Crapp/Cropp possible immigration

[MarkJ]

Hi all,

It seems, from the 1851 Canadian census, that a Catherine Crapp was living in the Whitby sub district of Ontario.
There is reason to suspect that this lady - shown as a widow in 1851 - was the second wife of a James Crapp.

So far, I have not found any record of immigration for Catherine (and hopefully James too) to Canada and was wondering if any of our Canadian members may be able to suggest where to look.

On the 1851, Catherine is apparently with a family called Keast - also from Cornwall, so the Crapps may have travelled with the Keasts, but I have no proof of that.

Anything at all would be great

I am not certain that this Catherine is going to be the right one - but she is certainly a strong possible at the moment! The surname is Crapp, however it is sometimes seen as Cropp, Crapps or Cropps....

Thanks in advance!

Mark

Edit: Thought I had better just add that I have read through Mary Anne's sticky

[Mary Anne]

MarkJ

The best I can suggest is that you contact the local folks in the area.

Whitby Township is in Ontario County, so the Ontario County GenWeb would be your most likely starting point.

That early, probably a good source is any land transactions by Crapp/Cropp or Keast. Often local historical groups hold the land books and often the local folks are happy to do lookups and send you photocopies.

I did find two Keasts in the Canadian County Atlas Digitization Project online (although they are not in Whitby Township). These atlases are useful snapshots of who has land in a county in the late 1870s when the atlases were created. Often they have additional info like when the person settled, so you can then take the land description and look backwards in the land books to see when they may have bought the land; they have old maps too. I found:

Georg W. Keast; Post office: St. Ives (suggests at least a few with ties to Cornwall?!); Nissouri West Twp, Middlesex County, Lot 24, Con. IV, 100 acres; Occupation: Farmer, Councillor; Birthplace: England; Year settled: 1857; Atlas date: 1878

Edward Keast; Darlington Twp, Durham County, Lot 25, Con. III, 100 acres; Atlas date: 1878

You may also want to see if there is anything from the 1848 census of the area. Again, one of the local societies may have a transcription or index. These are usually censuses of heads of household only but it can tell you numbers of people in the household and possibly something about the land and produce.

The local area folks may also hold old BMD registers or transcriptions thereof, so you may find entires in those (civil registration in Ontario didn't start until 1869), especially for James Crapp's death. A quick search fo the Ontario Cemetery Finding Aid didn't find him, but I only looked under the one spelling.

There MAY be a local directory for the period.

Check all of the links on the Ontario County GenWeb, and see where they lead...


Mary Anne

[MarkJ]

Thanks Mary Anne I have put out a few feelers but no joy so far - although I do have hopes that I can find something eventually.

There is a probable connection here in the UK between the Keast family and Catherine - her maiden name was Tabb and there is a connection there between the Tabb and Keast families which reinforces the possibility that there was a reason for Catherine to be living with the Keasts.

Still trawling through various Canadian links

Mark

[Mary Anne]

Good luck, Mark. In the time period you are looking at, it is really harder to do long-distance, alas. :-(

Maybe you need a trip to Canada?

[AdeleE]

As you know, on the 1851 Canada West census Catherine is recorded on line 28 of p. 50d, 51a, (265) of the Whitby township district:

https://automatedgenealogy.com/census...s.jsp?sdid=350

If you look at the next page 51b, 51c, (266), which records further information on each person, her status on line 28 of this page is marked "member (of the family)" in column 13.

[MarkJ]

Cheers Adele - useful info! I take it from the second page that they were iving in a log cabin?

Mark

[AdeleE]

Yes, they lived in a log house, better than a shanty, but not as nice as a frame house.

I notice on various message boards some talk of John & Maria Keast, where Maria is identified as being a Tabb.

Adele

[Keastconnect]

I would agree with everything put forward.

Catherine is indeed the mother of Maria Tabb who married John Keast (my 2nd cousin 5x removed).

Catherine married James Crapp on 30th July 1831 in St Columb Major (date of his death/burial is not known at the moment).

Cheers,

Phil

[MarkJ]

Thanks Phil!

Another of the Crapp researchers also agreed that Maria was the daughter of Catherine
We have a date for the baptism of Maria as being 20 February 1805 in St Columb.

As you say, Catherine married James Crapp - she was his second wife - and they married 30 July 1831. It would seem highly likely that both James and Catherine sailed to Canada - there is no death registered which fits the bill in the UK BMDs or in the records for St Columb Major (where he would be most likely to be buried if in the UK).

I have some census records for the Keast family in Canada, although I must admit that I have not really looked at them as yet - I was sidetracked with another family branch!

Mark