Documents — A McCoy in Hatfield Country

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The records themselves

The book's rule is that a reader should never have to take a claim on faith. Below are three of the records the story stands on, shown as they were pulled, each with the citation a reader would need to pull the same page. In the full build this section carries the whole archive — certificates, registers, census pages, court paper, and the newspaper clippings — organized by person and by chapter section.

West Virginia death certificate of Lawrence Carey, 1927 — Death certificate of Lawrence Carey — Certificate No. 6162. Died May 28, 1927, at Logan, Logan County, West Virginia, age 57; “Officer of City of Logan”; parents named as Wm Carey and Jennie McCoy; informant Henry Carey; received by the registrar Ella Ferrell, June 3, 1927. Source: West Virginia Division of Culture and History, Vital Research Records — death certificate 6162, Logan County.

West Virginia death certificate of Brook Carey, 1928 — Death certificate of Easter Brooks “Brook” Carey — Certificate No. 14375. Died November 16, 1928, at Logan; cause “Shot with revolver — died instantly”; born June 5, 1898; occupation electrician; father Laurence Cary, mother “Mclusia Sampson” [as written]; informant Henry Cary of Logan; buried at Logan, November 18, 1928, Logan Mercantile Co. undertaker. Source: West Virginia Division of Culture and History, Vital Research Records — death certificate 14375, Logan County.

1920 United States Census page, Chapmanville District, Logan County, showing the household of Brook Carey — 1920 United States Census — the young household of Brook and Lona Carey. Chapmanville District, Logan County, West Virginia, ED 19, Sheet 5-A, lines 43–45 (enumerated January 13, 1920): “Carey Esterbrook,” 21, house carpenter; wife “Nona” [Lona Conley Carey], 17; daughter Alice, 7 months. Lawrence and Malissa Carey's household stands on the same sheet, a few families away. Source: Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920, Logan County, West Virginia, ED 19, Sheet 5-A.

Sample of three. The full archive numbers in the thousands of pages — the Ancestry harvest alone runs to hundreds of record images at full resolution, each filed under the person and the claim it supports.

Pike County marriage register entry, 1865 — William Carry and Jenny McCoy — Marriage register — Pike County, Kentucky, 1865. One line, July 27, 1865: “William Carry and Jenny McCoy.” Jennie is Virginia Jane McCoy, Lawrence Carey's mother; the groom's name is spelled “Carry” in the minister's certificate, as written — the period's spellings (Carry, Cary, Carey) are carried exactly in these notes, and the book prints the name as the family settled it: Carey. Moved here from the Photos page: this is paper, and paper lives here.

Easter Brooks Carey's World War I draft registration card — Draft registration card — Easter Brooks Carey, Logan County, September 1918. Brook Carey was spelled a half-dozen ways by the clerks who wrote him down. On this card he wrote himself: “Easter Brooks Cary,” in his own hand, at twenty years old, working at the Logan Planing Mill. The book takes his name from his own signature. Moved here from the Photos page.