John Carrick Cooper (1886-1969) Part 1

Jack Cooper in 1906 in New York City.

John, otherwise known as “Jack” to family & friends was born on 5 Nov 1886, in Dublin, Ireland. He wanted to arrive earlier so his mother, Laura Jane Boyd Cooper was rushed to the local Rotunda Maternity Hospital. As he came sooner than the parents expected, no name was decided at the time of birth.

Rotuna Maternaty Hospital, late 19th century. The National Archives of Ireland.
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/exhibition/dublin/poverty_health/Em13
__Rotunda_c.1900_lro-01.html : accessed 18 June 2016.

He was the sixth of eleven children of Alexander Sisson Cooper and Laura Jane Boyd.

Only 6 survived to adulthood. He was one of these lucky ones. I find a male with matching birth date and parents by ordering a birth record from Roscommon, Ireland. There is no name for the child listed. 

Dublin, Ireland, Birth Registrations; Civil Registration Office, Roscommon, Ireland

His parents lived at 17 Portland St. in Dublin. Jack, my grandfather, tells the story that he was so small that his mother made his crib out of a dresser drawer.  I later find John’s baptism record online.

Irish Church Records. Irish Genealogy.ie St. George Parish, Dublin. 1886. No Volume listed. Page 89. http://churchrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/display-pdf.jsp?pdfName=d-298-2-9-085 : accessed 18 June 2016.

I find Jack next in the 1901 Ireland Census records. He is listed with his father, Alexander Cooper; mother, Laura Cooper; sister, Laura Cooper; brother, Edwin Cooper; & brother, Alexander Cooper. See blog entry The Letter That Started it All.

His father and youngest brother leave for the United States on the SS Etruria on 21 May 1905. Jack followed on the SS Oceanic arriving in New York City on 8 Aug 1906. Edwin arrives on the SS Carmania on 11 Nov 1906. His sister, Laura or "Jinny" follows on the SS Baltic on 6 Mar 1908. I originally found these ship records when Ellis Island opened their website with scanned documents. Their travel stories will be covered in future blogs.

 Manifest, SS Oceanic, August 1906, stamped page 30, line 27, John Cooper, age 20; image New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957, Ancestry.com. (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 18 June 2016).

“Cooper, John. Age 20. Male. Single. Clerk. Can read and write. British. Irish. From Dublin, Ireland, final destination New York, self paid final destination ticket, $15, first time in US, meeting father Alexander Cooper, 597 Hudson St. New York.”

By the 1910 U. S. Census, Jack is living in the next building over from his father and brother in Manhattan on West 4th St. He is working as a book keeper. Did his father, also a book keeper, help Jack get this job?

On 14 Nov 1913, Jack is eligible for applying for US Citizenship. I find his Certificate of Arrival and Petition for Naturalization on Ancestry.com after I had already found these documents via the Naturalization Records Indexes through FamilySearch.com.

United States. "Selected U. S. Naturalization Records - Original Documents, 1790-1974," Ancestry.com
(http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 18 June 2016).

The New York State Census of 1915 finds Jack living with his eldest sister, Laura Cooper Dawes, on Sixteenth St. in Kings, New York. More detail will be covered in LAURA COOPER DAWES’ future entry.

By this time Jack is mesmerized by the lovely Sophie Ramona Piña or "Honey" of Brooklyn.