I’ve never done online research solely on Ancestry.com before. I’ve never had the run of the place. I’ve always assumed I’d have access to my U.S. Census Records Collection, a few free databases, and that’s it. Now, though, the whole place is my playground, and I don’t know where to start.
It’s a good thing I made notes online earlier.
I still need to work on finding all the pertinent info for Grandpa Cook’s aunts and uncles, because my “brick wall” is only one generation past them. I also need to find a marriage record for Grandpa’s grandparents. After that… I have census records going from 1870 back to 1840 for what I believe is my Cook family, but I need definite evidence linking my William Henry Cook to the Thomas Cook I think is his father. I know that William Henry had a brother named Harry and a half-brother named Samuel, but this information hasn’t helped me at all. I haven’t found a Harry or a Samuel anywhere that William has been.
To make things even more confusing and difficult to trace, William Henry’s mother is listed as a Nancy on his birth record. No maiden name. But, the only William I’ve been able to find with a Thomas for a father has had a Rachel listed on the census as his mother. WTF? I still haven’t puzzled this one out. I’m hoping that I’ll locate some marriage record someday that will make sense of this whole thing.
Well, I guess I’ll try to hunt down some more death records, maybe some marriage records, and maybe even some land records online. I’m going to have to put that off till tomorrow, though; I need to do some dishes before I go to bed.