How I Came To Know
The Holmes Cook Family
When my interest in family ancestry began, I reached out to those in our family who I knew had photos and/or documentation. As I had already started scanning and copying stuff from Aunt Susan's collection, I asked our Uncle Bill if he had anything. Sure and begorrah, he did!
It twas April of 2013. My previous job with the Choral Arts organization, known as Singers Marin, was celebrating its 25th anniversary with a big concert at Davies Symphony Hall. Those were busy days at the office for me, assisting with organizing the concert and rehearsals, while trying to locate every adult singer who had been with the group and invite them to join for this special anniversary concert. A few days before this, Uncle Bill and Uncle Jeff invited me to the city for dinner and a play.
While having cocktails with Jeff, Uncle Bill went down to his storage room and brought up a bag full of photos and documentation. The bag was one similar to what a new blanket would be in. Desperately wanting to look into it, I had to be patient. It was dinner first, then the play and home. By the time, Uncle Bill got me home, it was close to 11:30 pm. Since the Singers Marin 25th anniversary concert happened over my Mom's birthday, Dad and I planned to celebrate her special day and Easter together.
I wanted to clean up the apartment a wee bit the following day, so it was off to bed so I could be up early on Sunday. However, whie lying in bed, curiosity got the better of me. I SIMPLY COULD NOT WAIT !! Throwing off the covers, I went into my living room and began opening the bag.
What I found first absolutely astounded me, a small sepia photo of family ancestors/relations possibly taken in their backyard. Who were they?! The only person I could positively ID was the man on the far left since on the original sepia photograph (as shown below) the name Charles was written above the man's head. Still in the early stages of my research, I knew very little about who the others in this family might be. Mom said grandma Bruemmer would often talk about the San Francisco relatives. A thousand questions came to mind. Who were they? Have I ever met them? Are they descendants and if so are any of them or the generations that followed still alive?!?
It was around this time, that I reached out to a new ancestry member named Sandra. Looking at her tree, it appeared that she was connected to the Holmes Cook family and ta da, as it turned out Sandra is the granddaughter of Corporal Frederick Holmes Cook, great grandpa Charles older brother that was shot in the line of duty. We exchanged email addresses and began a wonderful friendship of sharing information and photos that has continued to this very day! Although we've never met in person, we once did a video chat which was great fun!
Sandra also introduced me to another ancestry pal Becky with whom I have also continued to correspond with. The connection to our family is explained in her words: "My father's sister, Marie Perez, married Leslie V (Jack) Cook ~son of Harry and Irene Cook".
Recall in a previous blog posting, that two brothers of the Holmes Cook family ~ Charles and Harry were married to two sisters of the Steele Family ~ Ellen Elizabeth "Nell" and Irene.
Both Nell and Irene had six children each. These two Cook families were quite close often getting together for both camp outs and other family holiday gatherings!
After my initial correspondence with Becky, I shared with her my recent photo of this family. A continual running email dialogue went on between the three of us in identifying each individual person in the photo. We agreed that it was definitely the Holmes Cook Family, and even more exciting was the near 99% confirmation of who each of the people were in this photograph, based on what my new ancestry pals Sandra and Becky knew of or had photos of to compare with.
This original photo took some time to get the colorization just right. The ancestry site called, "My Heritage" did a fairly good job. BUT Ancestry.com did it even BETTER (as shown below)
CHILDREN OF HARRY AND IRENE COOK
MOTHER CATHERINE
GUSTAVUS & JEANNETTE
JOHN & CATHERINE
After Charles, the next character to identify in the photo was the older woman standing in front of him. From Aunt Susan's collection was a photo of a woman, printed on a tin type surface.
Tintype (or ferrotype) photography is a historic wet-plate process invented in the 1850s. It involves coating a thin metal plate with light-sensitive collodion, exposing it in a large-format camera while wet, and immediately developing it to create a one-of-a-kind physical photograph.
A photographer
making a Tintype
1.Catherine
Original tintype photo of Jeannette BEFORE Revision by Becky & I
AFTER
CATHERINE MARY CLARKE
After a close comparison and analysis, we realized that this was matriarch of the family Catherine Mary (Clarke) Holmes Cook. The curvature of her lips also shows up in photos of her daughters Jeannette, Catherine and Mary Ann.
2.GUSTAVUS & JEANNETTE
Our next two characters to identify, were the couple above. The first immediate thought was that the older man must be the father Frederick Thomas Holmes Cook.
A California Voter Registration form taken in 1898 tells a different story. Frederick's job is described to be that of a well digger. The registration also indicates he was missing a finger on one hand and that he was only 5' 3-1/2" tall. So this tall man could not possibly be Frederick! Yet, he often appears in other photos taken with the Holmes Cook family from the 1800's album
lt was then, that I referred to another gem from Uncle Bill's collection, the typed out family history of the Cook's by Ione (daughter of Catherine Holmes Cook Chronister Hill)
Written in ink next to Jeannette's name was Harper. Using my ancestry research detective skills- I learned that her husband was Gustavus David Harper. A funeral home document lists his height at 5'7.
His wife, the woman holding the lyre instrument was the first born and oldest daughter Jeannette. Looking at the photo of the Holmes Cook Children, you can similar facial features when Jeannette was young to that present day.
3.JOHN & CATHERINE
At the bottom of the photograph are Catherine Emmeline, the third daughter and fifth child of the Holmes Cook Family. The young boy leaning next to her we determined to be John the youngest Holmes Cook sibling. For a definite ID, on Catherine, we did a side by side comparison of her as a young girl in the Holmes Cook children photo to another photo taken with Charles and Nell.
Yet, there are still a few unanswered questions from this photo. Where were the other Holmes Cook family members such as Mary Ann and Harry, why were they not part of this photo?
The Next Blog will be about the Ancestral history of Great Grandpa Cook's mother Mary Catherine Clarke and her family.