New post at Family Tree Firsts

My next post is up over at Family Tree Firsts.  I have to admit, my husband had told me the story of how there was a possible connection between their family and Buffalo Bill Cody since we met.  No one was sure how exactly, but it was a family legend none the less.  Thanks to the published genealogies from the Cody society, I know how they are possibly connected now.

Harry Coad / Henry Thompson has been an enigma ever since I found him.  One those nagging puzzles that you just can't stop thinking about.  It has become almost an obsession to be able to figure out who he is.  I have been desperately trying to piece together his life before the Civil War.

Several family trees over an Ancestry have listed George and Sarah Thompson as his parents.  Unfortunately I have not been able to get any of them to write me back about why they think this.  All I know about him (mostly from census and death records) is the following:

Harry M Coad
Born:  31 Aug 1840 Springfield, Illinois (one census lists Virginia)
Died:  15 June 1920 Grand Pass, Missouri
Married: Nancy Ann Cody, 12 May 1867 in Kansas

I did find a Henry C Thompson on the 1850 Census in Oquawka, Illinois with parents GW and Sarah Thompson.  They were born in Virginia and Kentucky respectively.  When I discovered the 1890 Veterans Census, I secretly hoped I would learn more.  Below is what I got:

Harry M Coad
Miami Township, Marshall, Saline, Missouri.
Private

So the quest to discover him continues...

*Image by liberalmind1012