Oh my goodness... I just about fell out of my chair. I was doing yet another search for George Crouch & Pricilla Camm and found this thread. Back in 1976 when I married my husband he took me to visit his family in North Gwillimbury, York County, Ontario.
His aunt gave me this information orally so this is what I wrote in our family history book, "George Cruntch & Pricilla Camm emigrated from Oxford Shear, England to Montreal, PQ in 1850 on the ship, "ALFRED", along with their 8 children, leaving 4 small graves behind."
It wasn't until we joined Ancestry, however, that we really started digging into the Nelson family history and discovered the East Gwillimbury Croutch family and followed the Nelson family down to Iowa. Soon after, we ran into Sharon. (Waving to Sharon in California). Sharon's generosity was such a tremendous blessing because she shared images of Eliza Crouch and Henry Nelson - my husband's 2x great grandparents, and the rest of the Nelson family. My husband (also called Nelson) just stared and stared at the images Sharon sent us. It was a very moving experience.
Yet I couldn't find any records of a ship Alfred coming to Canada as the Alfred seemed to make her runs to Austrailia. And the growth of our tree stopped at George and Priscilla because we couldn't confirm her maiden name - until now. Valerie, we are indebted to you and the rest of the team here that helped us solve this roadblock.
As for clarification of the T in Crouch... I was contacted through the genealogy blog on my website by a woman who lives in the East Gwillimbury area and she said:
"My ggggrandfather was Francis Croutch of the Sharon area of Ontario. I am trying to find out what his roots are. My father had a family story.The story relates that the T was placed in the name of a child to distinguish the child of a first marriage. Somewhere around 1812. So that a Crouch from England married a lady who already had a child."
Upon researching Francis Croutch here in Ontario, I found the marriage record for Francis Croutch and Elizabeth Smith who married 7 Mar 1853 in Pickering Township, Ontario. (Pickering is southeast of East Gwillimbury Township).
However, although I haven't found a birth record for their 1st child - Thomas Smith Croutch - indications point that he may not have been the son of Francis:
1. His middle name is Smith which in Ontario records often means it was an illegitimate child therefore bore the name of the mother.
2. He appears to have been born in 1852 or 53 since he is not shown on the 1851 Canada census which was actually taken in January 1852. Here are his Canada census records although I realize dates can be a year or two off:
- 1861 shows age 8 transcribed as 1853
- 1871 " 18 " 1853
- 1881 " 28 " 1853
- 1891 " 38 " 1853
- 1901 49 " 1851
- 1911 " 58 " 1853
- 1872 marriage record shows age 20 transcribed as 1852
- 1916 death record where it shows he died on May 18, 1916 at 63 yrs, 8 mos, 24 dys which would put his birth in Aug 1953 according to my dismal math.
Yet, Francis Croutch and Elizabeth Smith married 7 Mar 1853. That still leaves the question whether Francis was the actual father.
No, it doesn't explain why Francis uses a T in Croutch when he married Elizabeth, but my Crouch contact doesn't use the T and says it's because she is not descended from Thomas Smith Croutch, but one of his brothers.
And now instead of working/writing, I will email my Crouch contact and share my good news - but first, I'm going to dance around the living room.
Anitamae