Hi Again, That Mercy Pickering is in my line and sure is news to me that her and Joseph There is no VR in Mendon VR for a birth of Ahaz Cook ; Max or Maurine di you have a source for this.. I have never found children for this couple and was lead to believe they never had any??? Joseph Cook, Hezikiah, Josiah, Nicholas, Walter. (WCG) Mercy Pickering, Benjamin , Edward , John, John (APL) Also, we'd be very interested on a source for : Walter Cooke, b 25 May 1618 at Leeds, England, son of Walter Cooke and Mrs. Walter Cooke. I'll get back to more later today, as I am on my way out. Alice

Hi Alice, Unfortunately, we do not have any documentation that Joseph and Mercy Peckering were married or that they are the parents of Ahaz Cook. This information was given to us without documentation except a land record mentioned below. In Ahaz Cook's packet, War of 1812 Land Warrent No. 13778, Ahaz received 160 acres of Bounty Land in Fulton Co., Illinois in 1817. He was listed as single. It is believed he still lived in Mendon when he was awarded the land, because he married Mercy Walling in Mendon on 19 Nov 1818 as recorded on page 272 of Mendon Marriages on microfiche 6013880 from the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah. In Capt Andrew M. Dowell letter verifing Ahaz's military service, the Capt. states, "Said Ahaz Cook was born in the town of Mendon, State of Massachusetts, is about Twenty Eight Years of age." The letter is dated February 1817. This would make his birth date 1790 or 1789. The birth date of 19 July 1790 may come from church records. My wife does not have a source. There is a land deed, we have an unreadable copy, that the person who sent it to us says, "I have a land deed, signed by Ahaz and Joseph Cook as father, from the War of 1812. Because the son, Samuel was killed in the war, the government gave them a land grant to ILL. Because Joseph did not want to leave Mendon, Ahaz claimed the deed, and went to Ill." We have not yet looked at the source, but the information about Walter Cooke is from a mircrofilm held by the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. The film number is 0000183, item 173. Myrtile Jilleson, a certified genealogist who has spent many years studying the Walter Cook(e) family submitted the information, according to the cousin that gave us the information We will bring copies of whatever documentation that we have when we come to Mendon in the Fall. Best regards, Max