Obituary |
Mortuary notice, Times-Picayune, 28 Apr. 1870, p4:
COOPER—On Wednesday morning, April 27, 1870, at 3 1/2 o’clock, after a short illness, Ann Cooper, wife of A.W. Cooper, aged fifty-four years.
The funeral will take place on Thursday afternoon, 28th inst., at 4 1/2 o’clock, from her late residence, No. 68 Erato street. Friends and acquaintances are respectfully invited to attend, without further notice.
Philadelphia (Pa.) paper please copy. |
Notes |
- This woman's ancestry is a stumper; if anyone can help, please get in touch!
She was an immigrant from Ireland, and I'd guess a Quaker. Her death certificate says she was born in Ireland; censuses say England. A first question is: did she immigrate to Pennsylvania or New Orleans? I suspect it may have been to PA, but that's only a hunch. She does not seem to appear, however, in any of the Pennsylvania marriage records for Sadsbury, or in the Meeting’s minutes.
A problem is birth date. On 1850 census, she is 36 (b. 1814), and on the 1860 census she is 48 (b. 1812). Her death certificate, in 1870, says that she was 50 (so, born abt. 1820). l go with the census average for now; 50 sounds too much like an estimate.
Birthplace on the 1850 and 1860 Censuses is "England." Also on the 1850 census is a "Mary Sullivan [Cooper?], aged 16, living in the household, who was born in England. A younger sister of Ann? She would have been born abt. 1834.
If Asahel Cooper came to NOLA in 1830, at about age 24, and he and Ann were married in 1836, it is possible that they met in New Orleans; yet I'd say that this is not likely; I think it is more probable that he travelled home to meet her. His second wife was from PA. And Asahel Walker, his son by Eliza Loney, was born in Lancaster Co., PA. And, her mortuary notice in the paper asks Philadelphia papers to copy.
Further evidence for this theory is that much of the Quaker community in Sadsbury where the Coopers were from had emigrated to Pennsylvania from County Antrim, in Northern Ireland. I can find no record of her family in Lancaster Co. Church Records, but she needn't have lived there long before marrying and moving south.
Her Death Certificate says that she was 50 when she died, though this is different than the birth date given in other places (see references).
There is possibly a relative buried in Lafayette Cemetery, in the Sheedy Tomb: "William Sullivan and wife Ann Murphy, A native of Roscrea Co. Tipperary, Ireland. Died Dec. 25, 1873. Aged 44 years." There is also an Elizabeth A. Woolfarth Sullivan buried in the Kaiser tomb there. [4]
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