Having innocently come to my MudCat fellas to find the origin of the lovely Peggy Gordon... and subsequently having now read this entire (14-year!!) thread, I thought a good place to start was place names.

It occurred to me that we now have Google Maps - which we didn't when Dan & John first started discussing it.

And so, it is with great trepidation (and the firm understanding that I will likely get my head e-bitten off) I feel obliged to point out that there is a Covel, West Virginia. Which may link the New York Historical Society text with earlier assertions that there is a West Virginia link.

Then again, there's also a Coville, Prince Edward Island (not far from Nova Scotia) in Canada. So it could make a case for the Canadians.

And a Coville townland in Yorkshire. English, maybe?

I give up.