This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/BVJ.2ACIB/958.1.1.2.1.1 Message Board Post: Hello Pat, Cousin Tom here. KinToWho believes we are from the line of Charlton and Matilda Coker of Habersham County, Georgia. Is Charlton Solomon's son? Charlton and Matilda had a son named R. A. Coker. We are from the family of Robert A. and Lida A Coker of Banks County, Georgia. Their oldest daughter was named Matilda. Lida is listed variously as Lida A., Lilly and Lydia. KinToWho also has Lydia's maiden name as House. I don't know of any documents to prove that, but there is a House family living in Habersham County, Georgia at the same time Charlton Coker's family is there. (1850) The 1900 Census for Banks County, Georgia June 13th, 1900, Bushville District Robert A. Coker 78 (June, 1821) GA GA GA Lilly 53 (Aug, 1846) GA GA GA Matilda 32 (Jul, 1867) GA GA GA Mary 23 (Jul, 1876) GA GA GA Jamie* 12 (May, 1888) GA GA GA Spear 13 (Nov, 1886) GA GA GA Comments: Thus begins the mystery of the origins of our family name. The above Robert A. Coker and his wife, Lilly, or Lydia, House(?), are listed to have been married 40 years. Lilly would have been 13 years old at the time of that marriage, according to this census. Lilly is listed here as having had seven children, six of whom are living. Mary, who is my great grandmother, is listed as Single, but with one child. That child is Spear, Emory Spear Coker, my grandfather. Mary, on the 1930 census, is listed as being first married when she was 20 years old. As this census shows, Mary was unmarried. But – is her age wrong on this census – or did she have Spear at 10 years old? Matilda is listed as Single with no children. Spear is listed as the son of Robert and Lilly. Jamie, possibly Janice, is listed as their daughter. On the 1930 Census, Spear is listed as 35. (bc1895). So, was he three years old in 1900, not thirteen? On that census, Mary is listed as 65. (bc1865) So was Mary actually closer to Matilda’s age? Was Jamie/Janice born 20 years after her sisters? On the 1920 Spalding County, Georgia, Census, Lydia Coker is listed as 81. (bc1839) That is seven years older than this 1900 Census. Mary is listed as 50 on the 1920 census. (bc1870). So, now we have Mary being born in 1876, 1865 and 1870. In 1920, Spear was in Barrow County, Georgia, where is listed as 36 years old. (1884) This is one year older than he is listed as being in Knoxville, ten years later. The 1884 date is in keeping with his World War I Draft Registration Card which has him listed as being born November 20, 1884. At thirty three years old, according to this card, his hair was already grey. Mine was turning grey by 33. So was my father’s. Is there a genetic name for premature greyness? On the 1910 census, though I know Spear was married to my grandmother, Nancy Jane Wages, by 1907 or 1908, when their first child was born, Spear appears on the 1910 Census in Hapeville, Fulton County, Georgia, living with his mother, Mary, and his stepfather, James Summerville. On that census, Mary is listed as 36 (bc1874). Spear is listed as being 19. (bc1891) Spear is also listed as single. Backing up to 1880, Mary M. Coker, daughter of Robert A. and Lida A. Coker, is listed as being 14 years old on that census. (bc1864) Her older sister, Matilda, is 19. (1861). She has a 16 yo brother named John. (1864) And a younger brother, 8 year old Marion R. Coker. (1872) This 1880 census is in keeping with Mary’s age on the 1930 census. In 1880, Robert A. Coker is listed as 62 years old. (bc1818). Lida A. is listed as 37. (bc1843). Both of these are three years off the 1900 dates. Backing up to 1870, Matilda is listed as the oldest child at 13. (1857) This is ten years older than she is on the 1900 census. John A. Coker is listed as 6, which matches his age on the 1880 census. Mary M. Coker is 4 years old, again matching her age on the 1880 census, as well as the 1930 census. There is a youngest child, Robert M. Coker, one month old, possibly the same child as Marion R. Coker on the 1880 census. Robert A. Coker is listed as 49 years old, (bc1821), same as the 1900 census. But his wife is named Mary E. L. Coker. Mary is 44. (bc1826). This wife of Robert is about 20 years older than Lilly (Lida, Lydia) is ever listed as being. Is it possible that Lydia (House) Coker was not my great grandmother? That Robert had a first wife who was my great grandmother? Or could Mary E. L. Coker be the same person as Lida A. Coker? On the 1900 census it says that Robert and Lida had been married 40 years. (1860) If we back up ten more years to 1860, we find Robert A. Coker at 31 years old (bc1829), and married to Mary L. E. Coker, who is 19. (bc1841) There are no children listed, so Matilda’s age of 13 on the 1870 census must be wrong. The wife’s name has gone from Mary E. L. to Mary L. E., but the age has come back in line to be closer to Lydia’s. Also, being 19 and apparently newly married, (no children), pulls them back in line with the 1900 census stating they had been married 40 years. So maybe Mary L. E. Coker and Lida A. Coker are one and the same, after all. All of these census records before 1900 occur in Banks County, Georgia, except the 1850 record of Charlton in Habersham. In the end we are left with one stark fact. On that 1900 census, Mary M. Coker is Single, with one child. That child is Emory Spear Coker, my grandfather. Who was the father? Mary M. Coker, apparently, was born in July of 1864. Spear was apparently born November 20, 1884, when Mary was 20 years old, just as stated on the 1930 census. On that census, Spear states that he first married at 16. According to KinToWho, that marriage would have been to a young Lucy Smallwood. The Smallwoods lived a couple of families away from the Coker's in Banks County in 1900. A closing note is that on Spear’s death certificate, his (third) wife, Edna, lists his father as being named Harrison Coker. Spear’s second son was named Emory Harrison Coker. I have been able to find no matchng Harrison Coker.