and never got started again!
I thought I would have been blogging more now that my health is back to near normal. But, that hasn't been the case.
The Edward Coffey Project (ECP) is huge and I have begun to realize that many of my sources are incomplete, non-informational and lacking links. So, that's what I've been doing; that is, I have been checking birth, death, and marriage facts to make sure I have provided at least a link to those who have been added to Find A Grave. Of course, that are many that married or died long before the 19th or 20th century and are not on anyone's list or lie in abandoned cemeteries. They still lack sources but I rely on some form of genealogical publication to get them into the ballpark.
Many facts on the early Coffey families, such as children of Edward and Ann Powell Coffey, came from Dr. Marvin Coffey's book, James Bluford Coffey, His Ancestors and Descendants in America, Vols. I and II. I am attempting to source those to his books and page numbers. I am also returning to archived copies of the Coffey Cousins' Newsletter to provide more detailed information about some of the families contained in those publications.
Many of the early families researched by Dr. Coffey are qualified in his book by his statements such as "the children are not well defined," etc. But, they are your key to the past and to be 100% certain of your Coffey heritage it will require you to pick up the trail and do some early American research.
This current work is a long, tedious job but somebody has to do it!
I hope to provide better service to those who have purchased the CD, DVD or thumb drive. If you are one of those owners needing help clarifying a few sources, drop an e-mail to me.
Previous efforts to share the data (see above paragraph) have been just OK. But, I am hoping to do something even better in the future. I am not yet ready to talk about it but when I am, you'll read about it here as soon as I can assure you, and myself, it is a viable alternative to the other methods I have used.
The database is getting to be much too large to compile webpages, a distribution scheme that I have relied on in the past. My computer is beginning to struggle to create the pages. It takes nearly 36 hours to compile them, the photos, documents, sources, etc. And, each time I do that I pray that there isn't a power outage requiring a restart!
I've noticed a lot of websites, family genealogies on FamilySearch.org, etc. that have used my work to enhance their Coffey genealogy but have failed to properly name me as the source of their info. I know this because of wording I have used in comments for certain individuals. But, I don't really mind; that is until they begin showing up on sites like Ancestry, WikiTree, etc.
So, hang in there for a while longer and prepare to see the most accurate compilation of Edward Coffey descendants available.
Jack
