About Me- Croston Family History Newsletter

It’s taken a while for me to start this blog because there’s so much information I’ve gathered that it's hard to know where to begin. I decided just to jump in and write about what I know about the family and the stories I've uncovered. Eventually, I’ll launch a Croston Family History website which will contain family trees and other facts. My hope is that this blog will make what might otherwise seem like a list of names and dates come to life.

I became interested in researching my family history around 2008 when my father gave me boxes of research materials to digitize. My stepmother Ann researched my paternal family tree in the 1980s. Her work has been invaluable as she wrote letters and spent many hours in the archives. Some of this information would have been otherwise lost to time.

Before Ann began her research, our family didn’t know much about our history. Our ancestors came from County, Cork Ireland to Bradford, Massachusetts where they worked in the shoe factories of Haverhill. Additionally, the origin of the surname was likely English.

After several letters to the immigration records office, Ann wasn’t able to find the passenger list for our family members from Ireland, but other Irish Crostons in Massachusetts' naturalization documents listed Skibbereen, Ireland as their birthplace. Through various publications and correspondence from other Croston branches, she learned that the surname had its origins in the village of Croston, Lancashire, England.

In October 1987, Ann and my father traveled to Skibbereen where they met and spent time with the Croston family who lived there and afterwards traveled on to Croston, Lancashire, England.

Croston Homestead Ruins, Gortshanecrone (Lick), Skibbereen
County Cork, Ireland, October 1987

The Village of Croston, Lancashire, England
October 1987

After scanning several binders of notes, documents, and newspaper clippings onto my computer, I put the research to the side for about a year. It was all very interesting to me, but as you can imagine, it was a lot of information to absorb. There were several brick walls that Ann had hit, and I didn't have the know-how to get past them. I knew from the start that the Croston research would be tricky, and even today it continues to be evasive at times.

I started working on my entire family tree, starting with my mother’s side. Over the next year or two, I learned how to research and began to really enjoy the process and was ready to research the Croston surname again.

I’ll write about the history of the entire Croston surname throughout the world, tell stories, and report on research I'm doing. My purpose is to share the information with others who are interested in our shared history.

The first few posts will be a general overview of the larger family branches in England and Ireland. Later posts will go into more detail about specific family trees and individuals. Some of the posts will talk about the progress that we’re making through our Croston DNA research group. I’ll do my best to protect privacy of those who are living and not use names, dates, or photos without permission.

For me this is a hobby, and I owe a lot to other Croston family researchers. If you have stories about the family you would like to share, or see any errors in my research, please don't hesitate to contact me at crostongeneaolgy@gmail.com.