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Family Folk Lore

Most families tell stories of ancestors long gone who were rich, evil, criminal, strange.................and you can probably fill in the blanks with your family names and folk stories. My experience, both personal and from discussing with other family history researchers, is that there is usually some truth to these stories. My objective on this page is to share some of my family's more interesting folk lore and try to establish how much truth is really involved. Since truth, especially truth from 150 to 250 years ago, is a rare commodity, this page is by definition, subject to change at any time.

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 Jacob Peter Cornelius KOCK (aka KOOK) born Helsingor, Denmark 1858

Folk Lore
      1. Jacob's father, Emil Lauritz Frederik KOCK was a lawyer to the royal family of Denmark and a governor of the Faeroe Islands
      2. Jacob left Denmark for Australia in 1883, aged 25, because he did not live up to the family's expectations and they paid him to leave the country so as not to further shame the family. Jacob was expected to follow in his father's footsteps studying law, however he chose to pursue a career as a photographer. Photography, like any other art form in Victorian times, was not considered to be a respectable profession (unless you happened to be very successful or independently wealthy).
      3. Jacob had a sister but to date no records of have been found. The sister's existence is presumed, based on a photo held by a close relative, of a woman and a man and produced by the studio of "Georg Hansen, Østergade 54, 2den Sa, Københaven". The photo has a handwritten inscription on the back in Gladys (Jacob's daughter) Kook's writing stating " Father's sister and her husband, their descendants would be the only ones left. Berenson I think was their name". The photo appears to be of a married couple in their late 20s and possibly taken in the 1880's.

Fact
      1. Emil Lauritz Frederik KOCK was a lawyer of sorts. On Jacob's birth record from Sankt Olai Kirk, Helsingor, there is a note that his father was a "sorenscriver" from/for the Faeroe Islands. Sorenscriver reportedly means probate judge.
      2. The reason for Jacob's departure from Denmark is still unclear. It is known that he worked for a photgraphic studio in Copenhagen G.W. Alexandersen (studio name), Fotografisk Atelier, 43 Vesterbrogade, Kjobenhavn (Copenhagen). It is also known that when he registered with the Danish police to emigrate to Melbourne, Australia in 1883 he registered his profession as a "restratauer". On arrival in Australia and for the remainder of his life he was a professional photographer.
      3. To date no trace of the missing sister to Jacob has been found.

 

 Theresa WATTS born 1841, London, England

Folk Lore
      1. Theresa is related to the famous English inventor, James Watt (1736-1819), inventor of the steam engine
      2. Theresa is related to Emma Hart, the infamous mistress of the famous British naval admiral, Lord Nelson. (Hart was also married to a British knight, Sir xxxxxx Hamilton)

 

Fact
      1. No substance other than a similar family name but not disproved either.
      2. Theresa's parents were John Watts (printer) and Margaret Nelson according to her marriage certificate. Her death certificate states that her parents are William Watts (stonemason) and Margaret Hamilton. Is this a coincidence that her name fluctuates between Hamilton and Nelson? Much more investigation is required bit it certainly does seem possible.

 

 

Page Last Modified: April 6, 2000

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