Ken Cruse obituary

Guild member Audrey Town has very kindly sent me in the post an obituary from her local paper the Huddersfield Examiner. The obituary reads as follows:

Ken Cruse
April 17, 2009
87 years young, peacefully and surrounded by love our dear Ken, beloved sweetheart of Doris, husband of the late Emily, father of Ken, Barbara and Mac, 'on loan' father of Ann and June. Greatly loved by all his Grandchildren, Great-Grandchildren, Daughters-in-law and Sons-in-law.

The Funeral will take place at Huddersfield Crematorium on Monday, April 27 at 1.30 p.m. Flowers or donations in lieu are welcome for The British Heart Foundation, for which a plate will be provided. Any enquiries to Highfields. Tel: 428243.

I do not currently have Ken Cruse in one of my reconstructed trees, and Yorkshire is not normally a county associated with the Cruse surname. On checking the GRO indexes I've discovered that Ken was born in the West Derby Registration District in 1922. I therefore suspect that he is descended from the Liverpool Cruses. Do please get in touch if you have any information on this line. Thank you Audrey for sending me this obituary.

Cruse of Liverpool

One of my new DNA project members is descended from the Liverpool Cruses and as a result I have spent some time over the last few days working on his family tree. The certificates from the Guild's Liverpool Marriage Challenge were very timely, and four of these new certificates have now been linked into the Liverpool tree. The Liverpool line can so far be taken back to William Cruse, a tinman, who was born about 1811 in Lancashire, and his wife Agnes. They had two known children: John Moreton Cruse (c.1836-1899) and William Hugh Cruse (born 1840). Nothing further is yet known of William Hugh Cruse, but I now have a lot of information on the descendants of John Moreton Cruse. John married Margaret Bird in 1858, and they had ten children, four of whom died in infancy. The middle name Moreton was given to four of their children. John followed in his father's footsteps and worked as a tinplate maker. By 1881 he was described as a safemaker. From the addresses where the family lived we suspect that John worked at Milner's safe factory in Liverpool. Two of John's sons, William and Alfred, also appear to have worked at the factory.

There is still much work to be done on the Cruses of Liverpool and there are many names which are not yet linked together. I suspect that there are a number of different Cruse lines in Liverpool with some at least originating in Ireland. It will be interesting to see if the DNA results match with any of the English Cruse lines or with any of the Irish Cruises.

Liverpool marriages

I have received a bumper pile of Guild marriage certificates from the Liverpool Marriage Challenge. Guild member Susan Atkins kindly offered to search the parish registers in the Liverpool Registration District from 1882 to 1911 to find marriages for Guild-registered names. I had a surprisingly large total of 14 Cruse marriages in this time frame and Susan was able to find nine of the 14 marriages. The remaining five marriages will probably have taken place in the Register Office, and details of these marriages can only be obtained by ordering the certificates. I have been aware for some time of a cluster of Cruses in Liverpool but have not yet had a chance to investigate this line. In the meantime I have listed below outline details of all the certificates I’ve received. I would be pleased to hear from anyone researching these lines and would be happy to provide copies of the certificates:

1882 The Parish Church Liverpool: William CRUSE, tin plate worker, son of John CRUSE, and Emma Jane FAIRHURST

1891 St Nicholas Church, Liverpool: Catherine CRUSE née McCUSKER, widow, and Thomas McCAFFREY

1892 St Simon’s Church, Liverpool: John Francis CRUSE, carter, son of Peter CRUSE, driver, and Esther Jane LOFTHOUSE

1898 St Stephen the Martyr, Liverpool: Sarah CRUSE, daughter of Patrick CRUSE, van driver, and Michael FINN

1898 The Parish Church, Liverpool: Ellen CRUSE, daughter of Patrick CRUSE, van driver, and John PASSEY

1898 The Parish Church, Liverpool: Alfred CRUSE, labourer, son of John CRUSE, labourer, and Mary Catherine GAVIN

1906 The Parish Church, Liverpool: Mabel CRUSE, daughter of William Henry CRUSE, labourer, and Ernest Henry MARSH

1908 St Nicholas’s Church, Liverpool: John CRUSE, window cleaner, son of William CRUSE (deceased), lamplighter and Mary RANDLES

1909 The Parish Church, Liverpool: Mary Elizabeth CRUSE, daughter of William CRUSE, safebreaker, and John Macdonald