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My biggest and longest standing brick wall is my Cole family. My gggrandfather, Benjamin Franklin Cole (he always went by Frank) truely seems to have been brought by the stork! I have not been able to find parents or siblings for him.
Frank was born July 1, 1837 somewhere in Penna. His obit says he was born in Huntingdon County but I have done enough searching there to be fairly sure that is incorrect.
Family story has that he ran away from home and his obit says "His younger days were spent in the "Wild West" where he saw service as a mail carrier for several years". and another obit says "Deceased went west as a young man and drove overland stage on the old Santa Fe trail from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas to the Pacific coast". The Santa Fe trail didn't go to the Pacific coast so that much is inaccurate. There was also the family story that he rode for the pony express.
I did find a Frank Cole on a 1859 Kansas state census living in the County of Leavenworth, township of Delaware but there isn't enough information to tell if this is "my" Frank Cole. I found Frank on the 1860 census for Independence, Jackson County, Missouri. He was living with 8 other men in their 20's in what I assume was a boarding house headed by E A Cox and his family. Frank was listed as a mail conducter and two of the other men were stage drivers.
I also found a Frank Cole that joined the Union army in Missouri in 1861 but again I haven't found enough information to know if it's my ancester.
His obit did say he returned east after the civil war and married, Jan. 1865 to Miss Harriet Giles of Johnstown, Cambria County. That's back again in Pa. However, I don't believe they got married in Johnstown because Frank was not listed on the yearly tax rolls for that county anywhere around those years.
Even if I found where they got married, I may not find any records. I'm sure they wouldn't have gotten married in a church because Harriet was Catholic and Frank was not.
After I first found them in Tyrone, Blair County on the 1870 census (with their name spelled Coal) and on the tax rolls from 1868- 1873 for there, I was able to follow them around central Pa.most of the time after that.
Harriet died in Jan. 1888 after she and Frank had had 13 children, 10 of which lived to adulthood. That was before county death records were kept so I only have her tombstone and Frank's obit. that records her death.
Frank died April 16, 1917 at the home of his daughter, in Clearfield, Pa. I have his death certificate and two obits but there is no mention of parents or siblings. And though Harriet died so much earlier than Frank, he never remarried. http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/184100/recent?pg=42 This is a link to my Cole family tree that I have on Ancestry.com. (I hope- I'm not very good yet with links and I'mnot sure I've done this right)

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I just found some new Cole information thanks to Gene from "Most Wanted! Ancestors lost and found" here on gnealogywise. I had a great Uncle Guy Cole who told his family he was going to St Louis and no one ever heard from him again. This is from the newspaper "E. B. Cole of Lincoln Place, Pittsburgh, is searching for his brother, Guy Cole, aged 36, who disappeared seven years ago from his home in MeKees Rocks, and of whom nothing has been heard since.
Mr. Coles father, Frank Cole, aged 81, of Clearfield, Pa., is very ill and as he grows weaker inquires incessantly for his son, Guy. Of the aged man's 10 children, eight boys and two girls, Guy is the only one whose whereabouts is not known.
Guy is under medium height, weighs about 160 lbs., has dark, curly hair, dark eyes, and a fair complection. When he left home he was smooth shaven. He is a steel worker. When he left home, he said he was going to St. Louis."

Gene wrote to me- "May have located your Guy Cole, aka James Guy Cole, b. 1 Feb 1878; registered for WWI draft 12 Sep 1918 at Muskogee City, Oklahoma; he was a RR Track Laborer for M.V RR Co. Reports his nearest relative as "Mrs. Laurian Rowells" of Clearfield. PA" This has got to be my Guy Cole. His sister Gertrude married a Lorrin Rowles and lived in Clearfield. I went looking for him on the 1920 census and 1930 census today and could not find him. Does anyone have any information on him?

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