A REMARKABLE NORFOLK FAMILY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 462, 15 June 1909, Page 4

A REMARKABLE NORFOLK FAMILY.

Mrs Cooke of Oxwick, near Fakenahm, who is 95 years of age, is the head of a remarkable family of five generations. She has over 270 descendants, and two of the filth generation are living in New Zealand. It will interest our readers to know that Mrs W. Ely, of Bakerstown, Woodville, is a daughter of Mrs Cooke’s. Seventy five ot her descendants are residents of New Zealand, and the venerable lady has just been visited by one branch of the family from the Antipodes. The visitors were Mr and Mrs Westwood and their seven children, who are at present at Lynn Mart. Two of Mr and Mrs Westwood’s children are of abnormal size, Wilfred, aged ix, weighing 22st 4lbs, and Ruby, aged 15, weighing 1731 4lbs. Mrs Cooke, although she has been confined to her bed for six weeks, is still able to talk of the early days she spent at Castleacre, where she was born, and she is enthusiastic on the days when she made butter and fed the calves and pigs. She was extremely delighted to be able to greet the representative ot her family from New Zealand, and was especially pleased to be able to shake hands and have a chat with Mr and Mrs Westwood’s big children, who are her great grandchildren. For many years Mrs Cooke has lived with her daughter, Mrs Grief, at Oxwick. The five generations are . Mrs Cooke, of Oxwick, Mrs W. Ely (her daughter Mrs Westwood’s mother, in New Zealand), Mrs Anderson (granddaughter), Mr Anderson (great grandson), and Mrs Anderson’s baby (great-great grandson), all of whom are in New Zealand.