Cruwys family tree on Ancestry

When I first started my family history research over twenty years ago I began by compiling the family information in Word files. It soon became too complicated to keep track of all the different family lines in separate files and so I bought a family history program to record all the information. After researching all the available family history programs I settled on Family Historian, which has an excellent reputation and is well-suited for one-name study work. The program has stood me in good stead over the years. I use it to record my own family tree but also all the other Cruwys and Cruse trees I've researched as part of my one-name study. 

When I first tested at AncestryDNA in 2012 I only had a very basic skeleton tree on Ancestry. I didn't get much out of the DNA test in the early years and it was another three years before Ancestry officially launched their test in the UK in 2015. Since then, the database has grown exponentially, allowing me to confirm much of my existing research and also to make some exciting new discoveries. I've found that there are distinct advantages to maintaining a detailed family tree on Ancestry. Having a publicly accessible tree means that I benefit from the Common Ancestor Hints and ThruLines. The more I build out the tree and build down the collateral lines the easier it becomes to work out the relationship to my matches. 

I find that Ancestry's online tree-building platform is by far the easiest to use of all the available options. The powerful hint system makes it very easy to find records. Other family historians will often already have done research into a particular line and found all the relevant census and parish register entries which saves the hassle of spending a long time searching indexes to find the people I'm looking for, especially when the names have been horribly mistranscribed. Many people have generously shared photos as well as images of birth, marriage and death certificates which has been extremely helpful.

For all these reasons, over the last few years I've been slowly going through the process of trying to expand my tree on Ancestry by adding in all the research that I've done over the last twenty years which has been carefully stored in Family Historian. Rather than uploading a GEDCOM file and losing all the linked records and DNA matches I took the decision to curate my tree manually. I am gradually working through all the different branches of my tree adding census entries, uploading certificates and photos and linking them all to my tree. I've benefited greatly from the research that others have shared with me so I am effectively paying forwards the favour. This process has been invaluable in its own right. When I started out I was mostly working with indexed records and transcriptions. Increasingly records have been digitised and I am now able to link to census pages and original parish register records. I'm also making some very interesting new discoveries because of the consolidation process and because the hints often lead me to records which I hadn't previously discovered.

By adding sources to my tree I'm also hoping that my tree will have better exposure on Ancestry so that people can find my research. I'm also hoping that it will help to counter some of the mistakes I've found in some of the other online trees. Ancestry do not tell us how their algorithms work but it seems that the more sources you have linked to a person the more likely it is that your tree will appear in the hints list for other researchers.

I've made good progress but there is still a lot more work to do. However, I'm pleased to report that I've completed the work on my own Cruwys family. My tree on Ancestry now encompasses my own Cruwys family from Winkleigh, the Cruwys Morchard tree, and the Mariansleigh tree. The Winkleigh and Cruwys Morchard trees link together in the mid-1400s. I know from the Y-DNA testing for my Cruwys DNA Project that the Mariansleigh Cruwyses are related to the Winkleigh and Cruwys Morchard families but I have been unable to document the connection. It does not help that the parish registers for the period in question have not survived. However, I have a second connection to the Mariansleigh Cruwyses through the Eastmond family so I was able to link them into one big tree. The Mariansleigh Cruwyses are by far the most numerous branch of the family so it took me some time to add all these records. If you're connected to any of these Cruwys families do check out my tree. You can find it on Ancestry here. If you have any additional information on these families I would be delighted to hear from you.

One of my next steps will be to build out trees on Ancestry for all the other Cruwys families I've researched as part of my one-name study. The Y-DNA project has shown that we have two distinct Cruwys groups which do not share a common ancestor and which belong to two completely different haplogroups. To make the work easier I am intending to upload a GEDCOM file for these other Cruwys families to a separate tree on Ancestry. I will then repeat the process of linking in all the census entries, parish registers and other records. I know it will take me some time to do this but it will be very worthwhile and will help to make my research more accessible.

Tiverton marriages

I have received an impressive collection of marriage certificates from the Tiverton Marriage Challenge courtesy of Guild member Barbara Roach. The Tiverton Registration District is a particular hotspot for the Cruwys surname and has the second highest concentration of Cruwys marriages. (South Molton is the district which has the most Cruwys marriages.) Barbara was able to find all but three of the marriages I requested. I have put details of the marriages she found below with a note of the tree, where known, in brackets. I have sent copy certificates to the researchers who are working on the respective trees. If you are interested in any of these marriages and have not received a certificate please get in touch.

