COUTANCH Jersey to Colonial America: Brothers Michael Coutanch of Bath, North Carolina & John Coutanch of Western New Jersey

In the 1730s, two brothers sailed from the Isle of Jersey to the American colonies with little more than hope and determination. Over the next two centuries, their descendants helped build the young nation, turning wilderness into farms, carving towns from frontiers, and answering the call to serve in every major American conflict from the Revolution to World War II. This is the true, primary-source story of the Coutanch family.Michael Coutanch settled in historic Bath, North Carolina, where he became a prosperous merchant mariner and respected legislator. His daughter, Susanna Coutanch Evans, rose from personal tragedy to become the founder of Greenville, one of North Carolina’s earliest inland towns. This book also reveals a previously unknown family connection: the Marsh family, who lived in Michael Coutanch’s grand home for more than a century (now preserved as the Palmer-Marsh House), were Susanna's cousins through her mother's family.John Coutanch made his home in western New Jersey. His son William Cotanch served as an officer in the Revolutionary War, fighting at Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth, and wintering at both Valley Forge and Fort Ticonderoga. Later generations pushed west, settling New York’s Finger Lakes region and the Wisconsin Territory where, remarkably, some of their descendants would one day face their Southern cousins across Civil War battlefields.Drawing on two decades of meticulous research, this book reveals important genealogical discoveries never before documented, including:Proof that Michael and John Coutanch were brothers who sailed together from Jersey in 1734.The complete story of Susanna Coutanch Evans, founder of Greenville, NC — including all seven of her children and their descendants.The full military service of Revolutionary War officer William Cotanch and the lives of his five children.The previously unrecorded descendants of John Coutanch Jr. and the eleven children of Benjamin Cotanch.Genealogical Report including eight generations of Cotanch and Evans descendants.From colonial merchants and Revolutionary patriots to a B-29 pilot over the Pacific, the Coutanch family’s journey is a powerful testament to resilience, courage, and the making of America. Read more