Van Cooten Voices

The National Library of Australia released in December 2008 the first stage of their project to digitise out of copyright newspapers. They are creating a free online service that will enable full-text searching of newspaper articles. This is a really fantastic project, and one of the current features is the ability of users to improve, annotate, and […]

Someone contacted me recently trying to determine if he was connected to the Annie Jones lurking in the Van Cooten tree. The information I had for her was sparse, so the contact prompted me to do a little more research. Annie was the first wife of William John Fraser Van Cooten. The only information I […]

I mentioned in a previous post that I needed to consult the medical directories for the UK. I have since browsed the State Library of Victoria microfiche for 1846 and 1848, and the GSV Library microfiche for 1847. Alas I was unable to find any reference to Dr John Van Cooten of Guernsey. It is […]

Anna Maria Van Cooten was the eldest daughter of John Van Cooten and Martha (nee Smithers). According to the 1851 census she was born in Newport, Monmouthshire, which is where her parents were married. Ida Gorsuch lists her as Anna Maria in a letter in 1893, and also mentions that “Aunt Maria (fathers eldest sister) […]

Again with assistance from family in the UK, I have obtained a copy of the will for Anna Maria Van Cooten dated 6 September 1872. Anna Maria (or Maria Anna) was the sister of John Lucius Van Cooten. I have transcribed the will. In her will she appointed Sarah Jane Primrose as her executor. She […]

Some time ago I obtained an 1881 English Census household entry from the LDS transcripts on CD for Thomas and Ida Gorsuch. The other day, having access to ancestry.com at the GSV Library I obtained a scanned copy of the actual census book page. In the last column of the entry for Ida, recording whether […]

John Van Cooten was possibly the eldest son, or the eldest legitimate son, of Hendrik Van Cooten. By inference from English censuses, and from his death certificate, he was born in about 1775-1781, most likely 1780, in Demerara. This is not that long after Hendrik arrived in the colony. Ida Gorsuch says that John “was […]

John Hughes Van Cooten arrived in Australia on 20 Dec 1874 – almost 133 years ago. But it is highly likely that he wasn’t the first of Hendrik Van Cooten’s descendants to arrive in Australia! Three seemingly unconnected pieces of information were the clues that led me put this story together. The first was the […]

I think I’ve worked out who John Hughes Van Cooten’s mother was. The story so far is that John Lucius Van Cooten married firstly Frances Mary Theresa Kent, and secondly a Mary Hughes (according to one old family letter) or Emona Hughes (according to John Hughes Van Cooten’s marriage certificate). The first marriage ended in […]

I’ve been trying to think about what is knowable about Hendrik Van Cooten’s early years. I know that he was christened in Doorn Reformed Church on 5 Jul 1750. He was the son of a carpenter, and had six living brothers and sisters. He was the second child of the family, and the eldest son. […]