John Henry COLE was born between 1770 and 1780. He married Mary Scarborough, also born between 1770 and 1780. A lot of the details of their lives remain unknown, but they lived somewhere in TN from an unknown date before 1811 until at least 1818. In the 1820s, we do know that they moved to Hickman Co., KY, near the TN border, and the 1830 census found them in Obion Co., TN. He died in 1835, in Hickman Co., KY. She died in 1837. Oral tradition says that they had a large family, but we've been able to identify only four children:

Mexico [1811-1859]. For his downline, see Mary Lou Lloyd's Page

James Madison, [1813-1856]. For his downline, Sharon McAllister's Page

Marvel. [1818-?]. For his downline, see Christine Klocko-Cole's Page

We can often determine that our COLEs lived in a specific area during a certain time, but find it difficult to distinguish their records from those of other COLE families living nearby. Those of us working with common names like William and Stephen find this especially frustrating, but comparing notes with someone else who's researching the same place and time often makes it possible to reclassify some of those unknowns as "yours", "mine", or even "ours". Individual pages include contacts as well as data, but if you've collected similar information for an area not listed please write to Sharon McAllister about setting up an Area Study page for your locale. To qualify for an Area Study, you must have information about COLEs in your area whom you can't tie into your own family - things like census data, land records, marriage records, tombstone inscriptions, etc. - that might be useful to someone else researching COLEs there. Preference will be given to locales being researched by more than one list member.