Ancestry - From France

[tenterfieldjulie]

I see that the Canadian version of Ancestry were offering some free French records over last weekend. My OH had an ancestor Emily Ducroix, who they think was born in Brittany - she married an Irish man who was with the Kings Own Regiment and they had a son, John McCrohon, born in Portugal. I always thought it would be too hard to trace their records, but I'm now wondering about the French version of Ancestry. My question is - does anyone know what language it would be in? Would you have to be able to speak French? :eek::eek: Julie

[kiterunner]

A lot of their French records are in French, yes, but if you want help with it there is bound to be someone on here who can translate. But I have to say, I don't think there is much French stuff on ancestry at all, not worth upgrading to the world sub for. I would say you would be best to find the marriage between Mr McCrohon and Emily before trying to trace her back.

[tenterfieldjulie]

Hi kiterunner,
Yes I would love to find John McCrohon's marriage to Emily Ducroix - unfortunately unless someone has found it lately, the best information I have is that it was somewhere between 1820 to 1827 in Belgium or France. John was with the King's Own Regiment who were with Wellington in the Peninsular War. Their son John was born in Portugal in July 1827, not much to go on unfortunately. John Senior was born in Limerick C1795 and he and two of his brothers/cousins enlisted in the Kings Own. Emily was born around 1798?
I did go to the Archives at Kew, but I only had a few hours and I really needed to be better prepared, hopefully next time. Cheers Julie

[Ammanda Schutz]

Julie: Wonder if you have this information from Alison regarding John McCrohon Sr..
'Meanwhile, on the other side of my family tree ... during this time frame, one of my ancestors John MCCROHON who was born in 1795 in Ireland, attested for the 4th or King's Own Regiment of Foot soldiers at Ceuta, an autonomous Spanish port on the Moroccan coast, in 1810.
On his fifteenth birthday but not being of age could not be listed for active service until he turned eighteen in 1813, serving in both Africa and Portugal. On May 16, 1816 he was appointed the regimental drummer and the regiment was transferred to France as part of the British Occupation Force after the battle of Waterloo. Whilst serving there John met Amelia DUCROIX (born 1798) who is said to have been the daughter of a French Army officer or diplomat and apparently was promised to another but she eloped with John and they married and she was subsequently disowned by her family. Given that France and England were still recovering from the Napoleonic Wars this is no surprise.
My two ancestors emigrated to Australia where they lived out the remainder of their days. They were my ggg grandparents. Hope you enjoyed the read. Allycat.'
Also I would be interested in the information you have about the two brothers/cousins who enlisted along with him in the 4th. I only know of his brother William who joined before the regiment was sent to NSW.
Thanks, Ammanda

[tenterfieldjulie]

Hi Ammanda,
I will have to go digging in my files - the information I received was over ten years ago - the first person I was in correspondence with was Jan H., then I. McC. and then Marcel S.. Marcel was not a descendant, as I recall, but was interested in the Military History of the King's Own Regiment. When I get things together I will email you. I did at some stage also down load information from a website about some of the Peninsula battles and McCrohon is mentioned a few times.
Thanks for your info., it is very interesting. I haven't heard the bit about Emily's father before, but I would take with a grain of salt until proven. In my family we supposedly had a runaway daughter of a baronet, who turned out to be a sawyer/miller!! :D but it did give the children private tuition in Aus., that they would not have received in UK.
On the internet I see some people in their trees turn Emily into Amelia and have her dying in the Windsor area? Whereas after John (police constable), is killed in a horse accident at Paterson, NSW, she remarries Thomas O'Keefe, has three more children and dies in June 1846 at East Maitland according to my information. Cheers Julie

[garstonite]

Hiya Julie...if you look at that site I PM`d you , you will find 8 family trees for Mc Crohon..
5 are in NSW....one of them is in
Patrick Plains , N. S. Wales 1836 to 1856 .
the tree owner has an e-mail address ...does the surname Cantwell mean anything to you ?
allan:)

[kiterunner]

Findmypast has an army service record for a John McCrohon born 1795 Limerick; have you already looked at that?

[kiterunner]

Oh, and have you already looked for the marriage in the "overseas" BMD indexes on Findmypast?

[tenterfieldjulie]

kiterunner - can you tell me what is "Find My Past"? Is it like Ancestry?
Thanks Julie

[Margaret in Burton]

kiterunner - can you tell me what is "Find My Past"? Is it like Ancestry?
Thanks Julie

Julie

http://www.findmypast.co.uk

[tenterfieldjulie]

Thanks everyone all your help much appreciated. Julie