Daniel Cornelius Crew

[Helina]

Hi

Thank you, have the photo somewhere.  You asked what relation to the Crew family, quite distant via marriage.

My great Aunt x 3 Elizabeth Coole born 1842 Bristol married Alfred Blakeney son of William Blakeney and Virgin Crew, I expect you know she was a sister to Daniel Crew born 1803.  Its the Coole/Williams families I am researching but gone back as far as I can so now researching side ways.

Thank you for the certificates, the only certificate I have is the marriage cert for Elizabeth and Alfred  and Alfred and 1st wife Annie Lawful

[hughtin]

Fred Drew Birth certificate, Fred,s Christening can be found on following website http://HTTP://frostbitten.net/Jamal/index.php/, its a bit of a pain to search as you have to register.
Fred's christening states that the family were living in a tent at the time.
Cornelius's life appears to be a bit of a sad story, in trouble with the law, he did a stretch of hard labour for stealing a pig.
Not really sure why he charged his name, there is a family story that he was in trouble with the local gypsies, but that is just a story, although I have been in contact with one of Daniels descendants and she had heard the same story. I guess that through his travels he came into contact with various traveling communities, but cant really see why changing his name would help. I wonder if he may have married his third wife bigamously, as I cannot find a trace of what happend to his second wife, but that is only a guess I have no evidence.

Martin

[hughtin]

Hi Thank you for the certificate always interesting.

It took me a long time to find the the Crew connection, my Grandfarther (Cornelius grand son) had never met his granfather and only new him as George Drew, although he had been told that the family name had been Crew.  The Crew family appear to have been in the Hawksbury area certainly back to the 16 century. Evidence gets pretty unreliable though when you get that far back.

I will tell the Daniels descendant about your post, in case she can add anything.

All the best with your research Martin

[Lindy Freedman]

My son in law is a 'Crew' who was born near Mansfield. Via Ancestry I was able to get back to the 1500's with the Crew surname in the Forest of Dean area.
Cornelius certainly seems to have been a colourful character.  I was able to access the information about the pig and the horse.  My son in law told me his family name had changed from Drew to Crew, he was surprised to find out it was originally Crew, then Drew then back to Crew but he told me he had heard the name had changed due to issues with gypsies.  It must have been quite serious because I found that four of the children of one son who had moved to the Staffordshire area were baptised 'Drew' on the same day, I know they were Wesleyans so whether it was to change denomination or to hide their identify I am not sure but the family moved again to the Mansfield area.  I am not sure of the dates now but it could have been Cornelius's grandchildren.  My son in laws great granddad was Daniel Crew who won a medal and was then killed in WWII. I have handed over all the paperwork for my granddaughters memory box so I may have missed a generation out.  My son in laws granddad was Dennis.