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| Ruhammah Ball's tombstone |
One ancestor I
had a lot of trouble connecting to her parents was Ruhammah Cook, who married Nathan
Ball on 15 Dec 1765 in in Stockbridge, Berkshire, Massachusetts. Ruhammah and
Nathan had thirteen children together and Ruhammah lived until 21 Sept 1838. At
the time of her death she was records as being ninety-nine years old, which was
possibly a slight over estimate of her age.
I was fairly certain that
Ruhammah was the daughter of Simeon Cook and Melatiah Robbins, who lived in
Berkshire during the time period, when Ruhammah would have been born. This was
especially interesting, because Simeon Cook was a proven descendant of Stephen
Hopkins of the Mayflower. However, Berkshire was just being settled at the time
and birth records for the Cook family don’t survive. Simeon also didn’t seem to
have left a probate file to list his children’s names. About the only records I
could find for Simeon and Melatiah was their marriage intentions, published on
16 Nov 1738 in Eastham, Massachusetts.
I began to lose hope that I could
prove Ruhammah’s parentage as all the usual avenues seemed exhausted. So I left
her family alone for quite a while. However, I reckoned without Ruhammah’s
brother, Simeon Cook jr. Simeon jr. died fairly young in 1775, without wife or
children to inherit his property. As a result all eight of his siblings were
listed in his probate records, including “Ruhamma Ball”. And because his name
was listed as “jr” the probate also confirmed that his father was Simeon Cook
Sr. So thanks to Ruhammah’s brother I was able to confirm her parentage and
another Mayflower line.
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| part of Simeon Cook jr's estate |
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