John Cooke ( Cook), Thomas Alfred b1889 (General)

by billcs777 , Friday, November 03, 2023, 00:55 (385 days ago) @ Jefff

Thanks so much Jeff! Yes, this is the Thomas Alfred Cook(e) that I was looking for, as the birth dates match :) It also makes sense that the Mary you found is his wife.

I must admit that in the 1900's I had been looking only under Cooke rather than Cook, and in Free BMD you must use the wildcard * in order to get a search with both spellings.

I then checked back to the birth spellings of all of Samuel Cook(e)'s children. All of them show in Free BMD with a spelling of Cook, except two. Yet in both 1901 and 1911 censuses the name is spelled Cooke.

So it's strange that Thomas and Mary must have reverted their spelling to Cook sometime after 1939 as they are listed as Cooke in the 1939 register. I would also never have thought to look in Cheltenham as most of this family is either located in Forest of Dean or Gloucester. Yet Thomas was in Worcester by 1939 and with the proximity to Cheltenham it is not surprising.

When checking those FreeBMD birth records, I also notice that Thomas was the only child born in Cheltenham! All of the census records say Whitecroft or West Dean - makes you wonder how he got to be born in Cheltenham!

Cheers.