The Proeger Family · Generation 6 — earliest known

Lucy Brooks

Mother of Mary Jane Wright

Lucy Brooks

Confirmed

Mother of Mary Jane Wright

Born
about 1832
Married
James W. Wright
Children
Mary Jane "Mollie" Wright
Sources
12

Research status

Research status: CONFIRMED as the mother of Mary Jane “Mollie” Wright. Mollie's 1934 Texas death certificate, no. 56943, read from the image, gives her mother's maiden name as Lucy Brooks, born Tennessee S81; her brother J. B. Wright's 1937 certificate, no. 47820, read from the image, gives Lucie Brooks, born Tennessee, with Mollie's son J. D. Coffman as informant S1074. FamilySearch indexes both certificates the same way (1:1:K34G-82Q for hers, 1:1:K3HP-2GG for his); those are indexes of the same two documents, so they confirm the reading but are not further evidence

Life in the order the records give it

Birth1832
Born about 1832 in Tennessee: she is L. C., 28, in the 1860 census of Dallas County S1004 and Lucy C., 48, in 1880 S345. The 1900 census gives her birth month and year, May 1832 S1089; no record read here gives her death, except that she was alive in June 1900
Census1900
🆕 In June 1900 she was a widow, 68, born May 1832 in Tennessee, farming her own land at Eagle Ford, Dallas County; she had borne 6 children, 4 of them living. Her son James B. and his three boys lived with her Confirmed S1089
Census1850
🆕 She is probably the “Rosanna Wright”, 18, entered with Dr Jas. Wright, 25, and Martha Wright, 2 months, in the household of Moses T. and Nancy Brooks in Davidson County, Tennessee, on 20 September 1850 S1096. Her age matches, and the household is the one the county history names as her parents’, but the census gives no relationships and calls her Rosanna, not Lucy Probable confirm or correct →

Family parents, marriages, children, siblings

Marriage1892
Wife of James W. Wright. The History of Dallas County (1892) gives their marriage on 28 October 1848 and calls her Lucy C. Brooks of Davidson County, Tennessee, daughter of Moses T. and Nancy (Tate) Brooks S85. That book is a paid-for family account. The 1850 census below, which puts her husband in Moses T. and Nancy Brooks’s household, is the first record to support it S1096, but it states no relationships, so her parents stay Probable
Children1855
Mother of Mary Jane “Mollie” Wright and of James B. (J. B.) Wright, born 18 December 1855 in Texas, who lived with Mollie and Dee in 1920 and 1930 and died at Potosi on 11 September 1937 S348S349S1074
Marriage1848
🆕 The Davidson County register has the licence of James Wright and Louisiana C. Brooks, issued 24 October 1848; the return is blank Confirmed S1145. It is the first original record of the marriage. Her daughter Kate Temple Britain, born in Dallas County on 21 January 1873, died at Hamilton, Texas, on 28 November 1945; her death certificate names her parents as James Wright and Lucy Brooks, both born in Tennessee Confirmed S1146.

Open questions what is probable, weak or missing — confirm or correct it

Open question
⚠️ Her name varies, and is recorded rather than adjudicated. Lucy on Mollie's certificate S81, Lucie on J. B.'s S1074, Lucy C. in the county history and the 1880 census S85S345, and Louisiana C. in her husband's 1878 will, which makes her executrix S84. The “Luciana Catherine” and the dates on her online memorial are not on any record read here and are not used

In the record Generation 6 — earliest known

Lucy Brooks · Sources

Citations

Sources cited on this card

12 of the record's sources are cited here. The numbering is the record's own; the full list, with where else each is cited, is at Sources.

