My family history begins with the surname CROSS and basically it goes like this:
William CROSS b. 1737 Tingewick m. Phyllis HORWOOD b. 1740 married in 1763. Phyllis was William's first wife, he later married Elizabeth SAVIN in 1770.
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Thomas CROSS b.1765 Tingewick m. Mary ALLEN. Mary was Thomas' second wife, his first wife was Elizabeth HARVEY.
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Rebecca CROSS b. 1793. Rebecca later married Josiah WATSON b. 1787 of Water Stratford. We believe Rebecca was sent to Mursley to give birth to her illegitimate son Richard. Rebecca and Josiah Watson lived in Water Stratford, their children emigrated to New Zealand.
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Richard CROSS b. 1813 Mursley, Bucks m. Susannah RICHARDS b. 1811 Mixbury, Oxon. Richard was brought up by his grandparents Thomas and Mary CROSS and learnt his trade as a Stonemason just like his uncles. He possibly never knew that Rebecca was his mother as some of the godparents to Richard and Susannah's children were Josiah WATSON and Rebecca WHATSON.
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George CROSS b. 1842 Tingewick, Bucks m. Jane BUTCHER b. 1841. George's occupation was a Stonemason.
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Richard Thomas CROSS b. 1877 Tingewick, Bucks m. Maria Wilkin-BRAMWELL b. 1881 in Killochan Castle, Ayr, Scotland. They married on 14 November 1905, two days later they sailed on the steamship Athenic to Wellington, New Zealand. According to the Wellington Evening Post on 28 December 1905, the Athenic left Plymouth on 18 November 1905 via Cape Town and Hobart and arrived in Wellington on 1st January 1906. I don't know how long they stayed there for but their children were born in England (1st born in 1907) so they returned to England. In May 1912 Richard Cross sailed on the Suevic for Newcastle, NSW, Australia. His grandfather Richard gave a large sum of money to some of his grandchildren and told them to go and better themselves. I'm not sure why the whole family did not sail together but the Titanic had only sunk the month before. Maria and their two children followed in April 1913 on the steamship Medic. Maria's died in Newcastle, NSW in 1916, Richard together with his two young children left Australia and sailed to Illinois, USA to stay with Maria's sister, Alice who had married a wealthy oilman. They were childless and offered to take in Richard's two young children but he didn't like this idea and left to return back to the UK. Richard later re-married Gertrude Annie SYKES in 1925 and resided in New Bradwell, Bucks.
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Robert George Bramwell CROSS b. 1911, Abertillery, Wales m. Evelyn Lorraine READ b. 1914. This was my grandad and I wished I had found out more about him. When he told me he had been to Australia, I thought he was kidding! It wasn't until his death in 1999 and we were going through his possessions and came across his fathers address book, in here were lots of addresses from all over the world including some in Australia. I remember him saying that he went to school in America and got bullied there for being English and then when he went to England, he got bullied there for being a Yank - poor thing!
My current projects I am working on are finding out the following:
What was Richard and Maria CROSS doing in Fenny Stratford in 1907 when they had their first born Clara CROSS? Recent findings is that Clara did not have a birth certificate, was she really born in New Zealand?
What was Richard and Maria CROSS doing in Abertillery, Wales in 1911?
Why did Richard and Maria go to New Zealand and Australia?
Michelle White (nee Cross)
Adelaide, South Australia
