CROCKER-L Archives

From: B mac liam <>
Subject: [CROCKER-L] re Rare Commodity
Date: Thu, 14 May 1998 09:13:41 EDT

Dear Gary (in England) and other Crocker cousins,

I'm thrilled to see a cousin in England on the list - not that we expect
miracles from you, but anything you uncover in your ancestry could provide an
additional clue to our own roots in England. :-)

Andrea Leonard wrote:
>>> Gary, brace yourself! I will be surprised if you are not deluged with
responses from Crockers all over the world! And I hope some of them --
particularly a group of men in Virginia -- can persuade you to dig back
further than Josias to see if you are connected with any of the Crockers
who came early to the colonies... prior to 1700. <<<

I would also think that we might be a help to you in that we have individuals
who were born in England (most likely Devon) prior to your earliest known
ancestor, and therefore they could act as a focus for combined research. (I
wonder how common was the name of Crocker in 17th century England? And where
was it concentrated at that time?)

Andrea also wrote:
>>> You could be a great help in the search for ancestors of William, John,
and Francis Crocker all of whom emigrated to Massachusetts around 1635... and
the concurrent search for the family background of Anthony Crocker who settled
in what is now the State of Virginia, USA, near Norfolk, called then and now
Isle of Wight. <<<

While I would dearly love to see the Crocker family tree in full bloom, my
more personal aims are finding the origins of my ancestor George Kellaway
Crocker, born 18 July 1844 in Devon. His family left Devon about 1846 & went
to Lincolnshire, Nottingham, Yorkshire and finally Neath Wales (near Swansea),
staying about 2 years at each place. They sailed from Liverpool on 3 Sep 1855
and arrived in New York City on 3 Oct 1855, then made their way to Ontario,
Canada, eventually settling at St Thomas.

George's father was John Crocker, born 11 May 1816-21, his mother's name was
Jane. We believe her surname to be Kellaway (based on George's middle name).
I'm told that Kellaway is a Devon surname. George also had a brother named
John who died in 1895 in St Thomas - only his name is on the gravestone, so we
presume he wasn't married. Information at the St Thomas library suggests that
John (I don't know whether father or son) was a railroad contractor. If it was
the father, I don't know whether he did that kind of work back in Devon, or
not.

Have you ever run across the name Kellaway in your research? Any mention of
railroad workers which might point me to a town or area for my Crockers?

Thanks, good luck, and welcome to the group,
Brad Wilson

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