Message from Kateyas
Hello and thank you for a quick attempt to help. Much appreciated. I live in Australia so distant is hindering me a bit, and I'm not in contact with any of my many cousins in the Old Dart.
My gt.grandfather's surname was always 'Marsh', his mother's single name, and would not have any bearing on family records in Nottingham - unless his birth was registered there - I can't find any birth registration records for that either, anywhere.
An aunt, my mother's youngest sister put together a family history for all the [9] siblings of their family group, this is where the details I've provided came from, and what was passed on in the family oral history, except that gt.grandad in my aunt's story, was said to have been born in Herne Workhouse, near his mother's home area of Blean, Kent. So what is true? In all the census records he was recorded as being born in Basford, Nottingham, so we have to believe that part of it . His forenames were Frank Alfred; he gave all his sons the second name of 'Crossland' in recognition of their paternal grandparentage.
Before I had re-read my aunt's booklet, I decided to check through 'Crossland' in the various Census records, and especially 1851. I hadn't remembered that his father's name was said to be 'Frank', so I decided that gt.grandad was probably named after his father so would be 'Frank' or 'Alfred'. The only match for age and small other details was an 'Alfred Crossland', born C1835 to James and Sarah Crossland; he was a bleacher, and he did not appear in any other Census reports as far as I could see, or death records. However, the ONLY Crossland I found in records of either officers or 'other ranks, in the British Army in India during the years of the Indian Mutiny was 'Alfred Crossland' in the 6th Dragoons. He died C1858 in Ambala, Haryana Province [I don't have the records immediately to hand], note - not 'killed'. But it would all fit.
My theory is that there has been some aggrandisement because of Frank Alfred's illegitimacy, but the story does seem quite elaborate for a boy who left school at 12 and was only ever an 'ag worker and woodcutter' to make up. But not impossible. And Basford is the key, I believe.
