Michael,

I believe that I picked up the name of Sarah Matthews COOLEY and her son William Matthews COOLEY in the book Maury County Cousins. Since my search was centered on the male descendants of James MATTHEWS, Sr. and John DOAK, I did not further pursue the surname COOLEY.

My info says this: p. 190

"The following names often associated with James (Sr) and Mary MATTHEWS possibly were their children, but verification has not yet been found:

Sarah Matthews, who married a COOLEY, and had a son William Matthews COOLEY - - -

* Mussendine Matthews, Rev. War soldier, who died in Iredell County in 1830 - - -

and Robert Matthews, who died in Iredell County ca 1819 - - - -"

NB: Later evidence suggests that this * Mussendine Matthews was not a son of James Sr.

As you have discovered, many of the biographical books pertaining to early TN and NC families are far from accurate. When I was working in Salt Lake City FHC, I set out to read all the books pertaining to the Matthews surname, especially in Maury Co., TN. I found contradictions galore. Legal records were the best means of delineating the families.

I am sorry that I cannot verify the name of the Cooley man to whom Sarah Matthews was married.

Best regards,

Helen Odum Harrell

Then I listed the several works in chronological order, and was amazed to learn that many of the authors either gave no documentation, or simply cited another of the books, and some of the more recent compilers cited each other!

From: Michael Cooley <michael@newsummer.com>
To: heyladyh@yahoo.com
Sent: Wednesday, November 23, 2011 6:34 AM
Subject: Sarah Matthews m Cooley

Hi Helen!

I received your email address from Steve Matthews.

A descendant of William Matthews Cooley has yDNA-matched to me and nine
others. We are probably all descendants of John Cooley of Stokes county
NC.

Steven tells me that you have a book that says WMC's mother was Sarah
Matthews. I'm very interested in knowing what the source of that
information is. A bad genealogy was written in the 1930s led us all
astray, but DNA in the last few years have proven that wrong.

My page for WMC is at
http://ancestraldata.com/ahnentafel/256/StewartCoTN.html

The website for John, his probable father, is at
http://ancestraldata.com/ahnentafel/256/ . Abraham's family is pretty much
worked out. We've never been able to find anything that associates it with
the John Cooley family.

If this pans out, you will have many hundreds of names to read into your
GEDCOM!

I can't wait to hear from you!

Thanks!
-Michael