According to the Culpeper County, Virginia, marriage licenses, Ann Cooke married Jno. Ballesu. Linda had interpreted his name as Batten or Battern. This was in 1791. There was an Anna Battern in the German Lutheran Church, and, from the people she was sitting with, it is very believable that she was the daughter of Adam Cook. Gloria said in a post to the GERMANNA COLONIES Mailing List at Rootsweb that she thought Anna Smith married William Custer. Perhaps she will fill us in with her evidence. Before we are done, we may have a good story. After all, that is what this list should be about.
The question was asked whether Elizabeth Cook was a daughter of Adam Cook, and did she marry Samuel Snyder. There was an Elizabeth Cook who was the daughter of GEORGE Cook. She was born in 1758, and she appeared at the church, as a communicant, in 1775, 1776, 1776, 1777, and 1778. Then there are no more Elizabeth Cooks at church until 1794. The first Elizabeth Cook has no known marriage, and was dead by 1805. It would seem likely that she died shortly after 1778.
The Elizabeth of 1794 is probably either a daughter of Adam (brother of George), or the wife of a son of Adam or George. George had no daughter-in-law named Elizabeth until 1804. Adam's son, Adam, Jr., married an Elizabeth. There is no marriage license for Adam, Jr., in either Culpeper or Madison County. His wife could have been the Elizabeth Cook who was present in 1794.
Adam Koch, Jr., (i.e., Cook) was alone in 1776, 1776, and 1777 and never makes another appearance as a communicant at the church. I would doubt that the Elizabeth Koch of 1794 was his wife. So I assign the 1794 Elizabeth Koch as a daughter of Adam Cook, Sr.
The suggestion has been made that she married Samuel Snyder, her first cousin. There is a marriage in Culpeper Co., after Madison Co. had been formed, of Isaac Wilson and Eliz. Cooke. This would be outside of the Robinson River Valley where Adam Cook lived.
Samuel Snyder attended church in 1789, 1790, 1791, 1791, and 1792 by himself. In 1798, he attended with wife Elizabeth. In 1802 he was alone, but in 1810 and 1812 Elizabeth accompanied him. In 1794, Elizabeth Cook attended by herself, but not at any later time as Elizabeth Cook. This suggests that these two people might have married in the period 1794 to 1798.
Consulting the Madison County marriage licenses, Elizabeth Cook married Samuel Snyder on 5 Sept 1796. Was Elizabeth the daughter of Adam Cook, Sr.? The marriage license does not mention the consent of any parents, so Elizabeth was born before '75. It seems doubtful, but it cannot be assumed without more research, that Elizabeth was not a granddaughter of Adam, Sr.
(16 Sep 02)
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.