Contents
Whose family are you here for?
Showing both families — every line on the page. Pick a side to hide the other
family's ancestors; Earl, Kristin and their three children stay on either way.
Person · Samuel Coffman
The record
- HHomethe fan · what changed · open questions
- MMigrationbirths and deaths on a map, by decade
- TTimeline609 entries · 5 eras
- PPeople290 cards, by generationSamuel Coffman
- LLines13 surname pages
The evidence
- DDocuments896 thumbnails, filterable
- SSourcesS1–S1207, with where each is cited
The findings
- How the wall came downProeger line
- The glass patentsProeger line
- How the Caffey half was closedCaffey line
- What the DNA saysits own page
- Four routesMigration
- The asymmetryLines
- Open questions20 questions
- Add to this recorda form, read by Earl
How to read this record
Every claim is tagged
Most family trees flatten everything into the same confident typeface. This one does not.
The three research tags below are the whole point of the exercise: they say what a document
proves, what the weight of evidence suggests, and what nobody has found yet. A fourth marks
what the family stated directly, where no document has been retrieved at all — it is kept
separate on purpose and is never quietly promoted to confirmed. A fifth, added on
13 September 2026, marks biological evidence: a DNA result is not a document, and it is not
testimony either. Two further labels mark where this page withholds information
rather than lacking it.
ConfirmedAttested by a document that was actually retrieved and read — a census sheet, a
government index, a grave marker, a family-written obituary.
ProbableStrongly supported but not nailed down: a user-contributed tree, a masked index field,
or a chain of consistent circumstances. Believable, not proven.
Not foundSearched for and not located. This is a statement about the search, not about the
person — the record may well exist somewhere unsearched.
Family testimonySupplied by the family and recorded on their word — no document has been retrieved for
it. Note the diamond rather than the dot: this is provenance, not proof, and it stands
apart from the three record tags above S24.
DNA evidenceBiological evidence consistent with a claim. It corroborates origins; it does
not by itself establish a person or a link. Note the bar rather than a dot or a diamond:
no DNA result on this page is ever counted as confirmed, because no document
was read for it S46.
Living — withheldThe person is living. By the privacy rule for this page, name and relationship are
shown, and at most a year the family has already published. Full dates of birth, ages,
places of residence and record identifiers are held back.
Research in progressA branch that is actively being worked on. The node exists in the structure so the
shape of the family is honest; the detail is simply not in yet.
- Born
- Not found
- Died
- Not found
- Children
- David C. Coffman
- Sources
- 5
Research status
Research status: CONFIRMED as David C. Coffman's father — David C.'s own 1883 Page County death register, read from the image, gives his parents as
“Saml. & Mary Coffman” S364 (FamilySearch indexes the same entry as 1:1:6ZLN-PCY5 and 1:1:XRSP-VJR), and his 1871 marriage register, where David C. was 58 and a widower, names his parents
“Saml & Susannah” S362 Life in the order the records give it
Birth1779
His birth and death dates are not documented. The 1779 birth year comes from a compiled family chart only, and the death in December 1814 that some trees give him belongs to another man, David Kauffman
Family parents, marriages, children, siblings
Parents1799
His own parents are not established: the 1799 bond abstract says “son of Geo.”
S664, and a family chart says Martin
Open questions what is probable, weak or missing — confirm or correct it
Open question
⚠️
His wife is not settled. The 1871 register says Susannah
S362; the 1883 register, whose informant was David C.'s widow, says Mary
S364. A Saml. Coffman married a Susanna Coffman by a Shenandoah County bond of
12 February 1799; the typed abstract calls her the daughter of David and him the son of Geo.
S664S104. A Susan Coffman, 69, lived in David C.'s household in 1850
S829, but that census gives no relationships. The question is left open for Earl
In the record
Generation 7 — Earl's earliest known
- S104Samuel Coffman and Susanna Coffman — Shenandoah County, Virginia marriage, 1799. Virginia, U.S., Select Marriages, 1785–1940 (Ancestry collection 60214, record 5383144): Saml. Coffman, marriage date 12 February 1799, Shenandoah, Virginia; Father: Geo.; spouse Susanna Coffman; FHL film 33930, reference p. 98. Corroborated independently by Virginia, U.S., Compiled Marriages, 1660–1800 (Dodd; collection 3002, record 38970), same couple, same date, same county. Retrieved 18 September 2026. Two things, and they pull in opposite directions. It confirms the marriage the family chart recorded, and it confirms that the bride was already a Coffman — the record behind the compiler's red "1st Cousins." The bond date and the chart's wedding date are not in conflict: Virginia recorded the bond first and the minister's return after, and a 12 February bond with a 5 March wedding is the ordinary three-week pattern. ⚠️ But it names the groom's father as "Geo.", where the chart says Martin [S103] — so the generation above Samuel is now unsupported and contested, not resolved. Two reasons not to act on it yet: this is an index, not the bond image, and in this FamilySearch-derived collection the "Father" field is not always reliably attached to the groom rather than to the bride's consenting parent. FHL film 33930, p. 98 is the exact citation that settles it, and it is the single highest-value unread document on the Coffman line.
- S362Page County, Virginia, Register of Marriages for 1871, p. 217. Ancestry record 710325. Image examined, read 24 September 2026. Confirmed Line 53, 17 October 1871: D. C. Coffman, 58, widowed, farmer, son of Saml & Susannah, married M. F. Flinn, 40, single, daughter of Saml & Judith, by J. W. Watson. Line 7 of the same page: 3 February 1871, A. W. McKim, 24, druggist, married A. B. Coffman, 22, daughter of David C. & Emily. The first image-level statement of David C.'s parents, Samuel and Susannah.
- S364Page County, Virginia, Register of Deaths for 1883, line 16. Ancestry record 449672. Image examined, read 24 September 2026. Confirmed David C. Coffman died 25 January 1883 at Fruitland, of paralysis, aged 70, a farmer; born Fruitland; parents given as Saml. & Mary Coffman; informant Mary Coffman. The informant gave his mother as Mary. His 1871 marriage register says Susannah, and the tree keeps Susanna; this is left open for Earl.
- S664Shenandoah County, Virginia, marriage bonds 1772–1853, typed abstract, page 98. FamilySearch Virginia, Vital Records, 1715–1912, DGS 007579056, image 3:1:3QS7-99XF-C8Z7 (FHL film 33930). Image examined, read 26 September 2026. “Coffman Saml. / Coffman Susanna / Feb 12, 1799 / dr of David, son of Geo.” On the same page the abstracter writes “dr of” for the bride and “son of” for the groom. A twentieth-century typed abstract, not the bond itself.
- S8291850 U.S. Federal Census — David C. Coffman household, District 49, Page Co., Virginia, p. 318. Ancestry collection 8054, record 16052296 (image 4206389_00207); enumerated 6 September 1850, dwelling 686. Image examined, read 28 September 2026. Confirmed David C. Coffman, 37, farmer, $4,500; Emily, 30; Susan M., 6; William S., 3; Ann B., 1; Jane C., ½; William Thornhill, 63, farmer; Susan Coffman, 69, $3,500. No relationship column. William Thornhill's age fits the father of Emily named in her 1868 death register (S335); Susan Coffman's fits the Susanna Coffman of the 1799 bond (S104), but the page does not say who she is.