  1. S81Mary Jane Wright Coffman — Texas death certificate, 6 December 1934. Texas State Department of Health, Standard Certificate of Death, file no. 56943, Taylor County; Texas, U.S., Death Certificates, 1903–1982. Read from the certificate image 16 September 2026. Mary Jane Coffman, wife of D. E. Coffman; born 23 October 1859, Texas; died 6 December 1934 at 7:20 p.m., two miles south of Potosi, Taylor County, of cerebral haemorrhage; buried Dudley, 8 December 1934; father James W. Wright, born Tennessee; mother's maiden name Lucy Brooks, born Tennessee; informant D. C. Coffman of Abilene. It settles a death year and it names two ancestors. Her gravestone and her FindAGrave memorial give the death a day later and a year later, in December 1935 [S21]; the certificate says 6 December 1934 and the family typescript [S72] independently says 1934 as well. A state certificate written five days after the death outranks a stone transcription, and it is followed on this page. The likeliest source of the wrong year is the state registrar's filing stamp, JAN 10 1935, on the face of the same document.
  2. S84Dr. James W. Wright — last will and testament, Dallas County, Texas, 9 July 1878. Dallas County probate records, two manuscript pages, transcribed from the images 16 September 2026. Devises the estate to his children Jessee Wright and Kate Templeton Wright, subject to the homestead and community interest of his wife Louisiana C. Wright, whom he appoints sole executrix and guardian. ⚠️ A name variant, recorded rather than adjudicated. The will calls his wife Louisiana C., the printed county history [S85] calls her Lucy C. Brooks, her daughter's death certificate [S81] calls her Lucy Brooks, and FindAGrave calls her Luciana Catherine. Same middle initial and same role as surviving widow in every one. This page uses Lucy Brooks, the form on the two primary records, and prints the others rather than hiding them.
  3. S85History of Dallas County, Texas (1892), pp. 687–688 — the biography of James W. Wright, M.D. Two printed pages, read from the images 16 September 2026. Gives his birth near Nashville, Tennessee, 4 February 1825, son of Thomas and Martha A. (Tate) Wright; service in the Mexican War; medical study at Louisville and a degree at Nashville; his marriage 28 October 1848 to Lucy C. Brooks, of Davidson County, Tennessee, daughter of Moses T. and Nancy (Tate) Brooks; the family's emigration to Texas in 1850; and, on p. 688, his children — among them "Mary J., wife of David E. Coffman, of Taylor county." A subscription county history is a paid-for family account, not a vital record, and is weighed that way here. Its value is that it reaches the same couple from the opposite direction to the 1934 death certificate [S81]: the certificate names Mary Jane's parents, the history names Dr. Wright's daughter. Neither was derived from the other. The G6 generation it supplies — Thomas & Martha A. (Tate) Wright, Moses T. & Nancy (Tate) Brooks — rests on this book alone and stays Probable.
  4. S3451880 U.S. Federal Census — Precinct 7, Dallas Co., Texas: David E. and Mary J. Coffman. Ancestry record 7452380. Image examined, read 24 September 2026. Confirmed David E., 23, farmer, b. Va.; Mary J., 21, b. Tex. of Tennessee parents — twenty months after the wedding. Four dwellings up the same page: Dr James W. Wright, 55, physician, Lucy C., 48, and their children Jesse, 10, and Kate, 7. The first census to show the Wright family itself.
  5. S3481920 U.S. Federal Census — Justice Precinct 7, Taylor Co., Texas, ED 272, sheet 14A. Ancestry record 13175075. Image examined, read 24 September 2026. Confirmed Enumerated 26 Jan 1920, one sheet before the Bowles household (S188). David E., 62, farmer, owns a mortgaged farm; Mary J., 60, b. Tex.; James B. Wright, 64, single, entered as “Brother” — Mollie's brother. The index's “Mary S” is a misread of J.
  6. S3491930 U.S. Federal Census — Precinct 7, Taylor Co., Texas, ED 221-31, sheet 4A (RFD 2 Abilene). Ancestry record 60799483. Image examined, read 24 September 2026. Confirmed David E., 73, owns his home, first married at 21; Mary J., 70, first married at 19; James B. Wright, 74, brother-in-law, widowed. The index's “working on own account” is wrong; the image gives Dee's occupation as None.
