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Cooke Family in Dublin

Dublin

I am trying to find information on my greatgrandfather, John Radcliffe Cooke and his parents. John was born in Ireland around 1852. His death certificate gives his date of birth as 24 June 1852. His parents were Thomas Cooke and Elizabeth (Eliza) Fitzpatrick. I know the family was in Dublin at one point as my greatgrandfather's sister Jane Cooke was baptized at St. James's Roman Catholic Church in Dublin on 03 Oct. 1853.

I have not been able to find any information on either Thomas Cooke or Elizabeth Fitzpatrick. I do know that they had at least one other child, a girl, named Elizabeth. I don't know anything about that daughter other than her name.

I am trying to confirm where and when John Cooke was born and also trying to find any information on his parents, Thomas Cooke and Eliza Fitzptrick, especially their birth, death, and marriage information.

Any help or guidance you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

Best regards,

Mike Cook

mike0425

10 replies

I can see that Dublin City baptism for Jane, but nothing else for the family so far, I'll check further when RootsIreland comes back online after their maintenance - do you have any later details on John or his parents, where did they end up ?

Since Jane's baptism seems to be the only one noted for the family in the IrishGenealogy records It looks to me like they may have moved to the Dublin city area from elsewhere, and possibly moved on after Jane's baptism...

shanew147IrelandXO Volunteer

I know that John emigrated to the US in 1870.  He arrived in Boston on 04 Apr 1870 and the ship manifest states it departed from Liverpool.  His sister Jane emigrated to the US some time later and was married in Wisconsin in 1884.  My grandaunt wrote out a family history in the 1960s and on that she indicated that the other sister, Elizabeth, lived in Killybegs but had no other information on her. 

John lived in Chicago beginning in 1872 and died there in 1921.  His obituary lists, among others, his sister Jane as surviving him.  It leads me to believe that his sister Elizabeth had already passed since only surviving family members were mentioned.

Over the past several years I have tried to find information on his parents using various online resources like Ancestry.com, FamilySearch.org, the LDS churches International Genealogy Index (before they took it away), IrishGenealogy.ie, etc.  I've never found anything other than Jane's baptism record that makes any reference to them.  Its really frustrating!

Thank you so much for doing this!  I really appreciate your efforts!

Regards,

Mike

mike0425

Nothing at all showing up for that family for me other than Jane's baptism. The Dublin city RC parishes have good records for this period, and for the 1850s parishes in county Dublin have good coverage also - but nothing in showing up online in either. Other than the location of Jane's baptisms, is there any specific reference for John that indicated 'Dublin' ?

Often people mention 'Dublin' as point of departure, but travelled there to take a ship elsewhere - presumably Liverpool or somewhere in Lancashire in John's case.

The mention of Killybegs might be a clue, although about as far away from Dublin as it's possible to get.  Many RC parishes in the Co. Donegal area dont have early records available, so maybe that's why nothing is showing up... 

The Radcliff(e) middle name caught my attention - unusual as a middle name, and this crops up as a surname, not very common occurance, but slightly more often in northern counties. Sometimes people used mother's maiden names, grandparents surnames etc as middle names, but from what I've seen this tends to be more common among Protestant (Church of Ireland, Presbyterian etc) families than Catholic ones.

Couple of long shot ideas -
1. search for civil death records of Thomas and Elizabeth. Assumes they stayed in Dublin (they could have moved to Lancashire as a family), and died after 1864.

2. search for burials for Thomas and Elizabeth in Dublin in Prospect Cemetery/Glasnevin.
(1 & 2 might be difficult to prove or disprove poss. connections with these)

3.  Follow up on Jane in US records, to see if her marriage and/or death certs give parent names, and that they match those given for John.

4. Check English census returns, focusing initially on the 1861, for the family to see if there's any sign of the family moving there..

 

shanew147IrelandXO Volunteer

Thank you for helping me on this.  I appreciate your suggestions and will follow up on those.

Regards,

Mike

mike0425

Thanks Shane. Good luck with your research Mike!

Best wishes
Clare Doyle
Genealogy Support

IrelandXO member

Today I was able to locate the record of the marriage of my 2nd greatgrandparents, Thomas Cooke and Elizabeth Fitzpatrick, in Ancestry.com in the index of the Irish Catholic Parish Registers, 1633-1915.  It shows that the marriage occurred in Blanchardstown Parish, Dublin, on 20 February 1851.  The record states that their residence at the time was Carpenterstown.  Also through that index I was able to find the baptismal record of their son, my greatgrandfather, John Cooke.  It occurred on 01 July 1851, also at Balnchardstown and stated that his residence was in Carpenterstown.  I am elated at the finds, of course!

I am wondering if their marriage would have required them to fill out some type of registration either for the Church or for the civil authorities.  My hope is that if there is some type of additional record it might provide additional information that will help me learn more about them (i.e. their ages at the time, place of birth, parents names, etc.)

I followed Shane's suggestions in the earlier posting but never came up with anything.  My niece is currently in Dublin studying for her Master's at Trinity College.  She may be willing to steal away a bit of time to do some legwork for me if I can point her in the right direction.  Any suggestions you may have will be much appreciated!

