The Search for Lucy Gifford and Daniel Noyes Cookson #1

     As I mentioned in the last post, besides writing my family history of the Stefani and Tinetti families, I am starting to research Daniel Noyes Cookson and his wife, Lucy Gifford.  I don 't want to delineate everything I have done so far but I'll just say that I am starting in Aroostook County. This is a large county in the northeast of Maine. Much of it is still wilderness.  In his pension Civil War application, John Marshall Cookson says that he was born in Linneus here.  He was born about 1848. His family is never found in the Census for this area and he says that the only record of his birth is the Family Bible which his stepmother took with her to Seattle, Washington. I'm still looking for that but that is another story! I found his father's enlistment record in the Army for the Aroostook War in 1839(another fascinating story!), he enlisted at Houlton which is a town right next to Linneus. His mother's family is in the 1840 and 1850 Census in Linneus.  I believe that his father and mother are in the 1840 Census record of her father hidden in the numbers of males and females of certain ages. Daniel Noyes Cookson's oldest son, Daniel Cookson, is listed in the 1840 census in New Limerick (right next to Linneus) and in Linneus in the 1850 Census. Daniel's sister, Lucy, and her husband, William Townsend, had their first son born in Linneus in 1839. They do not appear in the 1840 Census, though, having moved to New Brunswick just over the border by then.  So it appears that the majority of the family was in Linneus in 1839.

     Unfortunately, I can't find either Daniel Noyes or Lucy around this time.  I believe that Daniel Noyes had died by then which is perhaps why the family was there (Lucy Ann married in Orland, Hancock County in 1838 so I was surprised to find her in Linneus in 1939). Linneus was incorporated in 1836 so it is hard to find vital records for this early period. However, in the 1850 Census, their son, Daniel is listed. In this family group is Lucy Corliss, age 72, born in Massachusetts. This has been assumed to be Lucy Gifford Cookson. Recently I noticed that it says Corliss not Cookson. Looking further one finds David Corliss two pages later, age 75 living with the Lilly family. I researched David Corliss and found him in the 1830 and 1840 Census of New Limerick or Linneus.  His wife, Polly, died in 1845.  So, my guess here is that Lucy had known David since the early 30's and they married after both their spouses died.  Why they are living separately I do not know but possibly economic reasons.  Neither appear in the 1860 Census. So I am now also researching the name Corliss for Lucy hoping to find a marriage or death record.

     So that's where we're at, lots to do.  However, in all the trees on Ancestry in which Lucy appears none have noted that her name is Corliss in 1850 and this marriage doesn't appear for her or David. I just think it happened!