Cree Family History in Perspective

[Mike Spathaky]

Originally posted  by Trevor Cree   on August 23, 2012 at 9:30

    Over the last few weeks I have been undertaking quite a lot of research into Cree/Crie family history in Scotland with the help of the Old Parish Registers, civil registration and census records. At times it seemed like a jigsaw puzzle with a few thousand pieces and it became overwhelming trying to relate one Cree individual and family to another, and often failing.

    Today, however, I had an idea about how to put Cree family history into perspective compared to the huge problems faced by those with other surnames. The positive aspect of census material is that its collection was quite controlled in the past inasmuch as participation was compulsory rather than voluntary. Some years ago Mike undertook a census of Scottish Cree/Crie families 1694-1720 (http://www.cree.name/distribution/scotcensus1694.pdf) to obtain a snapshot of the overall number of Cree families in existence in Scotland at that time. My idea was simply, with the help of Ancestry, to use the 1841 - 1901 censuses to determine the number of Cree/Crie male headed households in Scotland at each period, a similar snapshot approach. The method is certainly not scientific and open to error but I believe that it provides a simple way to see if we can connect every Cree family in the Scottish censuses with Cree families in the pre-census or Old Parish Register era. The search was undertaken for each census year using the exact spelling of Cree or Crie, male, head of households. The results, I believe, are extremely interesting. The focus is on Scotland but Cree migrations to England from Scotland and Ireland are taken into account.

    The number of male Cree headed households in Scotland for each census were as follows:

    1901 (101), 1891 (80), 1881 (76), 1871 (54), 1861 (57), 1851 (46), and 1841 (112 males including children).

    The number of male Crie headed households in Scotland for each census were as follows:

    1901 (3), 1891 (1), 1881 (0), 1871 (0), 1861 (1), 1851 (1) and 1841 (11 males including children).

    The number of Cree headed households in Scotland who were born in Ireland were as follows:

    1901 (3), 1891 (2), 1881 (2), 1871 (0), 1861 (0), 1851 (0), 1841 (1)

    Clearly significant migrations from Scotland to the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and elsewhere took place after and prior to 1841. However, the aim of the current project is to try to connect the Cree/Crie families that did not migrate from Scotland to the pre-census Cree/Crie families. It could be thought that extensive migration from Scotland to England could mask the number of families of Scottish origin.

    The number of Cree headed households in England for each census were as follows:

    1901 (95), 1891 (84), 1881 (86), 1871 (49), 1861 (51), 1851 (40) and 1841 (102 males).

    However within these totals we can determine how many Cree in the England censuses were born in Scotland and Ireland, namely,

    Scottish Birthplace

    1901, (11), 1891 (10), 1881 (6), 1871 (2), 1861 (1), 1851 (2)

    Ireland Birthplace

    1901 (5), 1891 (4), 1881 (2), 1871 (5), 1861 (0), 1851 (2)

    This would seem to indicate that Cree migration from Scotland to England in the period 1851-1881 was not particularly significant.

    The really interesting result of this simplistic approach is that we are really only talking about a small number of distinct Cree families in Scotland in the period 1851 - 1871, namely 46, 57 and 54. We always new the number would be small but perhaps not this small. To put things in perspective at each census you could actually put all of the Cree heads of household onto a single bus and many of them would be brothers! This is extremely encouraging since we should be able to fill in many of the existing gaps in our Scottish family history.

[Mike Spathaky]

Originally posted by Mike Spathaky on August 27, 2012 at 18:37


    Hi Trevor,

    Very interesting analysis. Your use of heads of household counts makes the results directly comparable with my Early Perthshire "census."

    The total number of Cree + Crie households for Scotland (47 in 1851 trending upwards to 104 in 1901) looks very consistent with my 1694-1720 "Census" which showed about 30 families. It suggests that my census did not miss many families, and of course I chose the dates as the earliest period for which OPRs had by and large survived, with many lost following the nonjuring schism of 1690.

    I wonder why you numbered individuals rather than households in 1841, and neither for 1911. Also why you excluded female-headed households. A household with children and a widow as head should surely count, or have I missed something? (I only included male-headed households in my Perthshire census because the OPRs of the period named fathers and not mothers.)

