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I have not found any obituaries at Newspapers .com - maybe someone with a genealogybank and/or newspaperarchive subscription can check those. But Newspapers .com does have Detroit's largest paper (Detroit Free Press) covering the years Metta and John died (presuming the 1951 year is correct). I checked the Free Press for the specific dates after Metta's death and did not find her among the obituaries. Unfortunately, not everyone had an obituary, they can be expensive.
With respect, he apparently does not know when exactly John died, or that he even went by the name John instead of Jacob so he obviously doesn't know that much about him........
............You are correct and we have pieces of data and not much factual. They are trying to remember over seven decades the sketchy details that they were given by their parent. As far as John's date of death and even the place of death all we have is 1951.
I'll review what you have posted and try to speak to the person who asked me for help.
I believe in and want to turn over all stones. In this case we went back to the grandparents on the mother's side which was John (Jacob) Cook (Cooke) and his wife Meta (Metta - and other spellings of her name seen on the various census pages, death certificate, etc). Meta was born Malinoff in Russia. John was born in England from what we know.
The data we hope for are obituaries for John, Meta and their son Harry. I have the obituaries for the other kids Ernest and Esther and neither mention their sibling or their parents. We do not know how fractured the family may have been such that the parents would not be mentioned in their obituaries.
Thanks.
Some obituaries do not mention parents which could be due to whoever provided the obituary information. It's also possible that they could not afford to pay for an obituary, as PA2UK mentions.
I use Ancestry and it is great for collecting records, but I have found family search has been able to provide records that Ancestry does not have on file so I tend to use them in conjunction with each other. I also just joined Geni which is nice because even though there are no records, peoples family trees link up so its more of a world wide collaboration instead of individual. It has allowed me to overcome many hurdles that I previously experienced.
I also just joined Geni which is nice because even though there are no records, peoples family trees link up so its more of a world wide collaboration instead of individual. It has allowed me to overcome many hurdles that I previously experienced.
FamilySearch and Wikitree are also crowd sourced trees. I would not recommend keeping your sole/working tree on a crowd sourced tree, but they do have collaborative benefits.
To get more eyeballs I'm posting it all.
The person of interest is Harry W. Cook (born June 9, 1915 and died 12-14-1944 in the massacre of Palawan - WW2)
Parents John and Metta Cook (spellings vary from source to source)
Siblings Esther and Ernest.
------------------------------
What we have:
The death notice for Metta posted previously.
I've seen the obituaries for Esther and Ernest and they give no clues.
I'm helping a nephew of Harry and he has done DNA through Ancestry. He is hoping to find the relatives of Harry in the Philippines who would be cousins. He can only go by what his parent told him about Harry with bits and pieces and some of the pieces are a tough fit.
I have contacted the National Archives for anything they might have as far as military records as well as a couple people on Facebook who live in the city where Harry died and have connections to the memorials for the 150 who were killed. I have not received a reply from any of that.
----------------------------
Ultimate goal is to locate a photo of Harry before he joined the Navy (Unit 16th Naval District Weather Station) or after. The photo will be used to locate his wife and kids and grandkids in the Philippines.
Date of enlistment not known. Names of his wife and kids not known. Wife and kids and grandkids are all Filipino. However the kids and grandkids could have married Americans and/or immigrated to the USA.
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I recall a search or three where the next door neighbors were instrumental in locating the searched for.
The stones I hope to turn over are:
a. obituary for John Cook the father.
b. obituary for Metta Cook the mother and she died in 1935
c. photos of Harry from high school or college.
d. photos of Harry when he enlisted in the Navy. ** Does the military take photos of enlistees before they ship them off to war with a high risk of being killed in the war? I would hope so such that if they did die in the war the Navy would have their photo along with all their other military records. If they don't take photos they should.
e. Photo of Harry's unit and Harry's military records.
f. 1940 census to locate the address where the Cook family lived which is estimated to be in MI and possibly Detroit. * The death notice for Metta did give an address but it's no longer residential.
g. 1950 census to look for John the father and Harry the son. In 1939 Harry was likely not in the Navy yet and thus the address where he lived and where his father and siblings lived may be helpful.
h. The two census may help pin down whether Harry lived with his father from say 1933 (age 18) up to 1939 (age 24) or lived elsewhere.
i. The date Harry enlisted
j. The location of his deployment in the USA
k. The date when and location where his unit arrived in The Philippines
l. Maybe others I have not thought of.
