Robert Hermann Cooms : around 1870-???

All,

I am looking for any information related to this person.

He seems to be one of my relatives and I would like to know more about him.

He was my grand father's father [Cooms]. From what I know, he used to work for the East Indian Company as a cutler. My grand father [Robert] was born in Madagascar in 1900. The British and the French Empires divided their teritorries and Madagascar became a French protectorate in 1895. The British had to leave then. [Cooms] stayed in Madagascar after [Robert] was born but left thereafter. I believe he continued his work as a cutler for the East Indian Company. One of his frind also had a child with [Robert's] aunt. The gentlemen's name was Max Wilson.

I have made 2 trips to London in 1996 and tried to get some information from a birth registry but I'd rather try to make it on line through

the bmd-certificates registry since it wasn't available at that time.

The clerck at the London's birth registry also told me to try the ship crew list or passenger list, but he said they are not provided on a digital format yet and I would need to spend some time to do so. That is why I am trying on this forum and might plan to go to Sheffield.

I was born and raised in Madagascar, educated in France, moved to Canada and now live in New York City, I am a computer scientist.

I am obviously skeptical that my research will lead me to a positive conclusion but I'll never know.

Thanks in advance,

Brice

Try posting on these two sites, they're extremely useful:

http://www.sheffindexers.com

http://www.sheffiledfhs.org.uk

Regards,

Duffems

Duffems,

I found the first website, see below the correct URL.

www dot sheffieldfhs dot org dot uk

But I couldn't find the second one.

sheffindexers dot thewholeshebang dot org

Thanks for the tips, appreciated.

Brice

The Sheffield Indexers site has recently changed servers, but both addresses are still currently operational:

(old) http://sheff-indexers.thewholeshebang.org/index.html

(new) http://sheffieldindexers.com

The only differences are that the forum is wholly on the new site (but accessible via the old) and there is a glitch in the search engine for the databases on the new site which has not yet been resolved.

Hugh

Sorry setrar and, thanks Hugh, I typed in a rush and didn't check it so I do apologise for the errors.

Regards,

Duffems

Would this help ????

The Company of Cutlers in Hallamshire

Cutlers' Hall

Church Street

Sheffield S1 1HG

the Archivist Mrs Julie Macdonald.

Telephone 0114 272 8456.

Fax 0114 272 1868.

Email _admin@cutlers-hallamshire.org.uk_

(mailto:admin@cutlers-hallamshire.org.uk)

I would try and contact this address by E-mail and ask them about their

archives which are fairly extensive.

Hi.

I have posted a reply on the Sheffield Family History website.

I can't give you any specific answers...but the records of the East India Company/Office are kept at the British Library.

They have a website with contact details at http://indiafamily.bl.uk/UI/Sources.aspx

You can also search their records for Births Marriages and Deaths at http://indiafamily.bl.uk/UI/

Hope this helps.

Tuppie

To you all,

I am just impressed and would like to thank you for all your great responses, it gives me great courage to continue my quest now. I will not neglect all of your leads but I definitely appreciate Tuppie's link regarding the East Indian Company's website. I hope I will find the passenger's list.

I kind of surrendered after a while but while surfing the Internet and curious about the potato's origin, I ran into the Great Hunger of the Irish people (between 1845 and 1852) that led to a massive immigration. I googled the last name Cooms and Irish also have them.

My theory being immigrants don't stop at one specific point since they move with job opportunities. Knowing that a lot of Irish came to America during the civil war they volunteered for drafting, my grand-grand father could have come from Ireland and took it's first job opportunity to travel to India with the East Indian Company.

Fortunately, there's not a lot of Cooms and I tracked some of them on Facebook.

Thanks guys for reviving my quest, it's warmly appreciated.

Brice

Never give up where family history research is concerned. I've been looking for my paternal grandfather for over 16 years but, I know that one day I'll find him possibly somewhere so blindingly obvious!

God luck in your research.

Regards,

Duffems

I am still gathering information regarding this post.

I just wanted to share some new information

1) A website with Crew List is now provided by CLIP

crewlist org uk

CLIP is run by Pete and Jan Owens as a not-for-profit volunteer project. It started from trying to trace the sea-going career of Pete's great-grandfather, who ran away to sea in the 1860s. Depending on your point of view, the project either grew a life of its own, or got out of hand.

2) Memorial University in Newfoundland Canada

mun.ca Link /mha/holdings/searchcombinedcrews.php

The Maritime History Archive holds approximately 75 percent of the surviving crew lists (also called crew agreements) and official log books of British registered vessels for the periods 1857-1942 (predominantly 1863-1938)