Cook Genealogy

All of my information for the Cook line comes from the work of Everett J. Cook.  Around the time of the family reunion in 1997 he was gathering information from family members so that he could complete the work.  I think everyone of the children of Ruby and Raymond received their own copies.  Mine came from copying Mom’s copy. Mr. Cooks genealogy has involved a lot of work and is very complete.  I have been able to confirm some of the details and add a few here and there but nothing really significant.  Rachel Garrett Neiswender is another person who contributed to this work in the form of stories about the people themselves.

In the course of my wanderings on the internet and Ancestry.com and Family Search.com I made contact with two significant resources.  The first is Vicky Durand who I introduced in an earlier post.  She has shared some wonderful pictures with us, because they will be on the site for all of you to enjoy soon.  Another significant source is The Tincher Tribe Facebook page.  The Tinchers if you recall would be Ruby’s family line.  There is also another lady June Ford that Vicky has been corresponding with and I hope to make her acquaintance soon to see if she is interested in sharing what she has also.

There is so much information and as well as stories that I want to make all available right now as I think my the younger cousins will be interested in it.  Although maybe you all know these stories and I will be the one absorbing new information and you will be adding the important details.  Who knows.

To start I am going to post a better copy of a picture that is floating around in our records as a xerox copy which is terrible dark and not very good.  I think you will enjoy seeing it clearly.

Standing from left to right: Elias “Lade”, Elisha “Doc”, Margaret “Belle”, Leander “Tump”, Shelby “Shell”, Cyrus “Staud”, Charles “Hats.  Sitting Frances Elizabeth (Cates) and Cyrus Hantsford Cook.  The picture is Circa 1898

Our original labels had Cyrus “Straud” and Charles “Hats” reversed.  A pretty good looking bunch don’t you think despite them looking grim?

The small picture that is featured is Shelby Cook on the left and Leander “Tump” on the right.

Let me introduce Victoria Durand

Vicky and I connected through “Find-a-Grave” and it wasn’t even Halloween.  Her mother, Betty Cook, daughter of George Edward Cook – son of Cyrus Strother Cook, passes much information as she makes discoveries of mementos and photos as she can toVicky, since she knows Vicky’s curious.
Vicky lives in Lawrence and has done some research on the Cooks as has June Ford (granddaughter of Clair Cleveland Cook and great granddaughter of Cyrus Strother Cook), does that name sound familiar to any of you?  It does to me.  Anyway June has also done a lot of research and lives close by in Archie MO.   I have an extra copy of the research done by Everett Cook back in 1998 and am going to send it to her, between us all I bet we can fill in some gaps.

I am excited about all of this as I am sure you all will be as you make it through the sign in process.

The pictures I am posting under this topic were sent to me by Vicky.  The featured image is of Nancy Willis, she is the mother of Frances Elizabeth Cates and those are her two great granddaughters.

Until I can get the back information online I will copy it here: ” It says Nancy (Willis) Cates, 80 years old, February 15, 1899 weighting 98 pounds.  Olive Weese 2 years old November 13, 1899 weighing 23 1/2 pounds, Gladys Weese 3 years old December 23 1899 weighing 29 pounds.”