Your Line — the surgeon’s son
James Cook
1843–1925
Born in the year his father was held for debt, orphaned at ten, and father of the James Alexander Cook who married Frances Helen Poole.
- Born
- 1843, Sydney
- Died
- 1925
- Married
- Emily C. Dedden (1854–1936)
James Cook was born in 1843, the second son of Alexander Currie Cook and Anna Maria Rainy; his birth was registered with his parents given as Alexander and Maria.1 It was the year his father was evicted, lost his lawsuit and was taken into custody for debt. His father went to sea when James was a small boy and died in China when he was eight; his mother died when he was ten.
He married Emily C. Dedden, and their son James Alexander Cook was born in Sydney in 1872, named for both his father and his grandfather the surgeon.2 James died in 1925 and Emily in 1936.2 Their story — and the Dedden family’s — is still to be researched in detail.
His son James Alexander Cook married Frances Helen Poole at Balmain North in 1899; their story is told in the chapter ‘James & Frances Cook’.
The Record
Sources & References
- 1
Birth
NSW BDM early church-register index: Cook, James, reg. 4510/1843, V18434510 47, father Alexander, mother Maria. (A family tree gives 1845; the registration is preferred.)
- 2
Marriage, son and deaths
Family tree (researcher): James C. Cook 1843/5–1925, m. Emily C. Dedden 1854–1936. NSW BDM birth index: Cook, James A., reg. 2652/1872, Sydney, father James, mother Emily. Not yet checked against the original registrations.