Related Cobb Families from Georgia
And the Southeastern United States
File Manager Betty Atkinson
The Orphaned Cobbs of
Georgia
group of files that are posted here on this site have been a significant puzzle
for all of us who are descended. Using the DNA project we’ve matched 15 males
from various family lines in GA who are an extremely close match. The participants mostly are from the line of
Joseph who married Rachel unknown.
Others are from a Nathaniel Cobb who dies in SC in 1785. Others are from
one Joshua who shows up in GA records as early as 1800. Then there are a couple more that we can’t
take back to any of these 3 groups yet. I expect that with time and effort we
may be able to fill in the blanks.
Some people have
attempted to connect this family to that of Joseph of Isle of Wight Co, VA but
the DNA project has shown that this can’t be the case at all. Also the project has proven that we’re not
related to the lines of Henry the Elder from MA or from Ambrose of VA and
NC. So who IS the common ancestor?
I’m going to step out
on a limb and make a sound guess based on what I consider to be a preponderance
of evidence. At the moment I can’t prove
the ancestor but I’m afraid that I could die without passing this information
along. I’m going to ask that all of those people who connect to any of these
families work with me to see if it’s even possible to prove the immigrant
ancestor or disprove my theory. While I’ll not provide all the specific details
of my research I’m going to provide enough to see if it makes sense to the
researchers and descendants of these orphans in GA. If anyone makes the mistake of taking this
information and printing a book claiming that it is true that person will
probably go down in history as a fool, having written a book that’s “riddled
with errors”. Potential authors –
BEWARE! As soon as a book is published
it will be proven to be wrong. It’s best
if we all work together to see if it’s possible to find any proof of a common
ancestor. So here goes.
In 1758 a James Cobb
gets a land grant on Bull Run of the Rocky Creek in Craven Co, SC. In1762 a Joseph Cobb gets land in the same
area as does one Isaac Elledge. Cynthia
Snyder, author of a book titled “Elledges Out Front”, claims that Isaac was an
uncle of James Cobb and that he got the land and transferred it to James. However, I’ve not been able to find any
records (so far) that show any transfer from Isaac Elledge to James Cobb.
Why is this
important? Because of the following
information.
A John VanHeck
(VanHaack, etc) got land rights in MD in 1668 for transporting one James Cobb
to MD. These rights were transferred to one Capt. Thomas Howell, whose daughter
John Van Heck married. VanHeck
transported himself and his mother to MD from VA a few years earlier. James Cobb was not married when he arrived
otherwise VanHeck would never have passed up the land rights for the wife. This James Cobb married and had at least one
son named James who m. Rebecca unknown.
The first James died at about 70 yrs of age after he petitioned to be
levy free in 1721 where he gave his age. His son James was born ca 1675 in MD and died in 1718 after having 5
girls and a son named James who was born in 1716.
The James born in
1716 married Ruth Elledge and by her had sons James and Joseph. Their births
are recorded in the parish records in MD.
He married second to Mary Pogue and by her had 3 children, one of whom
was Margarett who was born in 1742 in MD.
This is the last record we find of this family in MD.
I believe the James
who shows up in SC in 1758 and Joseph in 1762 are brothers and sons of James
Cobb and Ruth Elledge. Both these men
get land grants in GA in 1774. In 1776 a
Nathaniel Cobb buys land on the Sandy Run of Rocky Creek in what is now Union
Co, SC. This land was less than 30 miles
from the other two. Descendants of Joseph and of Nathaniel have the same DNA
pattern. James is a problem but I’m convinced
that some of the other males we’ve had tested who match this DNA pattern are
from James.
About 1770 the first
two start selling land in SC and in 1774 get royal land grants in GA on the
same day. Nathaniel dies in 1785 in
Union Co, SC. His children spread out,
with some remaining in SC, some moving to GA and others to AL.
Living descendants of
at least Joseph and Nathaniel have participated in the Cobb DNA project and the
results show that they have a common ancestor.
We do not know who the children of James were but there are enough
unconnected Cobb males in the same general area of GA in the same time frames
that some of them are most likely to be his descendants. Joshua who shows up
there before 1800 names his first son James and also names one Nathaniel. The name Nathaniel seems to run through these
family lines down to 1920 or later.
A recent visit to the
MD Archives did not net any significant new information. It did convince me
that there is no record in MD of an Isaac Elledge transferring land to a James
Cobb. Since there is no record of James
and wife Mary after 1742 in MD I have to assume that one of the early James’ in
SC must have been the elder man.
I’m proposing that
James and his wife Mary had a son named Nathaniel who was not born in MD as no
birth or deaths were recorded in MD after Margaret was born. If James and Mary
had died in MD I believe the records would show that. I believe that James and Ruth were parents of
the James and Joseph who got land grants in SC and that the second wife Mary
was mother of Nathaniel.
An alternate theory would
be that the immigrant servant James had more children than were recorded in the
MD records and that Nathaniel is from one of those children. Since there are no other records of any other
Cobb families in MD early on then I have to assume that there were none.
In the Cobb database
I have a lot of Cobb males in the same general area of GA who probably are
descendants of one or more of these three men, James, Joseph and Nathaniel.
I’ve found more than one James in the area. One or more of them is a descendant
of Ambrose. I’ve found 2 or 3 more
Nathaniel Cobbs in the same area and we lose track of their descendants. If any survived and have living descendants
we may yet find a family connection there.
There appear to also be extra, unconnected males named Jacob, Daniel,
Abraham, Joseph and Absalom. If we are
able to track them down to living Cobb males and can convince one or more of
them to participate in the DNA project we may be able to put the entire family together. That will require a lot of effort on the part
of all of us and in some cases money to help pay for the DNA tests.
I’m asking that
serious researchers help figure this out and work with me to reassemble the
family of James Cobb the immigrant to MD in 1668.
Betty J. Atkinson, File Manager
November 2007
Index: Use the "Back"
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The Descendants of Jacob Cobb
--- Surnames---
Individuals
The Descendants of James
Harrison Cobb --- Surnames --- Individuals
The Descendants of James M.
Cobb --- Surnames --- Individuals
The Descendants of Joseph Cobb
--- Surnames --- Individuals
The Descendants of Joshua Cobb
--- Surnames --- Individuals
The Descendants of Nathaniel
Hugh Cobb --- Surnames --- Individuals. The File Manager for
this family is Robert Cobb
The Descendants of Nathaniel
Cobb --- Surnames --- Individuals
The Descendants of William F.
Cobb --- Surnames --- Individuals
The Descendants of Joseph
Etheridge Cobb --- Surnames --- Individuals