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To DNA Or To Not DNA
That Is The Question!
Ancestry Lineage
During any given conversation I have with people, there is a point when I mention that one of my passions is Family Ancestry. Of course the first immediate question that comes up is-"Oh have you done the DNA Test?"
Well my answer is no, simply during my past seven years of intensive research I found the answers I needed to know.
BUT if they were to ask me (ancestry aside) if I have ever had a DNA test done the answer would be yes but it was not related to Family Ancestry.
When my disability first started in College in 1983 it lead to one but not an exact precise diagnosis. Proper Medications taken to lead a somewhat normal life. Falls resulting in major injuries, Hospital ER Visits, Cat ScansMRI scans, a week long telemetry test at the UC MS Clinic lead everyone back to the drawing board.
Then in 2007, long after my original neurologist took a sudden leave of absence, I met with a new neurologist who asked that very same question "Have you done a DNA Test? Followed by the words, "Because I think I know what you might have!?" After a few days of giving the blood the test results gave me at along last after (24 years of the unknown) a proper diagnostic name to my condition!
When I was of the younger set, I remember asking my mom what exactly I was made up of?-(meaning my family roots)
THIS MUCH I KNEW TO BE TRUE
From my Dad's side I am a quarter Hungarian
and a quarter Bohemian (now part of the Czech Republic).
From Mom's side-Well the answer was, "a little bit of this,a little bit of that, and little bit of the other"
Great answer to give a little kid but when you become of the older and wiser set,then you realize you wish to find out more of what!?!
So, here then is what OUR family lineage is comprised of
Grandpa ~ William John Bruemmer
From William John Bruemmer, comes strong German roots in our family.
Although William, his siblings and generations that followed were born in the areas of St. Louis and Lyon, Missouri, our earliest Bruemmer generation starts back to his grandfather Gerhard Anton Bernhard Bruemmer who was born in Hannover Niedersachsen Germany on October 26 1835.
Gerhard arrived in America (by ship presumably) in 1860. Two years later, he joined the Union side fighting in the Civil War.
Gerhard was in the Missouri 2nd Regiment, Missouri Light Artillery.
What you are looking at below left is the actual card he signed when registering as a solider, using his middle name of Anton. To the right is a photo of what a union soldier in Gerhard's division would have worn at that time.
The civil war ended on May 9th 1865. Three weeks later Gerhard would marry Maria Adelaide Meismann. Maria was born on April 24th 1844 in Südlohn, Borken, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany.
Gerhard and Maria lived in Lyon Franklin County Missouri where beginning in 1868, they raised a total of eight children.
In or around 1900, Gerhard and Maria took up residence at 1529 Lind St. Quincy, Illinois. Seven years later in 1907, Maria would pass away at age 63 on July 24th. Gerhard died one year shy of his eighty birthday on March 25 in 1915. Both are buried in Calvary Cemetery in St. Quincy Illinois.
MOVING ACROSS THE GLOBE ONTO THE HOLMES COOK FAMILY Beginning at least four Generations back to the year of 1769, the Cook Family (as it was simply known at that time) came from the Gloucester area of England.
Thus there are there are family ties to the Welsh part of England.
One of the earliest ancestors born in 1769 was a Mr. Thomas Cook who was member of the Eleventh Regiment of Light Dragoons. Below is a sample of the uniform he would have been wearing at that time.
In 1790 would marry the Widow Jane Holmes who was born in 1868. And that dear relatives is where the Holmes part of the name came into being! The Holmes Cook surname would continue into the next three generations until the late 1800's when Charles and his brothers Harry and John would drop the Holmes part of the surname and just use Cook.
My research has provided following information. To Thomas and Jane, a son named Benjamin H Cook was born on May 19th in 1793. A pilot of the British Navy, Benjamin's ship was called the Endeavor and below is a replica of the ship. The photo on the right shows the type of uniform he would have worn at that time.
Below is a statue-(not of Benjamin himself) but an excellent representation of what Benjamin would have looked like at the helm of the ship.
It was during his travels at sea that his ship arrived in Andalusia, Spain where he met the beautiful Janetta/Juanita Valdez born in 1805.
To date, no known portrait of Janetta/Juanita Valdez exists but a distant cousin in Santa Cruz found this painting which we have chosen to convey as what she might have looked like.
Thus there are there are small family ties to the Spanish in Andalusia Spain!!
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