Is this the actual father of Walter Cooke?

+4 votes
369 views

On 9 Dec 2021 Brodie Lowery wrote on Cooke-177:

So I found on ancestry a potential father for Walter Cooke named Sir Walter Cooke. I wanted to know if he is the actual father. Here's all the information I found on him. 

Birth: April 1592 Leeds, Kent, England Death: 5 january 1696 Mendon, Worcester county, Massachusetts, USA There is also some family members of the “father” which i'll show 

Wife: Dorothy Atwood 1592-1641 

There Children: 

Nicholas Cook 1613-1643 

John Cooke 1617-1645 

(the son who i was on that popped the potential father up) Walter Thomas Cooke 1618-1695 

Stephen Jr (Pilgrim) Cooke 1621- 

Ebenezer Cooke 

There's also 9 sources that came from ancestry about this person here are the 9 sources just in case you wanted to fact checked them: 

England, Select Births and Christenings, 1538-1975, 

Global, Find a Grave Index for Burials at Sea and other Select Burial Locations, 1300s-Current, 

U.S., Find a Grave Index, 1600s-Current, 

New England, The Great Migration and The Great Migration Begins, 1620-1635 Gloucestershire, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1813, Massachusetts, U.S., Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988, 

American Genealogical-Biographical Index (AGBI), North America, Family Histories, 1500-2000, 

Massachusetts, U.S., Compiled Census and Census Substitutes Index, 1790-1890, 

That's basically most of the information I found on the potensial father. 

-Brodie Lowrey

WikiTree profile: Walter Cooke
in Genealogy Help by Brodie Lowery G2G2 (2.8k points)

1 Answer

+7 votes

Hi Brodie,

As you can see from his page, members are aware of this couple and previous attempts to link them to Walter.

There are no clues to the origins of Walter Cooke or who his parents were. No records have been located to support a baptism 7 Mar 1616 in Bromyard, Hertfordshire, England, to parents Walter Cooke and Dorothy Atwood. A baptism on 25 May 1618 in Leeds, Kent, England to Thomas Cook[1] does not provide proof that this is the same Walter Cook. Cook/Cooke are fairly common names.

You have shown some sources, some secondary, and one birth of a child named Walter (which was mentioned on his page.) This is not enough to show a connection. Someone would have to do extensive research of the Bromyard and Leeds Cookes to piece together the families and be able to show any connection (or to rule them out) as an origin for Walter. That might seem like a lot, but when an origin isn't apparent in records on this side of the Atlantic that's approach you would have to take.

The first thing you would want to do is to see what those sources that you listed say and how they refer to Walter. I personally doubt that they support the claim considering what I quoted from the biography on his Wikitree page.

If you really feel that this child of Walter and Dorothy would be the Walter Cooke of the Massachusetts Bay Colony you could try tracing that child and see what happened to him after that birth record. Was he mentioned in wills or land records? Is there any indication he left the country?

"Walter Thomas Cooke" also seems to be a conflation of two people.

The mention of a Stephen Cooke with (Pilgrim) also is strange and appears to blend Cooke lines.

by Dina Grozev G2G6 Pilot (192k points)
edited by Dina Grozev
Ok. I appreciate your time writing your answer. And i will think about doing some more research into this in the future.

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