When I started family history research I just wanted to find out as much as I could, in a fairly vague sense. As time went on, three main goals materialised. They were:

• Finding Hendrik Van Cootens origin in the Netherlands
• Establishing contact with the descendants, if any, of Margaret Hughes Van Cooten
• Establishing contact with the descendants, if any, of John Rodolphus Van Cooten

Over the past few years all of the goals have been met, largely as a result of people contacting me after finding information on my web site! So, I need some new goals. I’ll be working on:

• Who was John Hughes Van Cooten’s mother? It looks as though it was Emona Hughes, but where did she come from? And what was her story?
• John Hughes Van Cooten’s birth certificate.
• Margaret Hughes Van Cooten’s birth certificate.
• Do any descendants of Hendrik Van Cooten exist in Guyana? What happened to Hendrik’s other children and their descendants?
• Are any of the Van Cootens living in and around Vryheids Lust in Guyana descendants of Hendrik, and what do they know of their history?