I, William Aaron Cockrill was born in Bloomfield, Sonoma County, California, on the 28th day of July, 1878.

My father was Bruce Travis Cockrill, youngest son of Larkin Davenport Cockrill and Didamia Cockrill, his wife, maiden name of Stamps, was born in Bloomfield, Nelson County, Kentucky. My father was born in Red Dirt, Bates County, Missouri, January 4th, 1852. The family crossed the plains by ox team and covered wagon in 1853 and located in Big Valley. The first home was built there by the Cockrill family. Another family by name of Woodson, who also came from Bloomfield, Kentucky, was the first family to locate in Big Valley, but two miles from where the town was later surveyed and promoted. The Woodson family and the Cockrill family got together and named the town that was later built, Bloomfield, after their old native town in Kentucky. That is the true meaning of the town, in spite of any stories that have been told as to its naming.

My Grandfather, Larkin Davenport Cockrill was born in Spartanburg, South Carolina, in 1800. His father was Anderson Cockrill, who also came to California with the family and died in or near San Jose, California and is buried somewhere in Santa Clara County, California. I have no record of the ancestry of Grandmother Cockrill, but I have quite a bit of information regarding Grandfather's. His father, Anderson Cockrill was a son of William Cockrill and William was the son of another Anderson Cockrill. That takes us back close to the year 1600. I think, if we could trace it, we would find that our ancestors were of Scottish blood and probably landed in Darien, South Carolina with the Scotch settlement that landed there in 1626. Grandfather Cockrill's wife was Lucy Davenport [Rebecca Venable], daughter of Joseph Venable and wife [Lucy Davenport]. Her mother was a Davenport and Grandfather's mother. Lucy Davenport Venable brought the name Davenport along in the family. I will show this point later. Joseph Venable served with General Greene at the Battle of the Cowpens, in the Revolutionary War and that gives us descendants the proper lineage that entitles us to membership in the Sons of the American Revolution and Daughters of the Revolution, organizations that are very select and of important in history.

Larkin Davenport and Didamia Cockrill brought the following children into the world: a son Theodore Guavarius, a daughter Ida Josephine, a son Robert Lafayette, and my father, Bruce Travis. A history of each of the above children will be written later.

James Cockrill and David Beaver, a brother and a cousin of Larkin Davenport Cockrill, came to California in 1848 and located in Santa Rosa, California and built the first brick building in that city, on Main Street and it stood until April 18th, 1906, when it went down in the earthquake and fire of that date. [Henry Beaver was Larkin's brother-in-law and not a cousin. His house, the Beaver House, survived the 1906 earthquake but not the 1969 earthquake]

My mother was Martha Diantha Bellingham, oldest daughter of Aaron and Clemenza Bellingham. There was another daughter, Margaret, of who I will write later in my story. My grandfather, Aaron, after who I received my middle name, the first name having come from my fathers side of the family, was born in Bellingham Castle, located in the City of Londonderry, Derry County, the most northern county in Ireland. The family migrated from Northumberland County adjoining Scotland, in England. A family tree will be attached hereto later. The ancestry were all close to the line of English nobility. The castle still stands, and occupied by descendants of Bellingham, so I have been told and that we still own an interest in it but that will never pay us anything. The City of Bellingham in the State of Washington on Puget Sound and where I have been several times and have written Veterans Pension claims, is named after a cousin of my mother.

Our Grandmother Bellingham was a Redmond before her first marriage to a man name of Fleming. There were several children by that marriage. A son was drowned on the St. Lawrence River when attempting to straightening out a log jam in a floating raft of logs that were on the way to the mill.

The daughters were as follows: Amanda and she married William S. Roe; Hettie that married Robert Kerrand; Elizabeth that married Albert Fox; all of these marriages took place in Canada and the families all migrated to California in or about 1867 and all located in Western Sonoma County. There is an inlet of water branching off from the Estero Americano, the water outlet that runs from Bloomfield and all of Big Valley to the ocean, and it bears the name of Bellingham Bay, named after Grandfather Bellingham, who occupied for many years, the ranch was where this water occupied [?]. Grandmother Bellingham married Aaron Bellingham, our Grandfather, after the death of her husband, Fleming. Grandfather Bellingham was taken to Canada by his family from Northern Ireland when he was seven years of age. All four of our grandparents sleep the long last sleep in the beautiful old cemetery in Bloomfield.

Politically speaking, the Cockrill family were all Southern Democrats and the Bellingham side were Northern Republicans. I am supposed to be the first Cockrill to vote Republican. Grandfather Cockrill dared to publicly cheer for the Confederate President and barely escaped being lynched by a strong Union population that resided in Bloomfield at that time. I very strongly seem to follow his way. I have never hesitated to speak my sentiments openly, no matter who likes them or not. It has cost me money and friends at times because I was too outspoken, not being more tactful.