Whitehaven....

It seems I am always writing about my Family History and ancestors from the Lake District of England  reason being that many many of them  and their descendents lived and died there. Others moved to different and more exiting parts of the world.

My English Craig Line starts out in Harrington, Cumberland, England.  Robert Craig married Sarah Fearon  in 1808, where he came from before his marriage I do not know.  The Parish entry only states he was from Harrington at the time of their marriage.  They had four children, I am descended from their second child and daughter Sarah born in 1812.

Their fourth child a son  Joseph born in 1816  married Mary Hodgson in 1837,  Joseph was a Boot and Shoemaker like his father.  He moved his business and family to Whitehaven where they had seven children.

Whitehaven is a very quaint  and historic town built in Georgian times well known for it's architecture and the tall ships built there that would sail in and out of it's Harbor.

In 1676  their were 32 ships. By 1685 their were 46 and in 1689 their were 55 based there.

The main export was coal.  By the 1670's  tobacco was imported from Virginia then rum and sugar.  By 1670 the population was around 1000 by 1700 it reached 3000 and the present day it is over 25.000 . During the of   time of the American War of Independence a ship captained by John Paul Jones who was born in Scotland and trained in Whitehaven attacked the Port and 3 ships were sunk in the harbor.

And, if  Mildred Gale's son Augustine had not returned  to America after his mother passed away maybe George Washington would not have been our First President.

  Mildred Gale's second husband George Gale was a prominent merchant who forged trade links between Virginia and Whitehaven and moved his family there.     

By the time Joseph and Mary's sixth child Joseph was born in 1854 Whitehaven was a prosperous and bustling place.  This Joseph married a Mary Frazer and they had fourteen children. The Census Records show them living at a couple of different addresses by 1901 they lived over the hairdresser's and wig shop he owned. (Blue arrow below points down to it)

Recently I received pictures and information from   a cousin in Australia who is the Grandson of one of Joseph and Elizabeth's daughters.

May Craig was the   seventh child of Joseph Craig and Elizabeth Frazer born in 1890.

First Picture - May age 19 before sailing to Australia taken in Manchester,Lancashire, England.

May's Mother Elizabeth had taken several of her daughters to Manchester and opened a family business sewing shirts and men's suits before she moved back to Whitehaven.

Second Picture May with her husband John Blackburn and son John or Jack Blackburn.  Taken in Melbourne, Australia.

May travelled to Australia alone at age 24 to meet up with her  future husband who had gone on ahead 2 years earlier  arriving there in June of 1913 .

  Notes from her Grandson tell me she was an accomplished seamstress, men's suit tailor and a wigmaker.

I am thankful to her grandson Ray for sharing this and a lot more information with me on the rest of her brothers and sisters.

  It is so fun to be able to put faces with names.  May is my second cousin three times removed our common ancestors being Robert Craig and Sarah Fearon.