  7. S10041860 United States Federal Census — Dallas County, Texas, Precinct 2, post office Palace Hill, page 107, dwelling 688 (20 August 1860). Ancestry record 34979679. Image examined in the Stage 2 reading, 29 September 2026. Confirmed Jas. W. Wright, 35, physician and farmer, born Tennessee; L. C., 28, born Tennessee; Sally, 8, born Tennessee; Jas. B., 4, born Texas; and Mary J., 9/12, born Texas. Next door, dwelling 687: Thomas Wright, 67, born North Carolina, and Martha, 65. 1860 states no relationships. Thomas and Martha Wright next door may be Dr. Wright's parents; that rests on adjacency alone.
  8. S1074J. B. Wright — Texas death certificate, 11 September 1937. Texas State Department of Health, Standard Certificate of Death, file no. 47820, Taylor County; Texas, U.S., Death Certificates, 1903–1982, Ancestry record 82243541. Image examined in the Stage 2 reading, 29 September 2026. Confirmed J. B. Wright died 11 September 1937 at Potosi, Taylor County; born 18 December 1855, Texas; divorced; father James Wright, born Tennessee; mother's maiden name Lucie Brooks, born Tennessee; informant J. D. Coffman, Potosi; buried at Potosi, 12 September 1937. The informant is Mary Jane Wright's son, which ties this J. B. to her family rather than to a namesake. A second child's certificate names the same parents as her own certificate [S81]. FamilySearch indexes this certificate as 1:1:K3HP-2GG; that is the same document, not further evidence.
  9. S10891900 United States Federal Census — Precinct 7 (Eagle Ford), Dallas County, Texas, ED 143, sheet 9A, dwelling 183, family 187. Ancestry record 70540740. Image examined in the Stage 2 reading, 1 October 2026. Confirmed 8 June 1900: Lucy C. Wright, head, born May 1832, 68, widowed, mother of 6 children of whom 4 living, born Tennessee of Tennessee parents, farmer, owns her farm free; James B., son, born December 1855, 44, widowed, born Texas; James L., 19, Sidney J., 16, and Robert E.(?), 13, all entered as ‘son’, born Texas, father born Texas, mother Alabama. By their parents’ birthplaces the three boys are James B.’s sons, Lucy’s grandsons, entered as ‘son’ in error.
  10. S10961850 United States Federal Census — Civil District No. 4, Davidson County, Tennessee, page 296, dwelling 482, family 482. Ancestry record 6049004. Image examined in the Stage 2 reading, 1 October 2026. Confirmed 20 September 1850: Moses T. Brooks, 56, farmer, born Virginia; Nancy Brooks, 51, born North Carolina; Octavia V., 16, Jas. M., 12, and Jos. F. Brooks, 8; Jas. Wright, 25, physician, born Tennessee; Rosanna Wright, 18; Martha Wright, 2 months. The index carries the head’s surname down onto the three Wrights (“Jas Brooks”, “Rosanna Brooks”); the image reads Wright. The census states no relationships. A James Wright, 52, farmer, born North Carolina, heads the next dwelling but one.
  11. S1145State of Tennessee, Davidson County, Register of Marriages for 1848, p. 46 — James Wright and Louisiana C. Brooks (licence 24 October 1848). Ancestry record 4578431. Image examined in the Stage 2 reading, 1 October 2026. Confirmed Last entry on the page: “Wright James C[?] To Louisiana[?] C Brooks — Issued Oct 24. 1848.” The return column is blank. The lower page is water-damaged and no marriage date is entered; the 28 October date comes from the 1892 county history (S85). The middle initial after James is hard to read.
  12. S1146Texas Standard Certificate of Death no. 48594, Hamilton County, 1945 — Mrs. Kate Temple Britain. Ancestry record 82614521. Image examined in the Stage 2 reading, 30 September 2026. Confirmed Mrs. Kate Temple Britain, white, widowed, housewife, born 21 January 1873 in Dallas County, Texas; died 28 November 1945 at the Hamilton Sanitarium, Hamilton, Texas, aged 72 years 10 months 7 days; father James Wright, born Tennessee; mother Lucy Brooks, born Tennessee. Informant Mrs. Ruth Harris, Hamilton. Buried at Gentry’s Mill, Texas, 30 November 1945. The informant knew Kate, not necessarily her parents. Her 1878 will entry reads “Kate Templeton Wright” (S84).

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