CODER Family Genealogy Roadblock

For a number of years I've been working on a history of my Grandmother's family, the Coders.

When I was young I would visit my grandmother and beg her to show me her old photographs. She would get a candybox out of the attic and we would sit and go through the family pictures stored inside. There were tintypes, sepiatone cabinet cards and even a letter written from a Civil war soldier, a half-brother of her father. She had stories to tell of all the people in the photos: homesteaders, ranchers and missionaries. My mother inherited the box and when she passed away the photos came to me. I discovered there were no names written on most of these pictures. I remembered the stories but had a hard time matching names and places to the images. Corresponding with librarians and archivists I've made some progress but still have far to go.

My great-great grandfather David J. Coder (born 1812 Luzerne County, PA) was living in Gentry County, MO, near the Iowa border. I estimated that he had died around 1892, but while scrolling through microfilm of an Albany, MO, newspaper dated December 1895 I discoved he was listed as a county road inspector. I've found no mention of his death or a burial site. Heck, maybe he's still alive.

David's father Rev. William J. Coder was a Methodist Episcopal preacher on the Sunbury circuit, Northumberland County, in northcentral PA in the early 1800s. In 1837 or 1838 he migrated west to Illinois. I've not been able to discover William's parents, where his family originated, or his wife's name. My grandmother said the Coders were Welsh but her brother said they were German. I've found Coders in England going back to the 1400s, but can't connect them to William.

If anyone else is researching this line I'd be happy to share what information I have.