{"id":29,"date":"2008-02-27T07:25:13","date_gmt":"2008-02-26T20:25:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vc.id.au\/blog2\/?p=29"},"modified":"2026-03-02T20:37:35","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T09:37:35","slug":"annie-jones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vc.id.au\/blog2\/2008\/02\/annie-jones\/","title":{"rendered":"Annie Jones"},"content":{"rendered":"

Someone contacted me recently trying to determine if he was connected to the Annie Jones<\/a> 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<\/a> and found:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
Reg #<\/th>\nSubjects family name<\/th>\nSubjects given names<\/th>\nOther party’s names<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
1910\/C002280<\/td>\nVan Cooten<\/td>\nWilliam John Fraser<\/td>\nSarah Ann Caroline Jones<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Sarah Ann Caroline is obviously the person I had always heard referred to as “Annie”. Doing a search on\u00a0deaths<\/a>, I found:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
Reg #<\/th>\nFamily name<\/th>\nGiven name<\/th>\nFathers given names<\/th>\nMothers names<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
1911\/C002979<\/td>\nVan Cooten<\/td>\nSarah Ann Caroline<\/td>\nDavid Jones<\/td>\nAmelia Williams<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1911\/C008879<\/td>\nVan Cooten<\/td>\nSylvester Fraser<\/td>\nWilliam John Fraser<\/td>\nSarah Ann Caroline Jones<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

This confirms Annie’s full name, and also gives the names of her parents. Doing a search for\u00a0births<\/a>\u00a0to David Jones and Amelia Williams gives:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Reg #<\/th>\nFamily name<\/th>\nGiven names<\/th>\nFathers given names<\/th>\nMothers names<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
1884\/C005818<\/td>\nJones<\/td>\nSarah Anne Caroline<\/td>\nDavid<\/td>\nAmelia Williams<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1887\/C006616<\/td>\nJones<\/td>\nThomas Stephen<\/td>\nDavid<\/td>\nAmelia Williams<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1888\/C007565<\/td>\nJones<\/td>\nJohn Edgar<\/td>\nDavid<\/td>\nAmelia Williams<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1882\/M001167<\/td>\nJones<\/td>\nUnnamed (M)<\/td>\nDavid<\/td>\nAmelia Williams<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Thus “Annie” was born in Queensland along with three other brothers, one who possibly died at birth.\u00a0Continuing this\u00a0further, I decided to look for an immigration record for the Jones. These are available\u00a0online<\/a>\u00a0for the years 1848 to 1884 in pdf form.\u00a0\u00a0In the pdf for\u00a0“Johnston to Jones”<\/a> 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\u00a0“Silver\u00a0Eagle” skippered by Captain Bright departed Plymouth\u00a02nd\u00a0March\u00a01882 and arrived\u00a0at\u00a0Maryborough\u00a07th\u00a0June\u00a01882. On board were:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Jones<\/td>\nDavid<\/td>\nMale<\/td>\n34<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Jones<\/td>\nAmelia<\/td>\nFemale<\/td>\n35<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Jones<\/td>\nWilliam<\/td>\nMale<\/td>\n9<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Jones<\/td>\nFrancis<\/td>\nMale<\/td>\n7<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Jones<\/td>\nMargaret<\/td>\nFemale<\/td>\n2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Jones<\/td>\nAda<\/td>\nFemale<\/td>\n1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Jones<\/td>\n<\/td>\nborn on voyage<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
David Jones<\/td>\nHead<\/td>\nMar<\/td>\nM<\/td>\n33<\/td>\nWire warehouse man<\/td>\nMonmouthshire<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Amelia Jones<\/td>\nWife<\/td>\nMar<\/td>\nF<\/td>\n34<\/td>\n–<\/td>\nMonmouthshire<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
William Frederick Jones<\/td>\nSon<\/td>\n<\/td>\nM<\/td>\n8<\/td>\nScholar<\/td>\nMonmouthshire<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Francis Henry Jones<\/td>\nSon<\/td>\n<\/td>\nM<\/td>\n6<\/td>\nScholar<\/td>\nMonmouthshire<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Margaret Amy Jones<\/td>\nDaur<\/td>\n<\/td>\nF<\/td>\n2<\/td>\n<\/td>\nMonmouthshire<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Ada Eleanor Jones<\/td>\nDaur<\/td>\n<\/td>\nF<\/td>\n4 months<\/td>\n<\/td>\nMonmouthshire<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Although this family is a “dead end” as far as Van Cooten descendants goes,\u00a0\u00a0it 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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. …<\/span> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,4],"tags":[10,11],"class_list":["post-29","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-people","category-sources","tag-jones","tag-van-cooten"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vc.id.au\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vc.id.au\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vc.id.au\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vc.id.au\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vc.id.au\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/vc.id.au\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":588,"href":"https:\/\/vc.id.au\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29\/revisions\/588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vc.id.au\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vc.id.au\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vc.id.au\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}