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The Crofts family

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From the 1700's (and possibly earlier) through to the present day, many of the Crofts family have lived in the village of Crick just two and a half miles away from West Haddon and Winwick where the Orland family was evolving during the 1700's and 1800's. The two families would become related in 1939 through the marriage of William Orland to Elsie Crofts. (My grand-parents.)



The oldest Crofts record that I have linked to our family line so far is of John Crofts, baptised 1766 in Crick. In 1780 he married Elizabeth Underwood, born the same year - and both seemingly only 14 years of age!

In 1790 they had a son, Joseph, who married Sarah Salsbury. Joseph and Sarah's children were all baptised in Crick as follows:

• Thomas - baptised 4th August 1811
• John - baptised 12th June 1814
• Henry - baptised 19th May 1816
• William - baptised 1818
• Elizabeth - baptised 23rd September 1821
• Richard - baptised 1824
• Joseph - baptised 1826
• Ann - baptised 1829

From these offspring, my great great great granddad was John Crofts, 1814.
In 1838, he married Mary Lee (born in Crick, 1816) and they had seven children:

• John - 1839
• Sarah - 1841
• Elizabeth - 1842
• Charles - 1848 Married Martha Underwood, moved to Michigan, USA, and continued the family there.
• Thomas - 1851 (My great-great granddad.)
• William - 1851 (A twin brother to Thomas.)
• Alfred - 1854

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For many of the above facts, I am very grateful to several kind people, all of whom have turned out to be distant cousins! In particular I would like to thank; Jane Aires, Wendy Monaco, Chris Donaldson and Sheila Dixon (nee Crofts) for their generous and helpful contributions to the Crofts family tree.

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In 1873, Thomas married Sarah Jane Crisp and had five children of their own: Annie - 1876 John - 1878 Sarah - 1880 Edith - 1883 and..... Albert - 1885 - My great grandfather, pictured on the right with Letitia (formerly Cook) whom he married in 1910 at St. Peters, Coventry, where they continued to live and raise their family. Close inspection of the photograph appears to show an absence of wedding rings so it would suggest a pre-1910 sitting. (Possibly an Engagement photograph.)

Letitia Cook was one of nine children. Her Grandfather, Thomas Cook, married Ann Calven in Sundon, Bedfordshire in 1835, and had a son named James in 1837. In 1871 James married Letitia Ellis, daughter of William and Mary Ellis (formerly Woodard) from Harlington in Bedfordshire. Their nine children were....

• Ellen
• George - 1874
• Mary - 1876
• Annie - 1879
• John - 1883
• Letitia - 1887
• Ada - 1891
• Elsie - 1893
• Frederick - 1896

My Grandmother Elsie was the third of seven children born to Albert and Letitia, but sadly, two of them (Dorothy May, born 1913 and Bernard James, 1920) died before reaching their second birthdays.