Welcome

Welcome to the Cook family website. This website is presented to you as a place to share photographs, videos, and documents as well as personal memories of my ancestors. A family tree will be included that began development three generations ago. It will cover the families genealogies of my parents and my former wife’s parents – eight surnames Cook, DeLancey, Rossow, Haynes, Cole, Ford, Sidles, and Walsh, with many collateral branches.

Following is a brief history the work displayed here. Luella Ellis Cook, my Great Great Aunt, began research on the my side of the family in the mid twentieth century. Much of what she recorded was from first-hand knowledge of her ancestors. Her nephew, my father took an interest in the family history at a very young age and began recording his research in the 1950s. I believe that he and his Great Aunt Luella worked together. My mother was also involved. My father spent countless hours in courthouses, libraries, and cemeteries searching out elusive family members. He took it as far as he could, finally entering all of the information into the computer and publishing ancestry reports for his children in the 1990s. My sister then took the baton and brought the family tree into the 21st century, re-entering all of the information into Family Tree Maker, a genealogy software and scanning countless photographs.

Now, the baton is mine. I began my work in 2017 out of changes in my life that brought me back home and to a renewed state of mind, and a curiosity about what all the fuss was about regarding my ancestors. I go forward with much gratitude to my predecessors as I carry on the family history research and further develop the family tree.

I am displaying here the fruition of the many years of work that have gone into this in hopes of reconnecting with old family members and new ones yet to be discovered. In all of this, I have found a new hobby that has become an addiction.

I hope you will benefit from the information I present here. Of course, this is a work in progress.