    I take issue slightly with "Cree migration from Scotland to England in the period 1851-1881 was not particularly significant." It's a question of what level you deem significant. Your figures expressed as percentages of the England male-headed households are:

    Sct: 1901, (12%), 1891 (12%), 1881 (7%), 1871 ( 4%), 1861 (2%), 1851 (5%)
    Irl:    1901, ( 5%), 1891 ( 5%), 1881 (2%), 1871 (10%), 1861 (0%), 1851 (5%)

    I regard the fact that 17% of Cree heads of families in England were of Scots or Irish ancestry in 1891 and 1901 to be definitely significant. Clearly the trend was generally upward from 1851, but this is partly explained by the figures being cumulative. That is, migrating families stayed in England to be counted at subsequent censuses. The cumulative effect dies out of course as heads of household die and are replaced by the (mainly?) English-born offspring.

    Irregularities are to be expected when total numbers are quite small. All the same I am curious about what happened in 1861 to the 2 Irish families who were in England in 1851. The most noticeable irregularity however is the 10% of families in England (5 families) who have Irish heads in 1871, especially as it comes after a zero figure in 1861. One might have expected such a peak in 1851 after the Famine but without the 1841 figures we cannot tell if the 1851 figures are a peak. Maybe most Famine Emigrants went to the New World.

    I fully agree with your main conclusion ("... we are really only talking about a small number of distinct Cree families in Scotland in the period 1851 - 1871, namely 46, 57 and 54.")

    Yes we really are in reach of a full family reconstruction of all Scots Crees in this period. The same is true for England. I have long felt that I have neglected the County Durham Cree lines. You will have seen perhaps my recent contribution on the Network site re John Newton Cree which led unexpectedly from Queensland back to Co Durham. (My Ancestry sub has been invaluable in this.) Kerry Raymond has written this morning about a possible live descendant, a daughter of Ethel Cree (so non-Cree) who lived as a child in the household of her grandmother Esther (Blanchard) Cree. I will write to her and see if she can tell me about John and Esther.

    Best Wishes,

    Mike

[Mike Spathaky]

Originally posted by Mike Spathaky on August 27, 2012 at 18:38


    The number of Cree male heads of household in 1841 was 41 by my count, of whom there were:
            3 born in Scotland (7%), and
            2 born in Ireland (5%).

    This extends the figures of my previous email as follows:

    Sct: 1901, (12%), 1891 (12%), 1881 (7%), 1871 ( 4%), 1861 (2%), 1851 (5%) 1841 (7%)
    Irl:    1901, ( 5%), 1891 ( 5%), 1881 (2%), 1871 (10%), 1861 (0%), Fife), 1851 (5%) 1841 (5%)

    However we may have taken different interpretations of what is a household. e.g. I have included one-person households. For consistency with your figures I have excluded female-headed households of which there were 13 (including 1 with Scottish-born head).

    Best Wishes,

    Mike

[Mike Spathaky]

Originally posted by Trevor Cree on September 8, 2012 at 9:49


    The initial findings of the 1901 Scottish census analysis are that 91 of the 101 male Cree heads of household can be traced to five main lines, namely: Line 7: The Perth Burgesses (44 individuals), Branch 10b: The Thomas Cree line of Aberdalgie and Dunning (30 individuals), The Dunfermline line (8 individuals), Andrew Cree and Euphemia Haliburton (5) (As yet unknown line connection), and Branch 10a: The Alexander Cree line of Forteviot and Perth (4 individuals). In fact one of the recorded Ancestry male heads was actually a woman, Mary Cree, and so we only have 100 male Cree heads of household in 1901.

    Of particular interest is that 17 individual Cree male heads of household in 1901 are descended from Archibald Cree (1797-1867) and Mary Calderwood of Line 7: The Perth Burgesses line. Similarly a total of 16 individuals are descended from James Cree (1772- ) and Grizzel McVick of Branch 10b, - a total of 8 individuals are descended from John Cree (1797-1885) and Grace Currie of Line 7: The Perth Burgesses line, - a total of 7 individuals are descended from Daniel Cree (1790-1862) and Elizabeth McGregor of Branch 10b, and 5 individuals are descended from Andrew Cree and Euphemia Haliburton (Line connection not yet made). Therefore a total of 53 out of the 101 Cree male heads of household in the 1901 census are descended from just 5 Cree males born two generations earlier.

    Overall it can be concluded that years of past Cree research has identified the origins of the vast majority of present day Scottish Cree.