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Harry's nephew is not aware of any communication between Harry and anyone in the Cook family during the time he was in the Navy. I do not consider that a dead end.
Since there is no knowledge does not mean there was no communication.
Harry may have kept in touch with his father, with friends from school, friends from his neigborhood, Navy buddies who were in his unit but not involved in the massacre. Navy friends who may have been deployed elsewhere.
Navy buddies share photos and stories about their homes, etc. My father showed his family photos to his Navy friends. Nothing unusual or unheard of. Harry couldn have sent a photo of himself and his wife to anyone - family member, friend, etc. Someone could have taken a photo of themselves with Harry and that photo exist.
We can only hope that Harry's kids were born in say 1942. That would put them as age 82 and possibly alive and well.
Many thanks to everyone who has made positive contributions of details and documents and comments to this thread for this very difficult search. Thanks.
I use Ancestry and it is great for collecting records, but I have found family search has been able to provide records that Ancestry does not have on file so I tend to use them in conjunction with each other. I also just joined Geni which is nice because even though there are no records, peoples family trees link up so its more of a world wide collaboration instead of individual. It has allowed me to overcome many hurdles that I previously experienced.
I have a Geni account but have not found anything useful there. It seems that every time I click on something, it is private. I guess I should spend time there one of these days.
Quote:
Originally Posted by PA2UK
FamilySearch and Wikitree are also crowd sourced trees. I would not recommend keeping your sole/working tree on a crowd sourced tree, but they do have collaborative benefits.
I agree, especially since we can not back up the family tree we create for ourselves.
I keep my main tree at Ancestry, I also enter it at family search so that I can tell relatives to see the tree there instead of inviting them to my private tree where I have branches for my kids paternal side. I also did my hubs family tree branch on my tree in case his granddaughter is interested in their family tree. We do not have kids together. Some days I kick myself for not doing a separate tree for him.
Quote:
Originally Posted by howard555
To get more eyeballs I'm posting it all.
The person of interest is Harry W. Cook (born June 9, 1915 and died 12-14-1944 in the massacre of Palawan - WW2)
Parents John and Metta Cook (spellings vary from source to source)
Siblings Esther and Ernest.
------------------------------
What we have:
The death notice for Metta posted previously.
I've seen the obituaries for Esther and Ernest and they give no clues.
I'm helping a nephew of Harry and he has done DNA through Ancestry. He is hoping to find the relatives of Harry in the Philippines who would be cousins. He can only go by what his parent told him about Harry with bits and pieces and some of the pieces are a tough fit.
I have contacted the National Archives for anything they might have as far as military records as well as a couple people on Facebook who live in the city where Harry died and have connections to the memorials for the 150 who were killed. I have not received a reply from any of that.
----------------------------
Has he uploaded his Ancestry DNA to My Heritage? My Heritage is a genealogy site like Ancestry, so he may be able to see family trees of his matches. My Heritage was based in Israel until it was recently sold two years ago, their DNA database contains more member DNA from around the world, not just the US. On the main DNA landing page is where it lists each country his matches are in. He could look in the Philippines to see what DNA matches he has there.
If he uploaded his Ancestry DNA it is free unless he wants to use DNA tools like ethnicity, seeing shared matches, it is a one time fee of $29. It is worth the charge, especially if he does have matches over there.
