Where are the sources for Elder Joseph D[avis?] Wilcox other than findagrave?

+7 votes
200 views

The memorial for Elder Joseph D Wilcox on findagrave is exceedingly detailed beyond what's shown on the grave marker, and there's a lot of information about his purported family, but my Ancestry-fu and Google-fu have failed me in trying to track down sources.

Here's what I know from other sources:

  • James Rogers of New London, Ct. and his descendants documents his name with middle initial D, title of Elder, and the fact that he married Hannah Rogers (pp. 257 and 353), but nothing else.
  • We can estimate his birth year at 1796 from his grave marker and 1850, 1860, and 1870 censi.
  • James Rogers lists their children + a good amount of detail on each and is generally corroborated by the above censi + additional records for the children.
  • There are records of Joseph's ministry at various Baptist churches.
  • John Wilcox (not yet on WikiTree) is potentially documented as the son of Valentine & Abigail Wilcox of Rhode Island (neither yet on WikiTree), and a badly damaged grave marker in Allegany County is attributed to him
  • Anna (not yet on WikiTree), wife of John Willcox, is documented by her grave marker only.

Here's what I don't know (some of this I haven't entered on WikiTree precisely because I can't document it; some was imported from someone else's GEDCOM):

  • How do we know Joseph's birthplace was Grafton, New York?
  • How do we know Joseph's parents were John and Anna Wilcox?
  • How do we know that's John's grave marker, and how do we know he's the same John who was born in Rhode Island? (I think for this there are records of John migrating west as a Baptist minister, but I have lost track of them.)
  • How do we know Anna's maiden name was Davis?
  • How do we know Joseph's middle initial "D" stood for "Davis"?
  • There are other Wilcoxen in Wheeler Cemetery, so how do we know Rhoda is the daughter of John & Anna?

Oftentimes the combination of very detailed + mid-1800s + not Googleable ends up at a family Bible, which I would dearly love to find if that's where all this is coming from.

In case it is helpful, I lean toward the "more likely than not" school of evidence, and I'll gladly take family Bible records alone if nothing disproves them, but I can't accept internet hearsay (findagrave or other people's trees) without at least some general idea of where the info is actually coming from. So that's what I'm looking for.

WikiTree profile: Joseph Wilcox
in Genealogy Help by Cheryl Hammond G2G6 Mach 3 (33.3k points)

3 Answers

+4 votes
Try sending the manager of the Find a Grave memorial a note. If "he/she" wrote the bio, he/she might know the source. If someone else sent it, they might not remember where it came from
by Anne B G2G Astronaut (1.3m points)
Good idea. I have done so, but I'll bet you an upvote that their reply will be "found it on the internet". ;)
Yes sigh. Very true.
+3 votes

The manager at FindAGrave is

 

kdb725884100@gmail.com

and has many virtual cemeteries of which Joseph and John Wilcox as 2 entries.

by Frances Wilcox G2G Rookie (290 points)
+3 votes
Kittys Library has Mega sources/ places to search free: http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Kitty%27s_Library
by Anonymous Vickery G2G6 Pilot (257k points)

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