Claude Cooper was a bit of a scoundrel.

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He left his family with 13 children, and took off to Chicago to start another life with another wife and started a new family.  One of his 13-children was my grandmother, Nancy. It was painful, no one ever talked about him. His wife, a school teacher was suddenly a single parent with 13 kids to raise on her own. ​

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Later, there would be whispers of possible "Indian" blood in our family tree. We are, in fact, part Ojibwe (sometimes referred to as Chippewa). Our family can be traced back through various Ojibwe Chiefs to birth of Gijigossekot Kechegosekot in approximately 1530. From 1530 until the Chief Ka-ta-wa-be-da "Broken Tooth" (b. 1753) we currently only have the names in our patrilineage. Chief Broken Tooth was the father of Chief Hole-In-the-Day the 1st, and grandfather to the even more (in)famous, Chief Hole-In-the-Day the 2nd. ​

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We are also descendants of the famous fur trader, William Aitkin and his wife, Mary Hole-In-the-Day. Aitkin was born in Scotland, and became one of the most successful fur traders in North America until a disagreement with Ramsay Crooks, the President of the American Fur Company.

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There are simply amazing stories about our ancestors and their role in U.S. history, and beyond. Click here for our family tree and begin exploring.

 

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