Holy Moly!! A fascinating ancestor!!

Figgs said:
PS to Debbie re Jamaican website.......I forgot to put in this site that a lot of us worked on and is now in the possession of the University College of London (?) and it is free.

The search engine is awful, but there is a slew of information on it. When you put a name in the search engine (example: William Cooke), it will being up EVERY William and EVERY Cooke, lol. So I tend to put the most unusual part of a name in. I still tear my hair out sometimes, but there is a lot of historical information on there.

http://www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com/index.htm
Click to expand...
Small world. My grandfather is listed on that website as Isiah Cooke. He is from the same Cooke family from Chester Castle. His grandfather (Dr. Cooke) had an affair and my greatgrandmoter (Wilhelmina Matilda Cooke) was the result of that union.
 
Definitely related!! Nice to meet you. I see you are in Florida....many Jamaicans moved there. Raymond McIntosh who put me onto this tidbit lives there. There is another property called Windsor Forest and my husband used to go there with Tommy Cooke as a teenager. Tommy went to Cuba and escaped when Castro took over.

"Affairs" were very common in Jamaica and I have now met up with 3 descendants of the outside children from this series of posts....one up here, one in New York and now you in Florida!! Amazing how far Jamaicans have spread out....have another in Hawaii. Let me know if I can help. :)
 
Figgs said:
Definitely related!! Nice to meet you. I see you are in Florida....many Jamaicans moved there. Raymond McIntosh who put me onto this tidbit lives there. There is another property called Windsor Forest and my husband used to go there with Tommy Cooke as a teenager. Tommy went to Cuba and escaped when Castro took over.

"Affairs" were very common in Jamaica and I have now met up with 3 descendants of the outside children from this series of posts....one up here, one in New York and now you in Florida!! Amazing how far Jamaicans have spread out....have another in Hawaii. Let me know if I can help. :)
Click to expand...

Yes, I am sure we are related in some way. My great grandfather went to Cuba as well but his last name was Malcolm. I believe the Malcolm's were also estate owners but in an area named Haddo which is also in Westmoreland. He was not able to return from Cuba and we don't know much about that side of the family.
 
No, it is very difficult to get any sort of info out of Cuba. One of Ron's great-uncles was taken there in the early 1900's as the parents both died.....another Figueroa took them to his home as it was common to work in Cuba in those days. I got lucky because another Figueroa told me he trained as a dentist in the US and I found his school records and Immigration papers and they gave me his "father", his wife's name and where he lived......Havana.

Tommy Cooke got out with his mother and nephew because he worked for an airline, but it still took 2 years as the seats were solidly booked.

Ron remembers the name Haddo, but he hasn't lived in Westmoreland for a long, long time. He went to lower school there but moved to boarding school in Kingston at a youngish age. (9 maybe).
 
Sorry to post on an old thread, but I'm trying to research my family and I've hit a brick wall. I'm a Cooke and my family is also from Jamaica. The Cooke name was passed on to my father and then onto me obviously. But the problem is my Grandfather is a complete unknown to me. Unfortunately he died when my father was in his teens and he never met him. I don't have a first name for him, but I do know he had 3 brothers and the family owned a lot of land. I know there is a few Cooke's in here and I'm asking if they could help? I believe my paternal family were from St James, but not entirely sure. Could anyone point me in the right direction for research as I'm getting very frustrated.

Thank you so much in advance.


Regards,

Robert
 
Hi Robert...I think I am the only Cooke person on here!! My husband is from Jamaica and his best friends, as well as relatives, were Cookes!! I met several of them. Does the name Tommy ring any bells??

When I get to my laptop. I will be able to answer this better. I am Canadian btw, so will have to check a map re St. James area. Any towns you know of?? I remember I put a lot of history out on here re this family...did you read it? I also met another descendant who was not sure re his great grandfather and we put the clues together...he and my husband were cousins!!

I will get back to you once I review all of this...we will find them! :)
 
OK, refreshing my memory. Problem is that the Cookes married with several Coopers and Ron's grandmother is a Cooper. There is probably a thread on here re the Coopers. I will have a look. OK, they are covered on page 1 of this "Holy Moly" thread, lol. Ron's surname is Figueroa, btw.

