There is a "Pedigree Reference File" (MM9.2.1/SBR5-4FM) at FamilySearch contributed in May of 2011 which gives us James Fox (25 FEB 1836-31 MAR 1928) born and died in Greene County, PN.  This file shows his parents as Joseph and Jane (Wilson) Fox.



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The Joseph Fox, father of James Fox (and possibly ten other children) seems to have been the Joseph "Newton" Fox who married three different women at different times.  His wives seem to have included an Emily (the Indian Princess), Jane "Jennie" Wilson, and Eleanor "Elsey" Dobbins.

Some accounts give his birth year as 1753 (June) and his birth in Morris County, New Jersey.  This puts him on a list of three brothers--Joseph, Peter, and Phillip (born 1753, 1755, 1760 to the parents John Peter and Elsie Tate.

It is brother Peter, we believe, to be the listed grandparent of Dennis Fox.  Those grandparents which removed from New Jersey to Pennsylvania (not all that far in family history).  Those grandparents would have been the parents of the Catharine Fox (born +/- 1801) who (possibly for financial reasons) married her cousin--Captain John Fox.

One cousin's father was brother Peter and one cousin's father was brother Joseph.

It is not uncommon to find a) families with multiple properties assigning relatives to dwellings based on phase of life i.e., education, apprenticeship; b) survivors shacking up to sustain; c) different religious denominations in same family/generational changes in religion; d) rampant variations in spelling; e) specific inheritance issues like old world Germanic (Franks) Salic Law (property passed strictly through the male line/property is indivisible/farm name stays with the land/women inherit the farm only if there are no sons/if a man marries a woman to get her farm he takes HER name) influencing more modern rules.  In the old world, for instance, Salic Law combined with erbpacht--the right to tenancy of a farm as inheritance--even for "common" people.

But without being able to talk to any of these distant relatives it's practically impossible to understand why they were doing what they were doing.  Just as in some cases surnames and given names were passed along to indicate financial/farm/father-son structure, we cannot assume anything only learn as much as possible to better look at the whole picture.  Many of the details fall into place once we understand all the factors.

Even while America was modernizing by becoming a population beholden to a central government many of the immigrants internalized the old ways within their family structures.

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The Bates' History entry for John (Dennis and Catharine's brother) tells us the dates of their parents' deaths.  Susannah died on Christmas Eve in 1875.  And Henry in Oct of 1882.

Sure enough, we find Henry and Susannah on the 1870 Census (Whiteley Township) ages 73 and 67.  Living in their dwelling is not more Fox but a farm laborer named William Maddison.  A domestic servant (same age, 14) Mary J. Gump.  And two Ruses...21 year old Olliver Ruse (farm hand) and Barbary D. Ruse (aged 19) also a domestic servant.

But by 1880 the Census tells us that Susannah has passed.  Henry is 75 years old and widowed, he's actually listed as other to head of household Oliver Ruse (who has turned 31) and Oliver's wife Barbra Ruse (age 40).  There is another "other" and that is Jestus Billby, eleven years old.

In 1880, Dennis and Betsy are both fifty-three and some of their children are still with them--David (28), Susannah (24), Kinsey (22), James (20), Sarah J. (16), and Marion (13).

But by 1891 Dennis is re-marrying to Minerva Shriver.  The dates of death of their previous wife/husband are in the record books for Waynesburg (although Minerva's place of residence at the time they married was Junis Run, Monongalia, West Virginia) BUT these dates are crossed out in the image of the record I looked at online.  Date of death of man's former wife:  July 23, 1888 [crossed out] and date of death of woman's former husband: Nov 4, 1887 [crossed out].  Fox and Shriver have no blood relationship between them.

And in the 1900 US Census, Dennis and Minerva aren't the only married couple in the household.  Dennis' son Kinsie and his wife Sidie B. and their son Forny B. are with Dennis and Minerva.  While Dennis reports being married for 52 years, Minerva lists nine years as well as having given birth to ten children (7 still living at that time).

It's through the Clerk at the Orphan's Court that we find the certificates re: Dennis and Minerva's marriage.  Must be the way things were structured in the court system at that time.  Or maybe their marriage had something to do with adoption/inheritance matters.  I haven't sorted out every detail about the legal doings in Pennsylvania and West Virginia yet.

In fact I need to get some clarification on why people show up associated with the Minor Civil Division esp in regards the US Census 1860.  We find a thirty-three year old Dennis Fox showing up that way.  And interestingly, no less than three instances of a 55 year old Henry Fox showing up that way...Minor Civil Division in Whiteley Township, East Huntingdon Township and Hereford Township.

And there's an immigrant Henry Fox who turns up in Philadelphia via the ship Musconomo.  He's about fifty when he arrives in 1852.

The Henry Fox who married Mary and was living at the time of the US Census 1870 was in Hempfield, Westmoreland, Pennsylvania.  His Joseph Fox is a 32 year old barn carpenter in 1870.  That Henry Fox is listed as being born in abt 1802-1805.  But their Post Office is Greenburg, not Kirby like Henry Fox who married Susannah.

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My genealogy day began with a headline from the past screaming at me from a death registry.

ANDERSON WILSON MURDERED, dateline 5 OCT 1876



 I didn't have time to investigate the case.  Needed to get on with the business of Captain John.