I found a branch of my tree where the children all had Crackles as their middle name. Not being one to miss a clue, I decided that this must be something to do with the maternal line. However, as I failed to uncover anybody named Crackles, I rather let it slip. Recently though, I thought I would trace the antecedants of my 3xg aunt. Her name Nichols was not very exciting and rather too common for comfort and this line had been ignored to date because there were no children of the marriage. Imagine my delight to find that the mother was a Crackles. Double delight, because it confirmed I had the right person and it also made sense of the middle name.
Next step, a bit of random googling, which produced a contact also researching Crackles and an e-mail back with a link to a tree going back to 1580. Not overly exciting because of the tenuous links I have with that family, but a good result nonetheless. Definitely something to share however.
