dianaschnuth

Last night, I located some indexed records on Ancestry.com, so today I went to work on obtaining copies of the actual records. I have basic death record info for two of Grandpa Cook’s uncles and one of his aunts, plus my stepdad Tom, and I’m hoping to get the actual death certificates for all of them. But certified copies of death certificates cost $16.50 each! Now, I *know* I got uncertified copies a few years ago for cheap, just for research purposes, so I e-mailed the Department of Health to see if they still do that. We’ll see what they say.

I also located Grandpa’s Uncle Russ in the WWII Army Enlistment Records index, so I decided to go to the National Archives and Records Administration to get a copy of his military record. I filled out the SF-180 and am planning to stick it in the mail tomorrow, so hopefully something will come of that. I could potentially get shut down because I’m only his great-grandniece, and not next-of-kin.

I’m still researching, even though I should be working out. I’ll let you know what I find.

Update, 9pm: In looking through the notes I’d made in my genealogy program, I discovered that I’d found the marriage date of Thomas COOK and Rachel HILL. So, even though I’m not entirely sure I’m related to them, I’m going to try to work backwards. I’ve requested a lookup in the Clermont County Marriages book at the Clermont County Public Library, and hopefully this will give me some sort of lead to help connect and correlate my Thomases.

Update, 9:40pm: I just found the WWI Draft Registration Card for Thomas Oliver COOK. Not the Thomas I’ve been looking for, but one who I know is definitely related to me. This Thomas was Grandpa Cook’s uncle, who was killed when his car got hit by a train in 1924, a few years before Grandpa was born. This draft card basically just confirmed what I already knew, but also gave a street address of where they were living at the time, and the fact that Thomas was working for Dayton Wright Airplane Company in 1918.

Final Update, 10:15pm: I think that Grandpa was on crack when he said that his grandfather had a brother named Harry and a half-brother named Samuel. Assuming they have the same last name as he does, I haven’t been able to find them in any census anywhere that Grandpa’s grandpa is. The only thing this tells me is that maybe Thomas COOK (Grandpa’s great-grandpa) must have gotten divorced or been widowed. Or, I suppose it could be the other way around, and he could have widowed his wife, and/or Samuel could be hers from another husband. That would still make William Henry and Samuel half-brothers.

At any rate, I hope I catch a break on this soon, because this brick wall is really starting to tick me off.

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.

I haven’t been doing much work on my genealogy lately, so when I got an e-mail from Ancestry.com, I was only vaguely interested. Until I read the subject: “Class Action Settlement Benefit Notice.”

Seems that there was a class-action lawsuit against Ancestry, resulting in Ancestry giving one month of free access to all subscribers. I’m only subscribed to the U.S. Census Collection, but they have several other collections, including newspapers, records in general, and god knows what else.

And, for the entire month of May, I get FREE ACCESS.

So… despite prime gardening season approaching, I’m going to be going gangbusters with my genealogy during the next month, to take full advantage of $30 worth of records access for FREE.

I love class-action lawsuits.

Looks like the check I sent to the State of Ohio Vital Statistics cleared on Friday night. That means that Uncle Russ‘s death certificate should be on its way to me soon! Yaye!

I plotted out a timeline / ancestor profile for William Henry COOK last night. It’s amazing how much of my information is straight from the U.S. Census. There’s barely any primary sources at all, mainly because the family moved around so much that I don’t know where all his kids were born. Getting Uncle Russ’s death certificate should help give me somewhere to start, though.

I’ve been focusing my genealogy on the Cook line recently, on William Henry COOK in particular. To help guide my research, I’ve been compiling a list of dates and events that happened in William’s life.

As I compiled this list (and in the past, as I compiled other similar lists), it occured to me that this list of names and dates and places really doesn’t tell anything about the person themselves. And I got to thinking of what my life would look like, were it broken down into small, documentable dates and events.

It would be pretty boring:
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