According to my father and his two surviving brothers, they had an "Uncle Crosby from British Guiana (where my family was from although my grandfather had gone to the UK by then) who was in the Royal Flying Corp and who went to Canada and died in an air crash" either before they were born or while they were children. This is complete hearsay and in my 10 years of research I have NEVER come cross any hint of a brother to my grandfather called Crosby, only two sisters, and another sister who was stillborn.
HOWEVER. My grandfather's aunt had an illegitimate son called Frederick Kearton
Crosbie Choppin(born 1886), who would have been 8 years older than my Grandfather. This seems to have been quite open, and he and his mother lived and travelled with her parents, my Grandfather's Grandparents.
This boy, Frederick Kearton Crosbie Choppin, was in the UK airforce first world war, and was seconded to the Canadian Royal Flying Corp. He and his wife Jessie emigrated to Ontario, Canada. EVERYTHING about what I have uncovered for Frederick Kearton Crosbie Choppin matches the family stories about "Uncle Crosby", except that I have no death date, place or reason for him. I'm beginning to think that "Uncle" Crosby was actually COUSIN Crosby and that he and my grandfather had just been brought up as if they were brothers.
If I could find death details, or a record of a fatal air crash involving Frederick Kearton Crosbie Choppin in Canada it would confirm my suspicions, but I'm not sure where to look? I haven't found any death record at all for either him or his wife. I know they were both alive in 1930, but that's where the trail ends. There is a Frederick Choppin and his wife Jessie buried in Holy Trinity Church, Pembroke, ON. But this is a cousin, who happened to have the same name, AND married a wife with the same name as the guy I'm looking for.
Where would I find resources for Canadian air crashes from around 1930-1960? Probably ones connected to the Royal Flying Corp.
