Croston Family History Newsletter

This week test results from J.Croston, a man with ancestral origins in Lancashire, England matched my father (tester R.Croston) with ancestral origins in Schull, Cork, Ireland. This is very exciting for those of us with Irish roots! The test is called the Big-Y DNA test. It is the highest level test that a male can take. It traces a mans father's father's father into ancient times and it is very detailed. Several Croston men have taken the 12, 25 or 37 marker test over the past few years. This has allowed us to confirm who is related through closer Croston lines. J. Croston had previously matched another man with Lancashire origins (tester A. Croston). These 2 men are more closely related to each other than to the Irish families. 2 other Croston families have been identified over the past year or so. Although the 3 families are not related through the same paternal Croston family, it is possible they may be related through a son that was born to a single woman who pass...

Dr. John Francis Croston was well known and loved in Haverhill and his name appeared many times in newspaper articles and books. I have been told there is a memorial plaque dedicated to him in the town of Haverhill but I've never seen in person. If you are going to Haverhill or live there, I would like to see a picture of it, if does exist. Mary Frances (nee Ferrell), Rose Elaine, George Henry (front), John Francis (back), Francis and Mary Genevieve Croston Dr. Croston was born on the 25th of September 1855 in Bradford. His parents had immigrated separately from County Cork Ireland to Bradford where his father George was a farmer. Despite John's humble beginning as a farmers son, he earned a medical degree from New York University and then returned to Haverhill in 1880 to set up his practice. In 1881, John married Mary Frances Ferrell, a blacksmiths daughter from Lawrence, MA. John and Mary had 4 children: Frank b.1882, Mary b.1884, and George and Elaine (who were t...

In Part 1 of this article I wrote about the origin of my family line that immigrated from County Cork, Ireland to Bradford, Massachusetts. My ancestor John W. Croston's younger siblings Thomas Croston and Sarah (nee Croston) Baker and their sons were the first to immigrate. They lived in a house on Summer Street in Bradford. Their sons worked in the Haverhill shoe factories. In 1850 when Thomas and Sarah settled in Bradford the population was just over 1,300 people. If you look at the map below you see the location of the house on Summer Street. You will also see an arrow pointing to the home of  F. Crostin, only a few blocks away on Main Street. No knowledge of the relationship of any other Croston family in the area to my family tree was passed down through the generations. This F. Crostin was Francis (Frank) Croston. Frank arrived in Boston before 1839. Frank married Susan Love in Boston 18 May 1839. In 1840 the couple had settled near 145 Purchase St. in Boston....

In my first post: About Me- Croston Family History Newsletter , I wrote about how I got started researching my family tree. I soon discovered that my immigrant ancestors from Ireland were John Croston, who married Margaret Attridge and their son Frank Croston. They immigrated to the United States sometime in the 1850's. In addition, Ann and I researched a few other Irish families in the Boston area that shared the surname Croston hoping to find a larger family group. Through this research I became aware of 2 more Croston families that settled in the same town as my family: Bradford, Massachusetts (now part of Haverhill). No connection between the families could be found in the records, but it seemed too coincidental that unrelated families with such a rare surname, would settle in the same place at the approximate same time. Unravelling this mystery later lead me to discover where my ancestors lived in County Cork, Ireland. Haverhill is a town 35 miles north of Boston, Mas...

There are 2 theories about the origin of the Croston surname in County Cork, Ireland. The first is that they were Huguenots who settled in Ireland in the late 1600’s and the second is that the family came from Croston, Lancashire, England. Both of these theories are based on the sound of the name- it does not sound Irish and that most of the Croston early lines in County Cork were Protestant/ Church of Ireland. The Huguenots were French protestants who fled their homeland in fear of religious persecution in the mid to late 1600’s. Many Huguenots who settled in western County Cork adopted the principles of the Church of Ireland and 2 examples of these families had the surnames Dukelow (originally Duclos) and Camier. The Huguenot families lived on the same land and went to the same church as the English settlers. They were part of the same community and the groups intermarried for generations. Here the use of DNA testing has been extremely informative. The Y-DNA of 4 men: my f...