George & Harold Cook of Hull

[Diane Smalley]

Hi
Can anyone help me trace two family members further as I am at a loss.
They are as on the 1901 Census: George Cook aged 3 and Harold age 7 months, sons of William and Sarah Cook and brothers of Elsie Cook age 5. Their address was 18 Anbilo Terrace, Spring Street Hull. I can't seem to find anything after this date for them. My only concern is that they would both be about the right ages for late on in the Great War. My Mum who was born in 1925 can't remember them.
I would appreciate any help from any source.

Regards
Diane Smalley

[Steve Steere]

You have to consider that both died young, so you need to check GRO deaths for their names. As the Cook section will be large, find out the registration area for where the family were living to make the search easier. If you are lucky they could be on FreeBMD but that is not yet complete, so you may have to visit somewhere that has the records or use a pay site.

There are too many Cook's on the Commonwealth Graves Commission web site to make a certain identity match for WWI. If they did die in the Great War it is likely that their names would appear on a local war memorial. Check with the local FHS for the area & do an online search, as some are transcribed, to see if their names appear. These are known as MI's (memorial inscriptions).

Good luck.

Steve

[Pam Downes]

Hi Diane,

First stop for WW1 casualities is the Commonwealth War Graves Commission site at
http://www.cwgc.org/cwgcinternet/search.aspx
You'll get 164 George's for starters - remember to start from 1914 with him as he would have been 17, plus you keep reading about the 'boy soldiers' who lied about their age in order to fight. A lot of the Georges you can discount straightaway because of their age (e.g. 39), but I would always look at ones within a couple of years of the age and check even the ones in ones in non-Yorkshire regiments.

28 years difference is a lot and George and Harold could easily have left home/left town by the time your mother was born. If the family was not particularly well-off, perhaps they couldn't afford the train fares so communication was by letter. Again, the family could have had a disagreement and lost touch with each other.
Another possibility is that were connected with the fishing industry and could have been lost at sea.
And to finally complete this doom-and-gloom message, have you checked the GRO Index to confirm that they didn't die young? On the 1891 census I found a great-uncle who no-one in the family knew about. He died in 1893, aged 5, 6 years before my granny was born. Without that census entry his existence would never ever have been known.

(Sorry, I'm a s-l-o-w typist and Steve got there before me - and with some better ideas.)

Pam Downes

[Diane Smalley]

Thanks for your help and suggestions !

Regards
Diane