- 1848 The Parish Church, Huish Champflower: Isaac Cruwys, labourer (widower), son of John Cruwys, labourer, and Elizabeth Sexson, daughter of Philip Sexson, labourer (Oakford/Wiveliscombe tree)

- 1852 St Peter's Church, Tiverton: James Cruwys, cordwainer, son of George Cruwys, mason, and Maria Davey, daughter of John Davey (occupation not recorded) (Mariansleigh tree)

- 1856 The Parish Church, Stoodleigh: George Cruwys, labourer, son of William Cruwys, and Ann Wilkins, daughter of John Wilkins, labourer (Witheridge tree)

- 1856 The Parish Church, Bradninch: William Cruwys, farmer, son of William Cruwys, farmer, and Mary Anne Wonson, daughter of William Wonson, farmer (Brushford tree)

- 1860 The Parish Church, Brampton: Mary Ann Crews, daughter of Robert Crews, labourer, and Charles Brice, labourer, daughter of William Brice, labourer

- 1862 The Parish Church, Halberton: Daniel Cruwys, National Schoolmaster, son of Robert Cruwys, and Susanna Ascott, daughter of Thomas Ascott, wheelwright (Mariansleigh tree)

- 1866 The Parish Church, Blackborough: Elizabeth Crews, daughter of John Crews, labourer, and Charles Radford, scythe stone maker, daughter of William Radford, scythe stone cutter

- 1873 St Peter's Church, Tiverton: Samuel Steer Cruwys, wine merchant, son of Robert Cruwys, and Marion Helen Jamieson, daughter of James Jamieson, wine merchant (Mariansleigh tree)

- 1878 The Parish Church, Uffculme: Sarah Crews, servant, daughter of John Crews, sawyer, and John Lemon, son of William Lemon, labourer.

I was particularly pleased to have the details of the marriage of Samuel Steer Cruwys. As some of you might recall from an earlier posting, Samuel emigrated to Australia after his business went into liquidation. With the details from the certificate I have now been able to establish that his wife Marion stayed behind in England. She re-married in 1894, after Samuel's death in Australia, either to George Frederick Bartlett or William Snow.

Barbara is still working on the final stage of the Tiverton marriage challenge which covers the period from 1880 through to 1910. I have submitted a further nine marriages for this period and I look forward to receiving details in due course, if Barbara is able to locate them in the respective marriage registers.

Cruwys of Mariansleigh

I was very pleased to find in my inbox when I returned from holiday an e-mail from Samantha Hill in New Zealand. Sam is a regular reader of Cruwys News and has been researching her Cruwys family for a number of years. Sam is descended from the Mariansleigh Cruwys family. She is the great-granddaughter of George Herbert Cruwys and Anna Agnes Jackson who married in Deptford, London, in 1899. We have had a most useful exchange of information and Sam has been able to fill me in on some of the later generations of her family. She has also solved the long-standing mystery of Jill Cruwys, the England cricketer, who played in the England team, captained by Rachael Heyhoe-Flint, which won the first Women’s Cricket World Cup in 1973. I'd never previously been able to fit Jill into any of my existing trees as the names of her parents were not known. Sam tells me that Jill was the youngest child of Leslie Jackson Cruwys and Margaret Elizabeth Gosling. She is the first cousin of Sam's mother. Jill Cruwys tragically died of breast cancer in 1990 at the age of 47.

The Mariansleigh Cruwys family is the most numerous of all the surviving Cruwys branches. Unfortunately it has not been possible to trace the tree further back than the late 1700s as no baptism has yet been found for the earliest known ancestor George Cruwys, a mason, who died in 1856 in Mariansleigh. George married twice. His first wife was Ann Eastmond, who died in 1841. They produced six children. George’s second wife was Mary Ann Bartlett. They married in 1842, and the marriage certificate informs us that George's father was George Cruwys, a malster. We know from the 1851 census that George junior was born in Mariansleigh. His birth date varies from source to source and he was born any time between about 1781 and 1788. Unfortunately the Mariansleigh parish registers are not very well preserved and there are gaps for this critical period. I’ve also had searches done of the Bishop's Transcripts, but again there are gaps and no record of George's baptism has been found. The best hope now is to find a living Cruwys descendant from this tree who is willing to take a DNA test.

Samuel Steer Cruwys

A number of people seem to disappear from the English records and it is often difficult to establish if they have gone overseas or are simply in hiding under a previously unconsidered mis-spelling of the Cruwys surname. Samuel Steer Cruwys was for a long time on my list of missing persons. He disappeared after the 1871 census and there was no record of his death in the GRO indexes. I have now finally managed to track him down in Australia.

