Clay family genealogical research papers

1811-1965

Edna Pearl Clay Goodspeed (1884-1963) was an active member of the Daughters of the American Revolution who served as a nurse overseas during World War I. Her ancestors included Revolutionary War soldiers Charles Mathewson, Capt. Aaron Coe, David Clay and Capt. Samuel Cobean, and tailor Otis Madison, who pioneered a new system for garment measuring and cutting in the early nineteenth century. At the time of Goodspeed's death she was preparing a history of the the Clay family of Ohio and related Pennock, Mathewson, Madison, Pontius and other families, entitled Some Ohio Pioneers. Her writings, notes and research materials were given to genealogist Helen B. (Blanchard) Hartman with whom Goodspeed had been collaborating before her death. The Clay family genealogical research papers consist of genealogical scrapbooks; correspondence of Edna Clay Goodspeed and Helen B. Hartman relating to their genealogical research on the Clay family and related Pennock, Mathewson, Madison, Pontius, Cobean, Hanna, Brinckerhoff, Coe, and Boyd families, with notes and family trees; some personal papers, 1916-1957, of Edna Clay Goodspeed; and the manuscript of Goodspeed's work, Some Ohio Pioneers. The scrapbooks contain original photographs of members of the Clay, Coe, Brinckerhoff, Cobean, DePuy families and their connections, circa 1850-1951; writings and correspondence, 1811-1962, including several original nineteenth-century letters, 1811-1858, with transcriptions, reflecting the everyday life of the Coe family, particularly Eliza Hanna Coe; clippings, 1903-1955; and family trees. Additional family photographs are present in the collection.