Hello! I picked up this 6+ year old thread as my first official effort contributing to the Integrators Challenge. Here is a quite tardy reply to an Anonymous. Hopefully someone along the way on WikiTree will eventually benefit from the question and the answer I'm offering.
The names mentioned in the opening post are most likely a conflation. My research ended up focusing on an extended African American family in the Northampton/Hertford County area of North Carolina. The LNAB of focus for this family is Coates. Spelling variations exist, but I ended up using just Coates (not Coats) when creating any profiles.
For more information, see the Research Notes section of
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Coates-2765 , Andrew Jackson Coates, Sr.'s profile.
I see the original post also tags "Earley". The Coates - Earley connection is not quite clear yet, but I'm getting close. One of Andrew's daughters is Lillie M Coates b. Mar 1888. There is another Lillie M(ae) b. 10Mar1885 who is daughter to a William Coates, also living in the Northampton/Hertford County area. This Lillie married a Luther Earley
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Earley-557. Again, spelling variations exist and profiles I add will use Earley (not Early).
To be continued!