I found St. James (there used to be 22 parishes, mostly all Saints)....Montego Bay at the top. I see Chester Castle is just southwest of the parish line and that is the biggest of William Hylton Cooke's 3 plantations!! We are getting closer. He also owned the Hermitage and Windsor Forest plantations.

Ron used to visit the one called Windsor Forest when he was in school. There were 3 brothers......Tommy, Richard and William. They would be roughly about 80-90 years old now and all in the US. I have no way of finding out their birthdates due to all 3 being born in Cuba. (It's like pulling teeth to get Ron to remember this sort of thing, lol......but I remember parts and then he fills it in).

I remember meeting Tommy Jr. in 1961 when he escaped from Cuba with his mother and a nephew. I was totally fascinated.....he had 10 days to disappear or go back to Cuba. He was staying with Cooke relatives in Kingston.

So I am busy looking thru my Family Treemaker and I have precious little by way of documentation due to the Cuban situation......but I will take a look at the Family Search site again. Perhaps I will find a tidbit or two. Btw....it was very common for Jamaicans to live and work in Cuba before Castro took over. Close by and more jobs. Panama and Haiti too...a long time ago. So I search for them in those spots as well.

Do you have any more little things you remember?? St. James was a great help because it was the next parish to where Ron grew up (Westmoreland).
Ron went to grade school in that Parish and then to a private school in Kingston....which is where Hilda Cooke lived.

Let me know if any other little things pop into your mind.....you may be surprised at what you remember. And they might trigger something with Ron.

All the best.......and nice to meet you. You are definitely related, but not necessarily by marriage, lol. Quite common in Jamaica, to be honest. Which may be why your grandmother didn't know or remember.

I use www.familysearch.org for most of my Jamaican research and their records are excellent. The other good site is the one by Pat Jackson of Jamaica that she gave to the London University a few years back. I transcribed many things on there, but their search engine is the pits. It's at http://www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com/index.htm

Btw....see posts #16, 17 and 18 in this thread for the information I put out there on both the English and Jamaican Cookes. Good luck!!
 
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Figgs said:
OK, refreshing my memory. Problem is that the Cookes married with several Coopers and Ron's grandmother is a Cooper. There is probably a thread on here re the Coopers. I will have a look. OK, they are covered on page 1 of this "Holy Moly" thread, lol. Ron's surname is Figueroa, btw.

I found St. James (there used to be 22 parishes, mostly all Saints)....Montego Bay at the top. I see Chester Castle is just southwest of the parish line and that is the biggest of William Hylton Cooke's 3 plantations!! We are getting closer. He also owned the Hermitage and Windsor Forest plantations.

Ron used to visit the one called Windsor Forest when he was in school. There were 3 brothers......Tommy, Richard and William. They would be roughly about 80-90 years old now and all in the US. I have no way of finding out their birthdates due to all 3 being born in Cuba. (It's like pulling teeth to get Ron to remember this sort of thing, lol......but I remember parts and then he fills it in).

I remember meeting Tommy Jr. in 1961 when he escaped from Cuba with his mother and a nephew. I was totally fascinated.....he had 10 days to disappear or go back to Cuba. He was staying with Cooke relatives in Kingston.

So I am busy looking thru my Family Treemaker and I have precious little by way of documentation due to the Cuban situation......but I will take a look at the Family Search site again. Perhaps I will find a tidbit or two. Btw....it was very common for Jamaicans to live and work in Cuba before Castro took over. Close by and more jobs. Panama and Haiti too...a long time ago. So I search for them in those spots as well.

Do you have any more little things you remember?? St. James was a great help because it was the next parish to where Ron grew up (Westmoreland).
Ron went to grade school in that Parish and then to a private school in Kingston....which is where Hilda Cooke lived.

Let me know if any other little things pop into your mind.....you may be surprised at what you remember. And they might trigger something with Ron.

