A Family Tree

It appears North Carolina Governor is figuratively telling neighboring Virginia Governor, “Here hold my beer.”

Working on a family tree has its ups and downs. Sometimes when several family members have the same name, it makes it difficult to build the branches.

It happened in days of yore. A child dies at an early age but another child comes along a few years later and they still want to honor grandpa.

Two children, same generation, same names.

Sometimes, when a family likes a name so much they repeat it three generations in a row.

Senior. Junior. Third.

Further still a family may want to honor a grandparent by keeping the name in the family. When this happens and it is an extremely unique name, building a family tree is very easy.

While using online family tree websites isn’t always an exact science, it does appear to get pretty darn close. As an amateur genealogist, one thing I have been discouraged about is the removal of some information on the census in this year’s count.

Past censuses found online help you track your family’s growth every ten years.

It is interesting to see my great-grandparents pop-up in the 1910 census after arriving in 1906 from Europe. My grandmother’s name has a 2 entered in her row in 1910. In 1920, that number changed to 12.

With that all said, and this not being an exact science, please let us know if you find any discrepancies in the following discussion.

Let us take a look at a highly prolific individual who has been in the news lately. From the lock-down of Covid-19, losing the Republican National Convention to the mess across the state in regards to statues, etc., the Governor of North Carolina has been a very busy guy the past few months.

Over the weekend there was discussion arising on social media about Gov. Roy Asberry Cooper III’s family tree.

Citizen Media News spent some time doing research. Naming connections described above, do indeed, make it easy to build a family tree. In fact, one online family tree builder actually gives you hints.

As the “home individual” when building a new tree and you start off not as a Junior but as a Third, you immediately can fill in three generations of paternal entries.

Since the last name is the same, the online platform as the names were logged, well, it went to town.

The little waving indices showing hints were abuzz. As stated. very easy when you have three generations of the same name.

A real connection comes when your unique middle name, “Asberry” shows up as the first name of a second great-grandparent.

Second great-grandparents lived, generally, in the mid to latter part of the 1800’s.

Let’s say, pre-civil war era.

The family tree fills in pretty quickly because the family has been in the same place for centuries, has towns named after the family surname, and everyone as individuals has stayed in place.

A tool available to help build these branches is access to past census reports. With the last pre-civil war census completed in 1860, there were “schedules” to the reports that included information on slave ownership. Just numbers on a page from back in 1860.

Imagine as the family tree of Roy Asberry Cooper the Third started to come to fruition when these slave addendums and hints kept popping up next to some of his kin.

If you can show where the attached documents show anything different, CMN will gladly take them down, but in CMN’s opinion, these images below give a significant indication of a family’s history.

There was chatter about one family member, with the surname Cooper, being discussed across the internet over the weekend.

Willie H. Cooper.

He would have been proud of his second, great-grandson becoming governor. Back in 1860, according to the 1860 U.S. Federal Census – Slave Schedules, Willie H. Cooper could have celebrated with his seven slaves.

NCBeat.com reported on about Willie Cooper. Included screenshots of the documents showing what had happened in the past.

The family tree that provided information on Willie H. Cooper to CMN, not only had this second great grand-father alone, but five other individuals in Gov. Coopers family that appear to have owned slaves, some as far back as fourth -great-grandparents.

More connectivity besides the title senior, junior and third? A unique family name?

Asberry Baines.

Yes, he owned slaves.

In fact, one might say that Roy Asberry Cooper the Third, is actually named after his slave-owning, second, great grandfather.

The first sign of ownership in the Cooper family goes way back to the family’s 4th great-grandparents in 1790 and continued most likely through the end of the civil war.

An interesting side note is the muster roll and list of deserter sheet. It appears that W.S. Bachelor, who appears to be another 2nd-great grandfather, was a Confederate Soldier. He happened to be captured by the Union Army. He was then entered into service for the north and shipped off to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. On September 14th, 1864, he deserted the Union Army. With him he took an Enfield Rifle, one set of equipments, one knapsack, one haversack, one canteen, a bugle, an eagle, a letter “F”, a big “I” and knapsack straps totaling $28.02.

Did the Cooper family made good the $28.02 the family’s deserting soldier took with him?

It is time that Governor Cooper re-evaluates his political career in light of the current environment here in North Carolina.