Annie Jones

rodney — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 20:25:13 +0000

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 had about her was from a couple of entries in a family bible. She died after giving birth to their first child Sylvester Fraser Van Cooten, who also died at birth. Knowing that the marriage in question took place in Queensland, I searched the Queensland historical marriages and found:

Reg #	Subjects family name	Subjects given names	Other party’s names
1910/C002280	Van Cooten	William John Fraser	Sarah Ann Caroline Jones

Sarah Ann Caroline is obviously the person I had always heard referred to as “Annie”. Doing a search on deaths, I found:

Reg #	Family name	Given name	Fathers given names	Mothers names
1911/C002979	Van Cooten	Sarah Ann Caroline	David Jones	Amelia Williams
1911/C008879	Van Cooten	Sylvester Fraser	William John Fraser	Sarah Ann Caroline Jones

This confirms Annie’s full name, and also gives the names of her parents. Doing a search for births to David Jones and Amelia Williams gives:

Reg #	Family name	Given names	Fathers given names	Mothers names
1884/C005818	Jones	Sarah Anne Caroline	David	Amelia Williams
1887/C006616	Jones	Thomas Stephen	David	Amelia Williams
1888/C007565	Jones	John Edgar	David	Amelia Williams
1882/M001167	Jones	Unnamed (M)	David	Amelia Williams

Thus “Annie” was born in Queensland along with three other brothers, one who possibly died at birth. Continuing this further, I decided to look for an immigration record for the Jones. These are available online for the years 1848 to 1884 in pdf form. In the pdf for “Johnston to Jones” I found that an Amelia Jones and a David Jones both arrived aboard the “Silver Eagle” on 7 June 1882. I then consulted the microfilm of the Queensland immigration records held at the State Library of Victoria.The “Silver Eagle” skippered by Captain Bright departed Plymouth 2nd March 1882 and arrived at Maryborough 7th June 1882. On board were:

Jones	David	Male	34
Jones	Amelia	Female	35
Jones	William	Male	9
Jones	Francis	Male	7
Jones	Margaret	Female	2
Jones	Ada	Female	1
Jones		born on voyage

This shows that the family were quite well established before emigration, and also gives an idea of ages for David and Amelia. I then looked in the British census records and found the family in the 1881 census for Newport, Monmouthshire, Wales. The residents of 11 Victoria Place were:

David Jones	Head	Mar	M	33	Wire warehouse man	Monmouthshire
Amelia Jones	Wife	Mar	F	34	–	Monmouthshire
William Frederick Jones	Son		M	8	Scholar	Monmouthshire
Francis Henry Jones	Son		M	6	Scholar	Monmouthshire
Margaret Amy Jones	Daur		F	2		Monmouthshire
Ada Eleanor Jones	Daur		F	4 months		Monmouthshire

These ages correspond quite well with those given in the immigration record, and the census also indicates that the family were all born in Wales.The final step I took was to look at the electoral records for Queensland. These show Amelia and David living at Macadam St, Maryborough, Queensland during the period 1913 to 1925. Amelia’s occupation is “home duties” and David is a carpenter. No other family members appear at the same address. Amelia and David would have been in their 70s at this time.

Although this family is a “dead end” as far as Van Cooten descendants goes, it was an interesting exercise to see how much information could be obtained, and gaps filled, in a relatively short space of time using resources readily available on the internet, and State Library of Victoria holdings.

Jones – Van Cooten Voices

Annie Jones