All the best.......and nice to meet you. You are definitely related, but not necessarily by marriage, lol. Quite common in Jamaica, to be honest. Which may be why your grandmother didn't know or remember.

I use www.familysearch.org for most of my Jamaican research and their records are excellent. The other good site is the one by Pat Jackson of Jamaica that she gave to the London University a few years back. I transcribed many things on there, but their search engine is the pits. It's at http://www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com/index.htm

Btw....see posts #16, 17 and 18 in this thread for the information I put out there on both the English and Jamaican Cookes. Good luck!!
Click to expand...

Wow that is a stunning amount of information. I will try and decipher tomorrow as my brain is shot right as it's late evening in the UK right now.

The Tommy name doesn't ring any bells. But then I don't know Cooke names apart from my dad Eric who was born in 1949. He was the result of an unmarried relationship.

All I know is my dad had 3 uncles and met them when he was 10 in 1959/60. One of the brothers had a new build property in Kingston near Maxfield Avenue.

Grandfather Cooke died in the late 60s and the only name I've heard his could be is Brenton, but I'm not confident that is his name. I've done a DNA test but can't define the paternal line matches. So it's lucky dip with the cousin's. I've even heard that we are related to the late Governor General Sir Howard Cooke but I have no way to confirm that.

I will check out that site you recommended, I need to figure out how to get historical land records from the 50s and 60s as I have a road, and once I use Google Maps, get my dad to point out my uncle's property using street view. This is going to take some serious investigation lol.


Thank you so so much for your help. I wish the matches on Ancestry were this prompt and helpful, but most of them ignore your messages.


Regards,

Robert
 
I am stuck on one fact........there were 3 Cooke brothers but they were living in Cuba when Castro took over in 1959 I would assume. Tommy who is the youngest worked for an airline, probably Air Jamaica, and even though he had "pull", it took him two years to get seats for himself, his mother and a young boy. No idea who he was....spoke no English.

It just so fits, lol.....except for location. However, they did grow up in Westmoreland (west end of the Island) and probably travelled back and forth to Cuba. I remember the exact years because in late 1959, just before I met Ron, I holidayed in Miami Beach and a lot of Cubans were trying to get there to "freedom". And then we met up with Tommy Cooke, his mum and the young lad in June of 1961 on our honeymoon!!

Just a gut hunch. I wondered why his mother (Rosalina Ferrer Cooke) went back to Cuba and got searching on the Mormon site and found that their father (Thomas Hylton Cooke) died in 1950 at age 53, so she was widowed. I assume they were married in Cuba bc I can't find a certificate in Jamaica. So that does explain why she was back there. I just found her surname on the death certificate, so that was an added bonus.

Ron thinks young Tommy had one child, but has no idea who his wife was. She certainly did not exist when he escaped. So I guess it is just coincidence and wishful thinking that YOUR 3 uncles were these 3 brothers. I am simply guessing. And as Tommy Jr. was the youngest, doubt the others are still alive. Both went to the US anyway.

I could swear I told you this, but the two older brothers were in Cuba during the Revolution and Richard was in jail and forced to join Castro's army (or else).......the oldest brother got out and went to the US and joined the USAF. So they were not seen after that by Ron.

Just some thoughts.......often gut hunches lead me somewhere and this was nagging at me, lol. I searched for a "Brenton Cooke" in Jamaica and nothing. The Cookes mostly lived in St. Andrews, Kingston, btw. Just so you can narrow it down. Thomas Sr. died there at Hope Road.

Night........:D
 
Figgs said:
No, it is very difficult to get any sort of info out of Cuba. One of Ron's great-uncles was taken there in the early 1900's as the parents both died.....another Figueroa took them to his home as it was common to work in Cuba in those days. I got lucky because another Figueroa told me he trained as a dentist in the US and I found his school records and Immigration papers and they gave me his "father", his wife's name and where he lived......Havana.

Tommy Cooke got out with his mother and nephew because he worked for an airline, but it still took 2 years as the seats were solidly booked.

