Go to Home Page Diana, Goddess of the Hunt — for Ancestors!
 
Go to Home Page
 
The Bogus COGER Connection to Mark HOPKINS
 
Source:  Doyle Clinton Akers.  1992.  The Hopkins/Coger Connection: including efforts in the 1920s to redistribute the estate of railroad builder Mark Hopkins.  Self-published, Denison, TX. 87 pp (LDS Call No. 929.273 H774; LDS Film No. 1750757, Item 10).  Abstract from the LDS online catalog:
Mark Hopkins (1813-1878), one of the builders of the first transcontinental railroad, was born at Henderson, New York, the son of Edward (Ned) Hopkins and Hannah Crow Chambers.  His family moved in 1825 to St. Clair, Michigan.  Elizabeth Susan Hopkins (1832 - 1923), daughter of Caleb Hopkins and Mary Ann Cocke, was born in Gochland, Va., and died in Berryville, Arkansas.  She married Asa C. Coger (1829-1880), son of John Coger and Sarah Jane Sands, in 1815.  He was born in Huntsville, Arkansas.  After the Civil War Asa moved his family to Oskaloosa, Kansas, and about 1872 to Huntsville, Arkansas where he ran a drug store.  The earliest known ancestor, Stephen Hopkins, is said to have arrived in America in Nov. 1620 aboard the Mayflower.
The amazing thing about this connection is that it's so easily disproved.  I haven't seen the original booklet, only the above abstract from the LDS catalog, but if the rest of the genealogy in this book is this bad, you have to consider everything in it suspect.

Mark HOPKINS was, indeed, born at Henderson, NY, and his parents did move to St. Clair, MI, but his parents were Mark HOPKINS & Anastasia KELLOGG of Great Barrington, MA, then Henderson, NY, then St. Clair, MI — not Edward HOPKINS & Hannah CROW of Virginia, then North Carolina.  The evidence contradicting Edward's connection to Mark is given in the sources on his page:

Family Group Sheet of Edward HOPKINS & Hannah CROW

In a nutshell, Edward was born 1781/2 in Virginia and is in the 1830, 1840 and 1850 censuses of Randolph Co., NC.  In other words, Edward HOPKINS was nowhere near New York or Michigan, while Mark HOPKINS, railroad baron, was unquestionable born in NY.

Of course, even if the above family were connected to Mark HOPKINS, they still wouldn't be connected to Stephen HOPKINS, Mayflower Passenger, because the supposed connection between Mark HOPKINS's immigrant ancestor, John HOPKINS of Cambridge, 1634, and Stephen HOPKINS, Mayflower Passenger, is also bogus (see False and Faked Mayflower Genealogy at Caleb Johnson's web site).  HOPKINS is a common English surname, so connections cannot be assumed based on name, alone.  The fact that the above author alleges the connection further destroys his credibility as a researcher.

Contact Home
Page
Table of
Contents
DNA
Hub
Biddle
DNA
Carrico
DNA
Corbin
DNA
Danish
DNA
Rasey
DNA
Straub
DNA
Pedigree
Charts
Census
Records
Every-Name
Indices

Everything I have is online at this web site.  I have no further information, so please don't write asking me if I do. On the other hand, if you feel I've made an error, please don't hesitate to notify me.

Go to Home Page
Privacy Policy ______
Go to Home Page