, record 6148921, image i2252917-00178.