Yet another tangled web

[tommacgregor]

Hello All,

Well, it certainly looks as if quite a few people enjoyed the Drylie/Tod mystery and I want to thank those people who added their expertise in solving it. It is this involvement by a number of kind-hearted people that get results and the mass of information created was simply tremendous.

Many of us obtain our information from many sources, but, the best source of all is from an original Birth, Marriage or Death Certificate. As an example, Gadget provided proof positive of that.

Yet another lady is having quite a frustrating time in solving her problems in creating her Family Tree and, as I see it, the problem appears to be in her source material. Don't get me wrong. We all have to examine bits of data from numerous sources, and who is to say that the data is "completely accurate"?

I would like to commence a similar exercise to that of the Drylie mystery by placing before you quite a number of names, dates and locations. As you will see, there are quite a few obvious errors, and so I will start the ball rolling by going back to a reasonably "safe" starting point and going back in time.

Archibald Cook, to the best of my knowledge was born at a place called Sauchie-Clackmannan on 31st January, 1750, and when he was about 27, he married Christian Muir. A couple of their children were Adam, born 24th February, 1752 at Sauchie-Clackmannan and John, born 13th January, 1754 at Sauchie-Clackmannan.

Archibald's parents were Adam Cook and Helen Wilson. Adam was born on 7th May, 1721 at Clackmannan. When he was about 25, he married Helen on 29th August, 1746. He died in February, 1792 at Mellock in Clackmannan.

Now we come to a rather 'messy' period when we look at Adams parents. His parents were John Cook and Janet White who had married on 4th May, 1716. To the best of my knowledge, Adam had quie a few brothers and sisters, i.e. Robert Born 19th Feb. 1717, Agnes, born 4th Jan. 1719, James, born 4th Auguust, 1723, William born 27th Feb. 1726, Janet, born 8th March, 1730, Henry, born 23rd June, 1732 and Katherine, born 11th January, 1736.

However, I find that Adam Cook had a couple of half-brothers, John Cook born 22nd February, 1712 and Thomas Cook, born 15th December, 1713. So, who was the mother of these two children? The answer is a lady called Bessie Allan who had married John Cook on 9th September, 1709.

A bit of a puzzle is that there is a possibility that John had married a lady called Ellen White before his marriage to Bessie Allan, but I am unable to spend too much time trying to trace that marriage. If there is any truth about that marriage, then John would have been quite a young lad at the time of the marriage. Slogging away at the coal-face, I find a conflict as to when John Cook was born. Was it 21st July, 1695 or was it what I believe to be more likely the 24th February, 1690/91?

Now we move back to John's parents, who were John Cook and Janet Nicol or Nuccolls or Nucall, (here we go again with those spelling variations!). This John is thought to have been born on 8th November, 1674 at Dollar, Clackmannan and he married Janet about 1694 at Tillicoultry, Clackmannan.
However, The IGI states that their children were: James Cook, born 29th April, 1677, Marion Cook christened 5th April, 1679. Agnes Cook, christened 22nd September, 1681, Margaret Cook, christened 22nd April, 1683, Christian christened 1st November, 1684, Bessie, born about 1684, Robert, christened 2nd November, 1689 and John Cook born 24th February, 1690.

Hmmm!! Something doesn't quite add up.

It would appear that a few wires have been fused together because when I dig a bit deeper, I find that there appears to be a bit of a query as to whether John's father was John Cook or James Cook! Did John Cook, born 10th August, 1645 at Clackmannan, marry Christian Ronald on the 6th June, 1673 at Sauchie-Clackmannan or was it James Cook, born 10th August, 1630? A point to examine is that Christian Ronald was born on 10th May, 1653. Was there are 23 year age difference or a mere 8 years difference between the bride and groom?

Now we come to what sticks out a mile as a fusing of different individuals.
When we look at the children of Christian Ronald and her husband, we find:

John Cook, born in 1669 - what - four years before their marriage?
James Cook  born 29th April 1677 - now, that's better!
Marion Cook born 5th April, 1679
Agnes Cook born 22nd September, 1681
Margaret Cook born 22nd April, 1683Christian Cook born 1st November, 1684
Christian Cook, born 1st November, 1684
Bessie Cook born 4th June, 1687

Whoa there! Surely we've seen those individuals before. The IGI gives them as the children of John Cook and Janet Nichol.

O.K. Let's close on an even gloomier note. Who was the child of John Cook and Joanne Horne who married on 28th November, 1841? was it John Cook or was it James Cook? It would appear that the IGI can't make up its mind.

Well, there you have it. No wonder the poor lady living in England is feeling frustrated. I'm sure that all of the genealogical enthusiasts out there are simply itching to combine their skills to sort this one out. Me? Well, I reckon that I've earned my corn in collating all of the above and deserve to go and have a spot of tea with my poor suffering wife!

Kind regards,


Tom.