Samuel was born in 1850 in Halberton, Devon. He was the youngest of six children born to Sarah Steer and Robert Cruwys from the prolific Mariansleigh Cruwys family. After a short spell as a publican at the Stuckley Inn in West Worlington Samuel's father became a farmer. The family lived at Alstree Farm in Halberton, which is probably the present-day Alstree House in the Lower Town. By 1871 Samuel had left home and found employment as a wine merchant's assistant working for William Bartlett, a wine merchant and town councillor living in Fore Street, Tiverton. We know that Samuel married in 1873, either to Sarah Ellis or to Marion Helen Jamieson. It was probably around this time that Samuel set himself up in business as a tobacconist and ale, wine and spirit merchant in Bideford. His business did not prosper and Samuel's final appearance in the English records is in 1878 in the London Gazette when his business goes into liquidation. We next find Samuel's name in the indexes to wills in the Queensland State Archives in Australia

I have been unable to find out anything further about Samuel's life in Australia. There are, however, seven people with the surname Cruwys living in Queensland who are listed in the current telephone directory who might well be Samuel's descendants.

Edwin 'boss' Cruwys of South Molton

There are only two births registered in the name Edwin Cruwys in the GRO indexes and it is quite a coincidence that just a few days after writing about Edwin Cruwys the Boer War veteran I have received an interesting newspaper article from Shirley Bray about the wife of the other Edwin Cruwys, who was the uncle of our Coldstream Guard. I thought it would be appropriate to write a short piece about Edwin's life as he seems to have been quite an interesting character. I am indebted to the late David Ryall, the former OPC (online parish clerk) for Chittlehampton and Filleigh, who assisted with the research.

Edwin Cruwys was born in 1854 in Mariansleigh, Devon, the twelfth and youngest child of William Cruwys, a mason, and Mary Meecham. Edwin married Sally Cawsey Webber in 1882. Sally was born in 1858 in Landkey. Edwin was by all accounts quite a character in South Molton. He was known as 'boss' Cruwys and was often seen around town with his 'oss 'n 'earse (horse and hearse). As can be seen from the invoice reproduced below Edwin seems to have had his finger in a number of pies and is described variously as a grocer, tea dealer, pork dealer, undertaker, and post horse proprietor. Edwin and Sally lived at 12 East Street (later renumbered as 9 East Street), where they presumably lived above the shop. Edwin also had a livery stables at South Street where he kept his horses, which is possibly the location of the Unicorn Yard mentioned in the invoice. The picture below is a view of East Street from the early 1900s when Edwin and Sally were living there.Edwin and Sally had just one child, a son called Archibald Edwin Cruwys, born in 1884. Sadly Archibald passed away on 7th March 1897 when he was just 12 years old. Sally died on 22nd February 1925. Her death was reported in the South Molton and West Somerset News on 28th February.

MRS. CRUWYS
We regret to record the death of Mrs. Cruwys, the wife of Mr. Edwin Cruwys, dealer, of Southmolton, which took place on Sunday, at the age of 67. She had been in poor health for some years, and on Saturday, when she appeared to be as usual, she was seized with sudden illness. Medical aid was summoned, but she succumbed early on the following day. Much sympathy is felt with Mr. Cruwys in his unexpected bereavement. Mrs. Cruwys was long associated with the Wesleyan Methodist church, and was highly respected.

Edwin died just three years later on 15th February 1928 at the North Devon Infirmary in Barnstaple. He was buried alongside his wife and son in the South Molton Cemetery. Edwin's estate was valued at just over £3,000 gross and £2,000 net which was then quite a substantial sum for a shopkeeper and undertaker. He left small bequests to the South Molton and Landkey Wesleyan Chapels, but the principal beneficiary was Eva Couch, his faithful domestic servant. Eva was born in 1870 in South Molton, the daughter of William and Emily Couch. Her father was a labourer, and in the 1871 census the family were living at Crispin's Court in South Molton. Eva went to work for Edwin and Sally as a young girl. She was living with them at 12 East Street in both the 1891 and 1901 censuses where she was described as a domestic/general servant. At the time of Edwin's death Eva's address was given as 9 East Street. By this time of course the houses had been re-numbered, so it is clear that Eva continued to live with Edwin until his death. It is not known what became of Eva after Edwin's death but it seems likely that she continued to live in her employer's house and probably stayed there for the rest of her life.

Interestingly the house where Edwin, Sally and Eva lived became known as Crucou House. It is not known whether the house was given this name during Edwin's lifetime or if it was so named after his death. Perhaps Eva named the house in memory of her former employer. CruCou House can be clearly seen in the photograph below which was taken some time in the early 1960s.
CruCou House was demolished in the late 1960s, along with the adjacent property at no. 10 known as Marley House, to make way for a new health centre. The new South Molton Health Centre opened in the autumn of 1968.

