CRISP FAMILIES
USA & Around The World
The Crisp families came to the Colonies, some in the early
1600's, and from their initial landings, have spread out across the United States.
Some came with money, so there are records to be found. They had land, so we are
able to find land deeds, wills, records of political activities, church records,
tax records. Some came with only a dream of what could be. Some of the early records
also list Crisps as "convicts" , shipped to the colonies. Their "crimes"
were petty, but the King of England, did not see them that way. Some just owed
money and couldn't pay their debts.
These Crisps worked hard to carve a life here. Some of them, also left records.
There are still many records that have not been found. Sometimes the wills found
still leaves questions as to how do some of the heirs fit into the family.
Over the 300 plus years that the Crisp name has been in this country, many records
have been lost. Of course, there are still missing segments, records unfound,
dates unknown, as anyone who has researched the past knows. There have been wars,
the Revoluntionary, Indian, Civil War, that "lost" records, record depositories,
such as courthouses, that have had fires, and natural disasters, along with births
and deaths not noted in a lot of instances, on paper anywhere. If our ancestor
was a "person of means", there are land records, wills, and maybe, just
maybe, military records; if they were of a political persuasions, political records;
if they were religious, church records; and bible records.
But all these still leave holes in your research, in tying suspected
children with good circumstantial evidence to particular parents. If your family
was not a "person of means", then records are even more scarce. Many
of the Crisps were just downright illusive, evading the census, and leaving
no records of any sort.
In searching for our ancestors, when we cannot locate information
put down in writing, sometimes, strong circumstantial evidence will point to
a certain family line that perhaps could be ours. Items considered were locations,
migration patterns, common names, and time frames. Some of the connections will
likely never be confirmed, so we are left with "probable ancestor"
in our lines.
In the early days of our country, even into the mid to late 1800's
cousins did marry. It was not illegal or unacceptable in those times. This happened
for a number of reasons. One of the main reasons was property. Many times cousins
married to keep the lands within the families, in particular, with female heirs.
Back then the women had very few if any rights. This was one way to assure that
when "Poppa" died, the family would still own the land, and it would
not come under the control of an "outsider".
As families migrated, it was usually in family units. "Poppa" would
move to a new land, and children, spouses and grandchildren, more times than
not, would move also. With 10, 12, 18 aunts and uncles and their families, it
would be like a small town moving. Sometimes the family would settle in areas
where the only close neighbors were family, and as the children grew up to marrying
age, cousins were the closest members of the opposite sex, so marriages did
happen. These cousin marriages can be found in many, many families, and are
more common the farther back in time that you travel in researching your family.
In researching the Crisp family, we have run across 2 early Crisp immigrants
to the colonies. How, or if, they connect to the other early ancestors is unknown.
There are probably other earlier Crisps that aren't known to us at this time.
One of these immigrants was Benjamin Crispe, born about 1611
in Frisby, Lincolnshire, England, and died in Watertown, Middlesex, Mass. Benjamin
had a daughter Elizabeth, and sons Jonathan, Mehitable, and Zechariah.
Another early Crisp was Nicholas, who was in NC before 1700.
He died ca 1727. There were 2 children, Hagar and John. John died apparently
before his father Nicholas.
This early Crisp, William, aka as “Old William”
has been traced to ca 1695-1700, born NC. So far, he has not been connected
to any of the others. His line has been pretty well documented through deeds
and wills.
The Crisp research list was formed in 1997 to help each other
with these searches. Prior was a small group of Crisp researchers banded together
for this purpose. If you are visiting our pages and have a Crisp hanging from
a branch in your family tree, we invite you to join our group on CRISP-L
Mail List. You may hold the key to one of our dead ends!. Or.... perhaps.....
one of your new cousins will have the key you need! The message board has many
entries. Perhaps an answer is there. Post your query here, maybe there is someone
with the answer out there.
As we are researching our ancestors,
we find them by documents or census, first in one place, then in another.
How many times have we stopped to think, “They were here, now they are
there, but how did they get from “here” to “there”?
If we use the context of the time period, we can build a scenario of how they
got from one place to another. This little article explores those concepts,
and hopefully will give someone a “feel” for the way our ancestors
had to travel in the 1600, 1700, 1800's.
First of all, they could not just call
up Mayflower or United, or any of the present day movers, tell them where
to come to, to pack up their belongings and take to a new place and unload.
They could not then, call a cab to take them to the airport, to whisk away
in a silver airplane to their new home. Or they couldn’t just hop in
the car with the kids and make it a vacation trip to their new home. Their
mode of travel was a lot longer, harder, and much more dangerous, than the
way we would move today.
Recently I received a photo of a John
T. Crisp, Lt. Col. C.S.A. Take a look at his photo.
If you know of him or he belongs in your family, let me know, bandony@yahoo.com
Many times the move to a new place held
danger. Life in a new place for our ancestors was not easy. Take a.......
A Glimpse Into The Past
Music- Beyond
The Sunset
Copyright 1997-2004
Web page update June 9, 2004
These pages composed, compiled by Ethel Taylor. Information supplied by Crisp
descendents. These pages may be linked to, copied for personal use only. They
may not be duplicated on other sites or for commercial purposes.