Ron remembers the name Haddo, but he hasn't lived in Westmoreland for a long, long time. He went to lower school there but moved to boarding school in Kingston at a youngish age. (9 maybe).
Click to expand...
Hi!!
I'm a Figueroa descending from Jose Angel Figueroa, his son Joseph Elijio Figueroa, his son Cecil Joseph Figueroa married to Lillian Constance Alvaranga. Cecil and Lillian had 8 children: Cecil, Victor, Francis, Vivian, Mercedes, my Grandfather Edward and others whose names I dont remember.

Vivian was a dentist in Cuba with office in the Bacardi building.

Willing to share info on the family.

Thanks!
 
Thrilled to bits to hear from you again, "cousin"!!! I will answer this more when I get to my laptop!! I am not getting notifications from this forum when there are posts for me at the moment so usually check every morning!! :eek:

So glad you landed on here!! :D:D
 
Chimp said:
Check your spam mail box, for some reason my email decided that they were spam. I put it straight on that point ;)
Click to expand...

None there, Chimp. This morning there were 4 posts and one email alerts and none showed up in my email. ISP radically changed their layout and I am suspecting them at the moment. Not sure. Even if I read them on here via clicking on the alerts, it doesn't activate the notification, if you follow me on that. Not to worry....I will check the Forum every day.
 
AlexFigg said:
Hi!!
I'm a Figueroa descending from Jose Angel Figueroa, his son Joseph Elijio Figueroa, his son Cecil Joseph Figueroa married to Lillian Constance Alvaranga. Cecil and Lillian had 8 children: Cecil, Victor, Francis, Vivian, Mercedes, my Grandfather Edward and others whose names I dont remember.

Vivian was a dentist in Cuba with office in the Bacardi building.

Willing to share info on the family.
Thanks!
Click to expand...

Hi Alex.....have been hunting through all sorts of documents I have collected and I am convinced we have an "almost solved" mystery here. Yes, I have all of your family due to research, but more importantly, YOU wrote me 5 years ago and gave me information on the children of Cecil Joseph Figueroa, so I can fill in the 2 missing children for you. They are Dorothy and Cecil Mariano. Now it's MY turn to fill in your family tree for you after the help you gave me!!!!

As you know, the records out of Cuba are practically non-existent, but I do have a few on Vivian A.J. Figueroa because he went to medical school in Georgetown, Washington to become a dentist. I will send what I have to you privately. He did marry, of course, but do not know of any children.

He married a Cuban woman named Sara M. Serra. I have a passenger list from 1941 for Miami that names her........where he was born (KINGSTON, Jamaica) and that he lived in Cuba and was a dentist....for instance.

MY Vivian was also born in 1898 in Kingston and his mother died when he was 10 months old. The father was so distraught that the care of the younger children was left up to Ron's grandfather, Frederick Austin Figueroa. There were 9 siblings. So the age on this document was very close. But that is just one piece of evidence. It makes sense that the younger children would have been raised by Figueroa family relatives.

I have all sorts of bits of information, such as who your Cecil Joseph worked for.....the Royal Bank of Canada in Havana. Another document said he was a "banker" so that fits. It is like a huge puzzle to put together and I am working on it. Unfortunately I do not have these documents all in one file, but will do a proper search of this machine for them and get them to you. Along with notes I have made over the years.

We will get there........I realize that while you do have the names of Cecil's childen, there are a lot of connecting things that are missing and I hope I can fill some of them in. And hope you have more information as well. Cecil was an uncle to MY Vivian born in Kingston btw. So it make sense to me that he would take the baby in and raise him.

To be continued.......grin. And I have to keep referring to YOUR Vivian and MY Vivian until we can figure out for sure that they are the same person. :)
 
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Figgs said:
None there, Chimp. This morning there were 4 posts and one email alerts and none showed up in my email. ISP radically changed their layout and I am suspecting them at the moment. Not sure. Even if I read them on here via clicking on the alerts, it doesn't activate the notification, if you follow me on that. Not to worry....I will check the Forum every day.
Click to expand...

