The Croal Family of Guiana

[rnewfie]

Can anyone please provide any information about the Croal family.
I would like to confirm if I am barking up the right (family) tree, so to speak.

I'll start off with what we do know :-
My grandmother's name was Marie (Marion) May Croal, born Q3 1899 in Great Clacton, Essex.
Her father's name was John Park Croal, born 17/08/1838 in Liverpool. Although the 61 years between Marie and her father seems wrong, her mother was born in 1868.
John Park Croal's father was Alexander Croal and his mother was Mary Park.

Now comes the speculative bit which needs confirming :-
John Park Croal's siblings were :-
Alexander Croal, born 11/07/1836 in Greenock. He apparently died in Georgetown, Guiana in Feb, 1853;
William Park Croal, born 9/10/1840 in West Derby (possibly Liverpool) and died Aug 1887 at sea in Rangoon;
Robert Weir Croal, born 1845 (don't know where) and died 5/5/1897 in Shanghai;
Isobella Sophia Croal, died Mar 1849 in Stepney, London.
Their father's name was Alexander Croal, born 3/5/1802 in Arbroath. In Greenock in 1834, he married a Mary Park, born 14/1/1808 in Greenock. He was a Master Mariner/Captain and in 1823 is recorded as living in Georgetown, Guiana. Is this the same Alexander Croal and Mary Park above, i.e. my great grandparents?

I have seen mention of a Mary Park being a 'British Guianan Colonist', whatever that is.

Is this Alexander Croal one of the British Guianan Croals which presumably Croal Street was named after?

Any information would be appreciated.

[hoolianama0508]

I have seen mention of a Mary Park being a 'British Guianan Colonist', whatever that is.

I have 2 theories on Mary:
1) She was born in England and moved with her family to British Guiana
2) She was born in British Guiana to British parents, thus being a colonist.

 I did notice mention of a judge named, Honorable John Croal when I attempted a google search on the last name in Guiana.

" On the 15th ult., at sea, on his passage to America, the Hon. John Croal, of Demerara, West Indies."  [Note:  British Guiana is sometimes referred to as Demerara, which is a river near Georgetown]. I wonder if the street is named after him?

THis is the link to that reference: http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nyggbs/VitalRecords/DeathsAtoC.pdf

Perhaps he could be an important family member.

I hope this could be of some help to you.

[Pastmagic]

http://www.waughfamily.ca/Aimer/MIBarryChurchyard.pdf

Is this your source for the info? Have you got any BMd's or Census records at the English end - to save people looking up what you have already?

An interesting challenge!
1851 Census
Mary Croal     Head 42  born greenoak scotland Wife of Master Mariner 14 Grove Rd (Sp) Mile end.
Alexander Croal    14  born Grrenoak Scotland
John Croal    12 born Liverpool
William Croal    10 born liverpool
Robert Croal    8  ditto
Mary Croal    5 born Stepney
Mary A Smith    15 Servant
   

[Pastmagic]

There are quite a few Croals on the British Guiana Colonists lists:

http://www.vc.id.au/tb/

CROAL, Alexander

    * Died: 16 2 1842, Werk-en-Rust

CROAL, Alexander (Married PARK, Mary)

    * Married: 19 8 1834, Greenock

CROAL, Charles Robertson

    * Died: 27 3 1862, Georgetown

CROAL, Elleanor Jane (Married Name: NEISCHER. Married NEISCHER, John)

    * Born: of this colony
    * Married: 26 10 1834, Banns of Matrimony

CROAL, James Augustus

    * Born: 16 4 1895, Demerara

CROAL, John

Also:
PARK, Mary (Married Name: CROAL. Married CROAL, Alexander)

    * Born: of Greenock
    * Married: 19 8 1834, Greenock


    * Died: 15 5 1853, at sea

[gareth_1971]

Not sure whether this topic has been completed yet but a little extra info to add -

Your Grandmother, Marie May (Marion) CROAL was the daughter of John Park CROAL (1838-1908) born in Liverpool and dying in Great Clacton and Annie Louise DEAN (1868-1940) born in New Cross, London and dying in Battersea, London.