You all are doing some fantastic work!  I can't tell you how helpful all of these additional resources have been to those of us whose roots (and heart) are in Eire.

Regards,

Mike

mike0425

Great finds… one of the Co. Dublin parishes that was not included in either the RootsIreland or IrishGenealogy sources

Registration of Catholic Marriages commenced in 1864, and before that registration only applied to non-Catholic and registry office marriages.  The Parish Register entry would be the only official record of the event. Sometimes the witnesses to the marriage can be family and provide clues, as can the godparents for baptisms, which can provide possible leads to family. One of the godparents to Jane in 1851 is a Cooke, although the firstname is abbreviated and unclear. IrishGenealogy have it transcribed as Thomas - might be a relation to your Thomas.

The other clue to follow up on is the address, in this case Carpenterstown townland, which is located about half way between the towns of Blanchardstown and Palmerstown. Carpenterstown is in the civil parish of Castleknock and Griffith’s Valuation took place here just before (late 1840s) we know your Cooke family were there, but shows no sign of anyone named Cooke in Carperterstown or within the civil parish of Castleknock at the time. The valuation did not include every household, and it’s possible they were there but not included due to living circumstances, or only passing through, we know they later moved on to Dublin city soon after the birth of John...  A search for Fitzpatrick properties in the parish shows a Patrick at the town of Castleknock, which is a short distance to the east of Carpenterstown townland.

A search of the registers for the parish shows just one Cook baptism, back in 1799, and four marriages two before that for Thomas and Elizabeth, so it looking to me as though Thomas may have come from elsewhere.

Marriages generally took place in the bride’s current parish, and a search shows about 40 Fitzpatrick baptisms in Blanchardstown records, which are worth checking out to see if it’s possible to put together separate family groups, one of which might be Elizabeth’s family.

Carpenterstown townland (c1840 - OSI Historic Map) : http://maps.osi.ie/publicviewer/#V2,707641,737315,10,7

Did Jane travel alone to the US without parents or other family members, did she leave from Liverpool also ?

I can see the travel record for John age 17, occupation labourer arriving in Boston on his own. Based on  details we have so far my suspicion is that one or both of the parents died..   another possible line of investigation may be finding the baptism or birth of Elizabeth jnr. No sign of her in Irish records so far, could she have been born in England, possibly Lancashire ?

shanew147IrelandXO Volunteer

Hi Mike! I suppose that you found, " Find a Grave for John Radcliffe Cook, Sr. at Olivet Cemetery in Chicago." I found it when I  googled and your note was right after it. I can't help you with any family earlier than this.  My mother-in-i law was widow to John Radcliffe Cook, 1889-1951,  my husband's stepfather. John had no children of his own. His brothers and sisters are not all mentioned in this memorial. "The Cook Girls", Mary, Loretta, Irene and Rose were all special to us. Two were teachers, one who tutored my husband, as a child. My mother-in-law, Elizabeth McDonnell, widowed with five children, took care of Theresa Ellen Cook (Nellie) in her old age. We have pics of her in her wheel chair, enjoying  tours in the neighborhood. Elizabeth McDonnell and John R. Cook were marriedin the 1940s. He died in 1951. One of his brothers named a son John Radcliffe Cook, to carry on the name. That son named his son, but that boy died in accident in 1958, so the name was not carried on, in this family. I started this research, even though it's not a blood line, because my grandchildren wondered why they called Elizabeth, "Grandima Cookie."  They thought it's because she gave them cookies!  Our John Radcliffe Cook was a successful lawyer and politician, and friend of Richard Daley, who was the illustrious mayor of Chicago for many years. I stll have personal articles affixed with Grandpa Cook's name. Good luck in your search for ancestors!  Ifeel like we are detectives, keeping history alive. These persons are in our hearts, if not in our blood! Sincerely, Betty

IrelandXO member
IrelandXO member

Hi, Betty-Thank you for your note.  The last time I visited Mary and Irene in Chicago was in the late 70s.  Loretta and Rose had passed by then although I used to see them almost every winter here in Phoenix when they and Uncle Ed Privoznik would visit back in the late 50s and early 60s.  During that last visit Irene gave me a handwritten family tree that proved very helpful when I started researching in 2006.  Since retiring in 2014 I've been able to devote a lot of time to this and the latest iteration of our family tree on Ancestry has really filled out.  I have tried to include the Cook spouses in my research whenever possible and I have some information on your mother-in-law, her parents, and her siblings which I would be happy to share.  You can reach me by email at mbjcook@gmail.com. 

I didn't know that John R. Jr. was involved in politics.  I'd like to know more about that if you would care to share your remembrances. 

My eldest son is named John Radcliffe Cook, so a direct descendant carries the name now in the fifth generation.

I so appreciate receiving your note!  Thank you for reaching out.  As you note, these people are in our hearts and their lives, their struggles, their sacrifices from generation to generation brought us to where we are today and they deserved to be remembered.  Best regards, Mike Cook

 

mike0425

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