Comfort Coy's parents are not firmly proved; researchers have been working this brick wall for about 75 years. There are some probable conclusions that could lead to circumstantial evidence, but no documents. Comfort Coy (born 1774 OR 1778) is either the son of David born 1759 and Drucilla, or he may be David's younger brother and a son of David Coy born 1731 and wife Abigail ___. The David who married Drucilla Potter is NOT named David Comfort Coy, so delete the middle name right away to reduce confusion. My father (Cliff Coy) drew some conclusions that were inaccurate, or unproven, so I am working to verify everything. One of these "conclusions" was based on misreading of David's pension signature- he concluded that the curly part of the second D on David, was the letter C. There is no evidence to support that as a middle name or middle initial for the 1759 David. My dad's work is all over ancestry, so MANY of the errors have been copied by others into their trees. However, Comfort has a son named David Comfort Coy who was born Circa 1805. Recently, Gale Ion Harris authored an article in the NEHGS register (2014 spanning 3 issues) on the early Coys. In that article, he was able to prove firmly that Samuel Coy (wives 1 Bethia and 2 Susanna) born 1779 is indeed a son of the 1731 David. And we have family stories that Comfort and that Samuel were brothers- thus my most recent decision to move Comfort to be a son of David and Abigail and NOT David and Drucilla. Another reason for this is the census vs. tombstone. In the 1850 census (in which Comfort and Abigail were enumerated twice, since they moved that summer), Comfort reports his age (both times) to be 76, giving him a 1774 DOB. Comfort's tombstone in Michigan calculates back to a 1778 DOB- so which does one believe- the living person in 1850, or after-the-fact memories of the tombstone sponsors? I lean toward the 1774 DOB as correct, which makes it highly unlikely that the 1759 David was his father. But I am now looking into perhaps getting some DNA testing done to try to get through this brick wall. If we see some of Drucilla Potter's DNA in Comfort's descendants, then we have to go with the 1759 David being a very young daddy, and Comfort as probably being illegitimate and not the brother of Samuel. If you are a Comfort Coy descendent, please consider getting the autosomal testing through Family Tree DNA- we have got several Coys in there already. My email is
coygins@comcast.net happy to chat further on this! Cyndy Coy