Marion's siblings were Annie Park CROAL (1892-1893), John Park CROAL (1893-1956) and Daisy Agnes CROAL (1896-1915).

Her father (1838-1908) was the son of Captain Alexander CROAL (1802-1888) born in Arbroath, Scotland and dying in 1876 in the shipwreck 'Lawton' off the Island of Fidra and Mary PARK (1808-1856) born in Greenock and dying in London.  At the time of his death Captain Alexander was married to Susan RAITT whom I believe he married after Mary died.

Captain Alexander was the son of John CROAL (1765-1825) born and dying in Arbroath and Isobel WHITTON (1758-1822) who also died in Abroath. 

Captain Alexander had a number of siblings, Robert (1794-), James (1791-), Mary (1799-), Colin (1796-) however it was Captain Alexander's other sibling John (1789-1853), my wife's GGGG Grandfather, who has the biggest connection to Guyana. He was elected the First Mayor Georgetown in May 1836 and owning a number of plantations there including 'Palymra' and 'Goodhope' the latter from which he sold lots to ex-slaves and donated land to set up a mission.  It was this John Croal after whom Croal Street in Georgetown is named.  He died on 15 May 1853 en route to America on the ship 'Derwent'.  He had a number of children including Charles Roberston CROAL (1820-1862) my wife's GGG Grandfather, Eleanor Jane CROAL, Peter Ross CROAL, Julia CROAL, John Conrad CROAL all born in Guyana.

Feel free to contact me if you need any help following this

[Skoosh]

I came across a family of Croal's who were spice merchants in the West Indies and retired to Bute, must have a look-see.

Skoosh.

[rnewfie]

gareth_1971 - Thanks for that information.
I have fed it into my history file and produced the following PDF, which should show how we are related.
If I read it correctly, your wife is the GG grand-daughter of either Emma Simonetta, or Anna M Croal.
www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~rnewfie/Family_History/John%20CROAL.pdf

[Skoosh]

Mewfie,  a genealogy of these Croil's, (spelling probably unimportant) from Christopher Long's marvelous website,

http://www.christopherlong.co.uk/gen/croilgen/index.html

Hope you find a match!

Skoosh

[draitt]

I came across this discussion whilst looking for a different Alexander Croal, born Jan 1801 in Arbroath. In the 1871 census for Barry, there is an AC, born 1803 (actually May 1902), who is a retired ship master with daughter Mary W. In 1881 he is there with daughter Mary Weir MacQorcadell and family. I was trying to find whether this AC was related to my AC who was also a master mariner. I had found the master mariner certificates of competency and the ships served on for Alexander Croal, but it gave his date of birth as 18 Jan 1802 instead of 1801, but since the other AC was born May 1802 and had a daughter born in London (where one of them took their master's exams while second mate aboard the Palmyr of London), then I was thinking that perhaps the certificates were those of the other ("your") AC rather than mine!

Reading further down the posts, I came across the very recent posting of Gareth1971 and I believe the similarity of names has possibly caused confusion. The Alexander Croal who was drowned in the wreck of the Lawton off Fidra on 29 Nov 1875 aged 75 was indeed the husband of Susan Raitt (sister to my gg grandfather John Raitt). However, they had no children, and his parents were Alexander Croal (also a ship master - died before 1839) and Jean Laurance (abt 1764-March 1839).

On the birth extract for "my" Alexander Croal, born 1801, one of the witnesses was given as John Croal - but whether this is baby's grandfather or a brother or other relative of Alexander, father of the baby Alex, I have not yet ascertained.

The Captain Alexander Croal mentioned by Gareth was indeed the son of John Croal and Isobel Witton and was born on 3 May 1802 in Arbroath. And it may be that this John is the witness mentioned above.

I have had a look at the family tree pdf from rnewfie and I am not sure of a link yet between the two Alexander Croals both born in Arbroath within a year or so of each other. I do have some stuff up on my Raitt family history site about AC, but am in the process of uploading more on the wreck of the Lawton. And I do have in my master file his various siblings (i.e. children of Alexander Croal/Jean Laurance). And I'm happy to provide or check what I can for you.

Regards

David Raitt