Tom, Looking through my archived e-mail. Thought I'd send you this one. Danny Cooper Byrd Subj: Hidden Cooper Family Information!! Date: 99-05-28 13:41:11 EDT From: tigerd3@home.com (Carroll Smith) To: Dbyrd000@aol.com Dear Danny: Things have been quiet on my Cooper digs! Although I have been through all the Cooper queries on GenForum quite carefully. While surfing, I went to some surnames of families into which a number of my Smith (and other)relatives (female) married-and I have had fantistice results. Some finds were such that I never expected to find the family I had searched for so long. Relative to the subject above, I have discovered some important information on the "Baby Mary" situation. Last night while looking at a World Family Tree print out of "William Cowper," (World Family Tree Volume #1--Pedigree #4341, I noticed the name of Hugh Ely and his wife, Sarah Balderson, as one of the entries in which Sarah was listed as the daughter of Hannah Cooper (1719-1778) and John Balderson, III, abt (1702-1778). Hannah Cooper, you may recall, is the daughter of Jonothan Cooper and Sarah Hibbs and is a sister to our William Cooper, Sr. who came to Union Co. SC. THIS MAKES SARAH BALDERSON (WIFE OF HUGH ELY) A FIRST COUSIN OF OUR JACOB COOPER. IF Jacob Cooper married MARY, AND IF MARY IS the daughter of Sarah and Hugh Ely, THEN JACOB COOPER MARRIED (1st) HIS SECOND COUSIN. Isn't that POSSIBILITY interesting? Of course, we must admit at this point, we haven't the slightest bit of hard evidence that Jacob's Mary-IS-the DAUGHTER of Sarah Balderson Hugh Ely. This tree is only of the Hannah Cooper and John Balderson lines. I also note that two Ely girls also married two of their sons. In the genealogical printout, the information reads as follows: "ix. Sarah Balderson, b. February 21, 1857, Wrightstown, Bucks County. PA; d.WFT Est. 1780-1851; m. Hugh Ely, Jr., January 05,1774, Buckingham Twp., Bucks County, PA." Looking at this date of marriage, 1/5/1774, I doubt very seriously, that they, together, had daughter Mary to marry at about at or about age 13 to 14 and give birth to "Baby Mary" in or about 9/10/1788. I figure Jacob to be about 35 to 37 years old at the time. Things are getting a little tight for us. My 76 year old brother- in-law is in intensive care at Lumberton, NC (near Fayettevelle) hospital with lung cancer. He currently has a lung on him. We expect to go there the first of next week to be of help to Catherine's sister. I also have a Clemson 45th year reunion for my Class of 1954 next weekend. He had quit smoking a few years ago and they found the tumor in January. Things have gone down faster than expected. Hope you are doing well. Be careful how you use this information. I may put a query on the internet under Ely or Balderson. Sincerely, Carroll