Coming through OK now on my new laptop.......perhaps there was a glitch that has now disappeared. Do we thank Oman for perhaps sorting this out? It seems our respective ISP's were messing things up maybe. :(
 
Figgs said:
Hi Alex.....have been hunting through all sorts of documents I have collected and I am convinced we have an "almost solved" mystery here. Yes, I have all of your family due to research, but more importantly, YOU wrote me 5 years ago and gave me information on the children of Cecil Joseph Figueroa, so I can fill in the 2 missing children for you. They are Dorothy and Cecil Mariano. Now it's MY turn to fill in your family tree for you after the help you gave me!!!!

As you know, the records out of Cuba are practically non-existent, but I do have a few on Vivian A.J. Figueroa because he went to medical school in Georgetown, Washington to become a dentist. I will send what I have to you privately. He did marry, of course, but do not know of any children.

He married a Cuban woman named Sara M. Serra. I have a passenger list from 1941 for Miami that names her........where he was born (KINGSTON, Jamaica) and that he lived in Cuba and was a dentist....for instance.

MY Vivian was also born in 1898 in Kingston and his mother died when he was 10 months old. The father was so distraught that the care of the younger children was left up to Ron's grandfather, Frederick Austin Figueroa. There were 9 siblings. So the age on this document was very close. But that is just one piece of evidence. It makes sense that the younger children would have been raised by Figueroa family relatives.

I have all sorts of bits of information, such as who your Cecil Joseph worked for.....the Royal Bank of Canada in Havana. Another document said he was a "banker" so that fits. It is like a huge puzzle to put together and I am working on it. Unfortunately I do not have these documents all in one file, but will do a proper search of this machine for them and get them to you. Along with notes I have made over the years.

We will get there........I realize that while you do have the names of Cecil's childen, there are a lot of connecting things that are missing and I hope I can fill some of them in. And hope you have more information as well. Cecil was an uncle to MY Vivian born in Kingston btw. So it make sense to me that he would take the baby in and raise him.

To be continued.......grin. And I have to keep referring to YOUR Vivian and MY Vivian until we can figure out for sure that they are the same person. :)
Click to expand...
Interesting info on Cecil, my grandfather told me he worked on sugar mills as accountant, moving back and forth Jamaica and Cuba. My grandfather, Edward, was born in Camagüey, Cuba. There were two generations of Figueroa men married to british women. I remember granpa telling me how odd it was in Cuba for them to drink tea and the: "god save the queen" song.

In this page:
Code: 
https://www.myheritage.es/names/cecilio_figueroa
, theres info on Cecilio Alberto Jose Figueroa, but it says he was born in Ecuador??????
(Link made non-clicky as they are a commercial website)
 
AlexFigg said:
Interesting info on Cecil, my grandfather told me he worked on sugar mills as accountant, moving back and forth Jamaica and Cuba. My grandfather, Edward, was born in Camagüey, Cuba. There were two generations of Figueroa men married to british women. I remember granpa telling me how odd it was in Cuba for them to drink tea and the: "god save the queen" song.
Click to expand...
Here is some info on Victor Raymond:
Code: 
https://www.myheritage.es/names/victor_figueroa
(Link made non-clicky as it is commercial. These are not allowed. Thank you. :) )
 
Figgs said:
I am stuck on one fact........there were 3 Cooke brothers but they were living in Cuba when Castro took over in 1959 I would assume. Tommy who is the youngest worked for an airline, probably Air Jamaica, and even though he had "pull", it took him two years to get seats for himself, his mother and a young boy. No idea who he was....spoke no English.

It just so fits, lol.....except for location. However, they did grow up in Westmoreland (west end of the Island) and probably travelled back and forth to Cuba. I remember the exact years because in late 1959, just before I met Ron, I holidayed in Miami Beach and a lot of Cubans were trying to get there to "freedom". And then we met up with Tommy Cooke, his mum and the young lad in June of 1961 on our honeymoon!!

Just a gut hunch. I wondered why his mother (Rosalina Ferrer Cooke) went back to Cuba and got searching on the Mormon site and found that their father (Thomas Hylton Cooke) died in 1950 at age 53, so she was widowed. I assume they were married in Cuba bc I can't find a certificate in Jamaica. So that does explain why she was back there. I just found her surname on the death certificate, so that was an added bonus.