Acknowledgements
The colour postcard of East Street is from Shirley Bray's private collection. The black and white photograph is the copyright of Gordon Bray. Both pictures are published by kind permission of Shirley and Gordon Bray. The invoice is in a collection at the South Molton Museum and was kindly supplied by Shirley Bray.

The Coldstream Guards in the Boer War

Ex-Coldstreamer Bill Spence has very kindly sent me a most wonderful photograph of the Coldstream Guards in the Boer War which I am reproducing here with his kind permission.

Unfortunately the names of the men are not known but I would like to think that one of them is Edwin Cruwys.

For further information on the Coldstream Guards see the Wikipedia page.

Edwin Cruwys of the Coldstream Guards

While in the process of sorting out some papers today I came across the service papers of Edwin Cruwys (service no. 9898), who served in the Boer War with the Coldstream Guards. Edwin's medals were auctioned on E-bay in December 2005 and eventually sold to a private buyer for £500. A photograph of Edwin and a copy of his service papers were also included in the sale. I wrote to Bloomsbury the auctioneers to enquire if the buyer might be interested in exchanging information about Edwin. I heard nothing from the buyer but Bloomsbury very kindly offered to send me photocopies of the service papers which duly arrived in the post a few weeks later. I've only now got round to transcribing the papers, and I've discovered that they provide a valuable insight into Edwin's army career.

Edwin was born in 1873 in Chittlehampton, North Devon, the son of Thomas Mitcham Cruwys and Ann Beard. His father was a boot and shoemaker and was from the large Mariansleigh Cruwys family. Edwin worked as a gardener and a cabman before being recruited to join the Coldstream Guards in 1894. He enlisted with the Foot Guards (7th Battalion London Regiment) on 20th October 1894. Edwin served in South Africa during the Boer War from 21st October 1899 to 6th October 2002. He steadily gained promotion through the ranks and by 5th July 1903 he was promoted to Colour Sergeant. His service record shows that he deserted on 30th March 1904, though the reason for his desertion is not given. He rejoined the Army on 2nd June 1906 and was immediately convicted of desertion, the penalty for which was the loss of his kit and a reduction in his rank to Private. The desertion did not appear to count against him and Edwin was rapidly promoted through the ranks and by 1908 he was a Lance Sergeant. The following year he signed up for a further term with the Coldstream Guards in order to complete his 21 years' service. On completing his term of engagement he was discharged from the army, by which time he had been promoted to the rank of Temporary Sergeant Major.

Edwin received three medals during his time with the Coldstream Guards. Firstly, he was awarded the Queen's South Africa Medal with four bars. Three of the bars represented his participation in battles: Belmont (23rd November 1899), Modder River (28th November 1899), and Johannesburg (31st May 1900). The fourth bar was a so-called "State" clasp for service in the Orange Free State. There were so many incidents or battles in this area that it was not considered appropriate to issue a clasp for every individual action. The actions in the Orange Free State covered the period from 28th February 1900 through to 31st May 1902. Edwin's second medal was the King's South Africa Medal with two bars for service in South Africa in 1901 and 1902. The third medal was received for service during World War I. Edwin was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal (Immediate Award) on 26th May 1919 "for valuable services rendered in connection with the War". He was also mentioned in despatches on 24th February 1917. Edwin does not appear to have served overseas during WWI, and it is not clear why he merited such awards. His service record shows that he served at "Home" from 7th October 1902 to 12th July 1919. Home was defined as serving anywhere in England, Scotland or Ireland, though it seems most likely that Edwin was based in London for most of the War.Curiously on 12th April 1921 Edwin was called up for a period of 90 days to cover for "the present emergency", joining the 7th Battalion London Regiment (Defence Force). The precise nature of this emergency is not known. He was discharged on 10th July 1921.

Edwin married Elizabeth Mary Potter in August 1913 at St Mary's Church in Newington, London. By this time Edwin was a Sergeant Instructor with the 2nd Battalion. An account of the wedding reached Devon and was published in the local Chittlehampton newspaper: "The wedding was given a military colour, the bridegroom being held in much respect by his comrades". Edwin and Elizabeth lived at 150 Portland Road, South Norwood, London SW. Edwin died in 1933 at the age of 60. His wife Elizabeth died in 1964 at the age of 82. They did not have any children.

See also the follow-up post "The Coldstream Guards in the Boer War".