I normally don't post the same message to more than one list, but this little mystery practically begs to be posted both to Cox researchers and to Pierce researchers. The mystery will take a little bit of narrative to describe. John Tivis Cox married Nancy Ann Pierce 23 Sep 1860 in Greene County, Tennessee. They were my gg grandparents. On the Pierce side of this particular mystery, Nancy Ann Pierce was the daughter of James E. Pierce and Anny Green. James E. Pierce and Anny Green were married 1 Dec 1825 in Greene County, and Anny Green died 1840/1844. James E. Pierce married (2) Mary (Polly) Doty 25 Aug 1845 in Greene County, and Mary (Polly) Doty died before 1850. James E. Pierce married (3) Experience (Spriddy) Wells 19 Mar 1850 in Greene County. In the 1850 Greene County, Tennessee census, my Nancy Ann Pierce was 10 years old and Experience (Spriddy) Wells was her stepmother. At the time she married James E. Pierce, Experience (Spriddy) Wells was the widow of Thomas Mitchell, and her 1850 marriage to James E. Pierce was listed as James Pierce to Spitty Michel. On the Cox side of this particular mystery, John Tivis Cox was the son of Riley Cox and the grandson of Reuben Cox. Reuben Cox had a son named Horton Cox, Horton of course being the brother of my Riley Cox. I just ran into a Greene County, Tennessee marriage that is the source of my little mystery. The marriage is Aaron Cox to Experience Mitchell, 25 Jul 1845, with Horton Cox as bondsman. The mystery is now set up. Let's start out with the question of who was Aaron Cox? I don't have him in my data base, but his marriage record suggests that he was a brother of Horton Cox and hence a son of Reuben Cox. Indeed, I have found several GEDCOM's in the Internet that list him that way. But I have seen no evidence of his existence other than his 1845 marriage. But more to the point of this mystery, was the Experience Mitchell whom he married the same Experience (Spriddy) Wells, widow of Thomas Mitchell, who married James E. Pierce in 1850? If so, you would think that the 1850 marriage would have been listed as James Pierce to Experience Cox. And yet, the same GEDCOM's on the Internet that list Aaron Cox as the son of Reuben Cox, also list Aaron's wife as Experience Wells, and the GEDCOM's even show a child from the union, a Claudius Cox born about 1846. So who was Aaron Cox, and did he really marry the same Experience Wells that married James E. Pierce in 1850, and did Aaron Cox and Experience Wells really have a son named Claudius? Note that there is a Claudius Mitchell age 4 in the 1850 Greene County census, enumerated with James Peirce (sic) and his wife Spriddy. Actually, there were three Mitchell children enumerated with the family in 1850 -- Andrew Y. age 10, Lorinda J. age 8, and Claudius age 4. I had always assumed that all three were children of Thomas Mitchell and Experience (Spriddy) Wells, and that Thomas Mitchell died 1846/1850. But the truth is, I don't really know when Thomas Mitchell died, and the 1845 marriage of Aaron Cox to Experience Mitchell certainly suggests that Claudius was Aaron Cox's son. If Claudius was indeed Aaron Cox's son, then the 1845 marriage of Aaron Cox to Experience Mitchell indicates that Claudius was legitimate and that there would have been no reason for Claudius not to have used the Cox name, and no reason for Experience not to have been listed as Experience Cox when she married James Pierce in 1850. Any help on this matter gratefully accepted. Jerry Bryan _________________________________________________________________ Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn.com