For military pictures, do a google search of Navy photos. There are a few sites. I'm linking to one site, I think it is the one where people can upload photos that they have. It's been a while since I needed it so I'm not sure. I did a quick google search for military photos, found multiple sites, some military
I'm helping a nephew of Harry and he has done DNA through Ancestry. He is hoping to find the relatives of Harry in the Philippines who would be cousins.
If he's looking for DNA relatives, he should also test at 23andMe and upload to MyHeritage and FamilyTreeDNA. You don't know what company they might have tested with so for the best coverage, he should test/upload to all of them.
Quote:
Ultimate goal is to locate a photo of Harry before he joined the Navy (Unit 16th Naval District Weather Station) or after. The photo will be used to locate his wife and kids and grandkids in the Philippines.
There's a tree on Ancestry that has some yearbook photos attached to Harry. I have no idea if it's the correct Harry Cook, they are from Western High School?
There's also prisoner of war records on Ancestry (index only), you may already have these?
Name Harry W Cook
Branch of Service United States Navy
Rank Aerographer's Mate First Class
Service Number 3110636
Sub Unit Weather Station
Assigned Unit 16th Naval District
Source Palawan Massacre Roster by Lorna Murray
POW Camp/Notes Died in Palawan Massacre on 12/14/44
Name Harry W Cook
Race White
Residence Place Michigan, USA
Report Date 6 May 1942
Latest Report Date 14 Dec 1944
Grade AERM1C
Arm or Service United States Navy
Arm or Service Code United States Navy
Area Served Southwest Pacific Theatre: Philippine Islands
Detaining Country Japan
Camp PW Camp #10 - Batanges Batanges Luzon Philippines 13-121, PW Camp #10 - Lipa Batanges Luzon Phillipines 14-121
Status Died as Prisoner of War, Not Above Cases
Report Source Individual has been reported through sources considered official.
I have a Geni account but have not found anything useful there. It seems that every time I click on something, it is private. I guess I should spend time there one of these days.
I agree, especially since we can not back up the family tree we create for ourselves.
I keep my main tree at Ancestry, I also enter it at family search so that I can tell relatives to see the tree there instead of inviting them to my private tree where I have branches for my kids paternal side. I also did my hubs family tree branch on my tree in case his granddaughter is interested in their family tree. We do not have kids together. Some days I kick myself for not doing a separate tree for him.
Has he uploaded his Ancestry DNA to My Heritage? My Heritage is a genealogy site like Ancestry, so he may be able to see family trees of his matches. My Heritage was based in Israel until it was recently sold two years ago, their DNA database contains more member DNA from around the world, not just the US. On the main DNA landing page is where it lists each country his matches are in. He could look in the Philippines to see what DNA matches he has there.
If he uploaded his Ancestry DNA it is free unless he wants to use DNA tools like ethnicity, seeing shared matches, it is a one time fee of $29. It is worth the charge, especially if he does have matches over there.
For military pictures, do a google search of Navy photos. There are a few sites. I'm linking to one site, I think it is the one where people can upload photos that they have. It's been a while since I needed it so I'm not sure. I did a quick google search for military photos, found multiple sites, some military
I belive unless you have the pro account, there isnt a whole lot you can do. I had exhausted my efforts on Ancestry, and being as frugal as I am with this stuff, I upgraded for the free 2 week promotional period with Geni and that really allowed me to overcome my hurdle and expanded my tree exponentially (at least for one side of my family). I also joined a group on facebook that specifically relates to the genealogy of that specific country and they have been a wealth of knowledge. They have even been able to obtain church records and translate them for specific details to help support my tree. There are no records on Geni, but its a good place to collaborate. I do like FamilySearch because of the free records viewing even of they dont have as many as ancestry. I try to take advantage of various sights during the promotional periods to see if they may have something that will help.
FamilySearch and Wikitree are also crowd sourced trees. I would not recommend keeping your sole/working tree on a crowd sourced tree, but they do have collaborative benefits.
Agreed, I use Geni for a collaborative tree and Ancestry for my personal tree. I do have a FamilySearch account, but really only use it to search for records when I am unable to on Ancestry.
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