Joseph Alexander Croxall - Stuck for ideas on where to look next for information

[cbissell]

Hi everyone,
I've been looking into a brick wall in the family tree where a family member appears to have served as Chief Mate aboard a british ship during the 1800s. The only information I have so far is his name and possible rank of Chief Mate taken from his son's marriage certificate in 1920 (also listing him as deceased). His name is spelt in several variations on different documents also:
Joseph Alexander Croxall
Joseph Alexander Britton Croxall
Joseph Alexander Brittham Croxall
Joseph Alexander Brittain Croxall
Croxxall
Croxhall
Croaxall

I have searched across the following sites (of course always the chance I missed something):
Ancestry
FindMyPast
MyHeritage
FamilySearch
Archive.org
Google
Google Books
RootsChat military resources thread
National Archives UK

To avoid confusion there appear to be at least 3 generations of Joseph A Croxall, the sailor, his son a miner and his grandson. His son the miner is the last one I've managed to trace but only back until 1890 where he was locked up for drunken behaviour a year prior to his first marriage. This Joseph was born around 1865 and appears may've been born "At Sea".

For ease of information, I've been updating his profile here:
https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/GSSH-PDR
(link is to the person in question, Joseph the Chief Mate)

I'm reeeeeeeally stuck for ideas on where to go from here and really happy to hear anything anyone has to offer.

Thanks for your time everyone,
Corey

[Ashtone]

Hi Corey - several questions from me below...

1. I know this is over-stating the obvious, but could JABC (you say born c1865) have "invented" a father when he married in 1891? Does he list the same occupation (sailor) for his father on the 1920 marriage record?

2. Have you located JABC in the 1921 census? If so, what is his birth year and birth place?
Looks like 1865 and "At Sea".

3. I note JABC's Prison date of 20 Jan 1890 (HMP Wakefield). The record image indicates he was Baptist and his place of birth was Aldershot.  Birth year c1856. Surname also listed as "Croscall".

4. Some records have JABC's birth year as c1855. Any sign of a birth reg for him from 1850 to 1860?

Sounds like the way forward is to locate JABC's birth/baptism, and find him in the 1861-1891 census reports. Perhaps he had a sly name change by 1890/91.

ADDED: 1891 census: There's a Joseph B Croxwell (Coal Miner, born 1856 Lucknow) boarding in Pontefract. If this chap is JABC then he's all over the shop with his birth place locations! Hence my thinking that he invented a father.

[cbissell]

Cheers for the response, I've seen that in some records he is listed as being born in 1855 (also possible typo in either case). I've tried looking for any records for his and similar names so far as even looking at each individual Joseph Croxall I've found and matching their marriages, death locations and births etc. That has allowed me to eliminate several people that other's have listed in their family tree but still nothing concrete.

And yup, always possible he fabricated his father's occupation, especially with a location name such as "Croxall" however I can't really work on that basis so I'm currently relying on information I've managed to confirm:
- My ancestor Harry Elliott married Mary Ann Croxall who lists JABC the miner as her father, census records used from 1911 and then 1901 to confirm. DNA testing matches me against a descendant from a parallel line - Joseph Alexander Croxall (the miner's son - third known generation of the name). This seems to confirm the census record as being correct.
- Census record for 1911 lists birth location as at sea
- Marriage of JABC the miner to Mary Ann Blower lists JABC the sailor as occupation sailor
- Marriage of JABC the miner to Ethel May Daines lists JABC the sailor as occupation Chief Mate OHMS and as deceased
- Electoral rolls confirm address listed as church street in 1918 as having JABC the miner and Mary Ann Croxall living at the same address, moving to a new address the following year, JABC the miner living at that same address until 1927 when Ethel May Croxall appears there with him (Mary Ann no longer appears after 1920 from memory).

Haven't had access to 1921 census unfortunately (out of work at the moment so doing what I can through where I can - library Ancestry access etc).

1901 census lists a birth location as Swadlincote. So varying birth locations I'm not able to confirm where he was in fact born without locating his birth records


But yeah, I'm not restricting my search to one of the spellings nor to a single decade in hopes I can find even a relative I can zero in on him by. I have seen a Joseph Croxall served in the East India Company under Lieutenant Colonel Jacob Thompson of Bath however his will (available on NA UK) is dated 1826 which is too early for one of the confirmed identities.
https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D197224

Cheers,
Corey

[cbissell]

2. Have you located JABC in the 1921 census? If so, what is his birth year and birth place?
Looks like 1865 and "At Sea".

I noticed your update, was that on the '21 census? If so do you have a copy that you might be able to share?! I know it's on the 1911 census like that.

Anyway, I also just remembered to mention I've also been abusing the GRO lookup servers, going year by year looking for births of "Joseph Cro*" without much luck either. I've also tried doing lookups on some other british colony BDM websites where possible with no luck either.

[Ashtone]

He appears in the 1921 census on FindMyPast. You can see his full name, birth year, and birth place without having to purchase the record.

So two census reports mention born "At Sea". And the 1891 census lists "Lucknow" for his birth. So could he have been born in India (or at sea nearby)?

Quite a few records indicate c1855 for his birth year. They don't look like transcription errors to me.

Interesting that his religion is Baptist on the 1890 prison record. Could that mean his was a Non-Conformist baptism somewhere?
Also, I'm pretty sure the birth place is Aldershot on the prison record image. But it might be worth others to have a gander at the place name.

Question: Have you found any newspaper reports for him? There might be one for his 1890 drunk charge, but it depends how is named is spelled by OCR text.

[cbissell]

Ahhhh no worries then, that agrees with the 1911 record. Nah haven't found any newspaper clippings, but yeah I often find the OCR is unreliable so I might have to manually look through newspapers from the area around that that time. I did think about the possibility of India but haven't found any records around there either. There are a couple of results but none with Joseph's name, only one I found that was definitively a Croxall and that was a handwritten slip simply mentioning the death of a wife of someone who carried the Croxall surname (her first name isn't really legible to me).