Jasper Pink and Mary Jane Minton Coffey

Jasper Pink and Mary Jane Minton Coffey



Ben Coffey is looking for his ancestors. He descends from Jasper Pink and Mary Jane Minton Coffey. Jasper's death certificate reveals that he was a son of Joseph and Lucinda Coffey Coffey. The only problem seems to be that there was not a Joseph Coffey around at the time of Jasper's conception.

The problem is compounded by the fact that Ben's DNA markers match those of an Estes. There was a Joseph Estes residing in the area not far from the Johns River area where Lucinda and her family resided in Caldwell Co.

Lucinda was born c1832 to Enoch and Prudence Gragg Coffey. Enoch was a son of Joseph and Isabella Lindsay Coffey. Joseph was a grandson of John Coffey and Jane Graves through their son Reuben Coffey and his wife,Sarah Scott. Enoch and Prudence likely had more than one child, but so far only Lucinda has been found.

Joseph Coffey, father of Enoch, is thought to have died in 1835, but he could have died much later. It is possible that the Joseph Coffey who died in 1849, and whose estate was handled by Enoch, was Enoch's father.

Jasper and Mary Jane left North Carolina sometime after their marriage on Aug. 21, 1873 in Boone Twp., Watauga Co.* I have not found them in the 1880 census record. All nine of their children were born in Caldwell Co., the last on Mar. 8, 1893. So, sometime between that date and Jun. 7, 1900 they left North Carolina and moved to Geary Co., KS where they appeared in the Jun. 7 census of that year. Ben writes that soon after Jasper and Mary Jane moved to Kansas, Joseph Estes also relocated there.

In 1910 the family was still living in Geary Co. I have not found them in 1920, but on Apr. 3, 1928 they were residing at 1221 Monroe St. in Topeka, Shawnee Co., KS. It was on that date that Jasper Pink died due to "mitral insufficiency." His death certificates reveals that he was buried at Junction City in Geary Co.

Mary Jane lived until Oct. 6, 1925 and died on that date in Macon Co., MO. She is also buried at Junction City.

Jasper and Mary's children were:

George Alexander, born May 27, 1874, died Dec. 28, 1928. George married Grace Percy Armitage on Aug. 21, 1900. George and Grace both died in San Bernardino Co., CA.

Jonathon Horton, born Mar. 30, 1876 in Lenoir, died Oct. 21, 1961 in Norton Co., KS. He married Maude B. Ayers on May 14, 1903 in Junction City, Geary Co., KS. Maude was born Jan. 25, 1885 in Oklahoma and died Oct. 10, 1969.

Malinda Lucinda, born Jul. 26, 1878 in Lenoir, died Nov. 1, 1925 in Chapman, Dickinson Co., KS. She married James Joseph Cullen on Aug. 16, 1905 in Junction City.

James Washington, born Feb. 26, 1881 in Lenoir, married Mae Switzer.

William Finley, born Apr. 17, 1883 in Lenoir, died Sep. 13, 1946 in Rossville, Shawnee Co., KS.

Enoch Thomas, born May 31, 1885 in Lenoir, died Apr. 15, 1921 in Junction City.

Ellis LaFayette, born Jul. 3, 1888 in Lenoir.

Jennie Etta, born Dec. 27, 1890 in Caldwell Co., and died Sep. 8, 1987 in Rossville, Shawnee Co. She married Harry Gutshall on Oct. 11, 1936.

Joseph Richard, born Mar. 8, 1893 in Lenoir, died in Jun., 1963 at Rossville, Shawnee Co. He married Mary Bell Bledso on Nov. 23, 1932.

Drop me e-mail at the above address if you would like to contact Ben, or to add to or correct any of this information.

















*Marriage Register of Watauga County, North Carolina 1873-1954 (Boone, Watauga Co., NC: Dept. of Hist., Appalachian State Univ., Boone, NC, 1995)

Photos are courtesy of Ben Coffey

Missouri Death Records

I have previously visited the Missouri Digital Heritage website. I seem to recall that when it first appeared on-line I was able to download certificates in pdf format without any difficulty.

However, when I visited this morning I found that downloading and viewing the death certificates is not so straight forward.

Instead of downloading a pdf file of the selected certificate, it downloads a file named DispPDF.aspx. Of course, my pdf reader would not open the file, and there is not a reader for any file with extension aspx.

By playing around with the file I found that I could download and view it by changing the name from that offered by the website to something useful. I typically name my files using the last name first name death cert, then add the pdf extension (e.g., Coffey, John J Death Cert.pdf). After renaming the file I could view it with my pdf reader.

I'm unsure if I'm doing something incorrectly or, if the script used to send the file to me is in error. Please write to me at the above e-mail address if you have found a shorter way to download the certificates.

By the way, I no longer use the free Adobe PDF reader to read these files. It has grown too bulky, always wants to "call home" to check for updates, etc. I now use the free PDF-XChange viewer. Among other options, this viewer allows users to place annotations into the pdf file. Check it out at Tracker Software Products. You may also want to consider the free Foxit PDF viewer. You can find that one at Foxit Software.