Ron thinks young Tommy had one child, but has no idea who his wife was. She certainly did not exist when he escaped. So I guess it is just coincidence and wishful thinking that YOUR 3 uncles were these 3 brothers. I am simply guessing. And as Tommy Jr. was the youngest, doubt the others are still alive. Both went to the US anyway.

I could swear I told you this, but the two older brothers were in Cuba during the Revolution and Richard was in jail and forced to join Castro's army (or else).......the oldest brother got out and went to the US and joined the USAF. So they were not seen after that by Ron.

Just some thoughts.......often gut hunches lead me somewhere and this was nagging at me, lol. I searched for a "Brenton Cooke" in Jamaica and nothing. The Cookes mostly lived in St. Andrews, Kingston, btw. Just so you can narrow it down. Thomas Sr. died there at Hope Road.

Night........:D
Click to expand...
Figgs said:
OK, refreshing my memory. Problem is that the Cookes married with several Coopers and Ron's grandmother is a Cooper. There is probably a thread on here re the Coopers. I will have a look. OK, they are covered on page 1 of this "Holy Moly" thread, lol. Ron's surname is Figueroa, btw.

I found St. James (there used to be 22 parishes, mostly all Saints)....Montego Bay at the top. I see Chester Castle is just southwest of the parish line and that is the biggest of William Hylton Cooke's 3 plantations!! We are getting closer. He also owned the Hermitage and Windsor Forest plantations.

Ron used to visit the one called Windsor Forest when he was in school. There were 3 brothers......Tommy, Richard and William. They would be roughly about 80-90 years old now and all in the US. I have no way of finding out their birthdates due to all 3 being born in Cuba. (It's like pulling teeth to get Ron to remember this sort of thing, lol......but I remember parts and then he fills it in).

I remember meeting Tommy Jr. in 1961 when he escaped from Cuba with his mother and a nephew. I was totally fascinated.....he had 10 days to disappear or go back to Cuba. He was staying with Cooke relatives in Kingston.

So I am busy looking thru my Family Treemaker and I have precious little by way of documentation due to the Cuban situation......but I will take a look at the Family Search site again. Perhaps I will find a tidbit or two. Btw....it was very common for Jamaicans to live and work in Cuba before Castro took over. Close by and more jobs. Panama and Haiti too...a long time ago. So I search for them in those spots as well.

Do you have any more little things you remember?? St. James was a great help because it was the next parish to where Ron grew up (Westmoreland).
Ron went to grade school in that Parish and then to a private school in Kingston....which is where Hilda Cooke lived.

Let me know if any other little things pop into your mind.....you may be surprised at what you remember. And they might trigger something with Ron.

All the best.......and nice to meet you. You are definitely related, but not necessarily by marriage, lol. Quite common in Jamaica, to be honest. Which may be why your grandmother didn't know or remember.

I use www.familysearch.org for most of my Jamaican research and their records are excellent. The other good site is the one by Pat Jackson of Jamaica that she gave to the London University a few years back. I transcribed many things on there, but their search engine is the pits. It's at http://www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com/index.htm

Btw....see posts #16, 17 and 18 in this thread for the information I put out there on both the English and Jamaican Cookes. Good luck!!
Click to expand...

Hello from William Hylton Cooke in Miami Florida USA. That Tommy was my uncle, with my grandmother Rosalina, and her nephew, Carlos. The brothers were William (my father), Richard and Tommy in order. Tommy married in Jamaica and move to Miami where they had a daughter.

My father was William Hylton Cooke, my grandfather was Thomas Hylton Cooke, great-grandfather was William Hylton Cooke, great-great-grandfather was William Hylton Cooke. Are you starting to see a pattern here.

I can provide more information upon reply. By the way, you are right about Chester Castle, the Hermitage, and Windsor Forest. They started with Chester Castle and added the rest later. The profits from sugar at Chester Castle paid for Rookery Hall. The Rookery was originally 500 acres. It's much smaller now that it's a hotel.
 
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