Research is just beginning to ascertain the identity of this couple. The estate papers of Ambrose and Sarah Cobb, now in the North Carolina State Archives, have been examined by a certified professional genealogist. Those papers refer to a James McGinnis as being the son in law of Ambrose and Sarah Cobb, indicating he had married aheretofore unknown daughter of the Cobbs. This marriage would have almost certainly taken place before the Cobbs left Virginia, in 1777. The 1790 census of Lincoln County does not list any children in the household of Ambrose and Sarah Cobb. Further, the name McGinnis is easily found in the records of Halifax County, Virginia, home of theCobbs before moving to North Carolina.

It is known that two McGinnis males, Ambrose and William, married the daughters of James Cobb, son of Ambrose and Sarah, in Lincoln County, in 1813 and 1816 respectively. It is further known that one Shadrick Cobb was the bondsman for the marriage of one John McGinnis to Elizabeth Starrit, in Lincoln County, on Nov 26, 1810. While the identity of both John McGinnis and Shadrick Cobb is also a mystery, these facts do tend to indicate a strong connection between the surnames Cobb and McGinnis.