Dear Cousin,
This has been a year when my research has
benefited from modern technology. More
and more records are now appearing on the internet so that one can examine them
without travelling to distant repositories. True one may have to pay a small
fee but this is usually lower than the cost of travel. One example that gave
surprising results was the index to the list of people entering the USA. and Canada. I knew that I had no Cotgroves
in North America so imagine my feelings when I found an
entry for Bert Morris Cotgrove, known usually as “Bert Lump” and his wife, Amy
L. and their young daughter, Nancy W. entering Canada in 1927 from the “Arabic”
. What was even stranger was
their return to England within a few years only for Bert to return
alone to Canada in 1930 on the “Empress of Scotland” although he died in England.
Another traveller was William George Cotgrove 1898-1966 who entered Canada in 1934 via the “Cairnavon” ; he also returned to die in England. These events happened almost within living memory so does
any one recall these journeys ? By a tragic coincidence I was informed of an
announcement in a Southend newspaper of Nancy’s death in November.
A Crew List showing
two members of the Family on board the “Providence” during 1840.
|
|
A number of Cotgroves served on merchant ships between the wars and
those who called at New York have their names recorded on the Ellis Island
immigration records which are also 
published
on the internet. I have often referred to the theory that the names Cotgrove
and Cotgrave might have common origin although Cotgroves come from Leigh Essex and Cotgraves
come from Cheshire.
There was no proof but several pieces of circumstantial evidence which
seems to confirm the theory and the fact
that the Cotgraves could perhaps trace their
ancestors back to the illegitimate nephew of William I added spice to the
story. One of the leading researchers of
the Cheshire family is Bill Cotgreave
of New
York
and it was he who organised a DNA test to prove or disprove any connection.
Several members of both families provided samples, and the not insubstantial
fee, to support the project. As a
result we can now say that there is no connection. The Cotgroves of
Leigh will still have to look to Holland for their origins. The test was not detailed enough to indicate
the precise geographical area from which we came but it seems to point towards
north west Europe i.e., Denmark or
Scandinavia. Those of you who saw the
BBC documentary about the body parts found in the Thames will know that this
type of testing tied its origins down to few villages in Nigeria; this accuracy
is not possible with the limited analysis of the samples that we used but the
separate origins of the two families was proved without doubt.
The problem of keeping records on a
computer is the need to have a “back up” in case of computer failure. This was brought home to me in October when a
power cut shut down my computer when I was using it. As a result I lost all my records.
Fortunately I had a back up copy so virtually nothing was in fact permanently lost. My 250 Cotgrove addresses are printed out on
paper where any updates and additions are added in ink so I lost nothing. However the event served
as a reminder to make regular back ups.
I did loose all my E-mails, but not the address book, so this may give rise to difficulties
in future as some information was only available in the original E-mail.
My illustration is of a Crew List from a
Cotgrove Fishing Boat. Crew lists have
been filled in since about 1750 but the early ones have, with the exception of
those from a few ports,
been lost. A new system introduced in 1835 provided for better
storage of the forms so several Cotgrove forms survive. Forms were of two
kinds, for ocean going voyages and a simpler one for coastal traffic. These latter had to be returned every six
months where as the others were for one voyage only. The example shows part of
the return for the ship “Providence” for the first six months of 1840. The
crew was only two men Thomas Cotgrove aged 78 and Henry Cotgrove aged 27.
Thomas was one of the three founders of the modern family who was baptised in
May 1765 and was married to Elizabeth Osborn, a member of the famous oyster
catching family. Thomas died in 1848 when he would have been about 83. Note
that he is not certain of his exact age and we have no record of his birth,
only of his baptism. Henry was his youngest son born October
1812 and married to Sarah Ann, a daughter of the famous Golden Thomson family. Her brother was “One Eye” Golden Thompson who
married Eliza Cotgrove, my Great Grand Mother.
This marriage formed my connection to the Cotgrove family. Both members of the crew state that they
had been with this ship since 1816 at which time Henry would have been only 4
years old ! As Thomas could not write he
had to get someone else to complete the form for him, which probably accounted
for the errors. The boat “Providence” would have been an early version of a
small Leigh bawley engaged in fishing in the estuary
off Leigh. It features in several documents involving the Cotgrove family but
was only listed as being owned by the family around 1840 in spite of
the claim that Thomas had been on it since 1816 . It was about 27 feet long,
was registered at 17 tons and first appears in the records in 1809. Its owners included the Constable family who
were related to the painter.
These forms are stored at Kew in boxes by port. Hence by searching through the few Maldon boxes
one can pick out most of the Leigh men as most of the Leigh boats were
registered at Malden. However if any were on a London registered boat the number of boxes runs
into hundreds and there is no index, hence I have not attempted to make a
search.
In general the Cotgrove did not get
involved in larger vessels until the First World War when several joined the
Royal Navy. At the time of the Crimean War in about 1855
Issaac Cotgrove joined Her Majesty’s Revenue
Vessel “Stag” and sailed for the Isle of Wight. However he did not fancy a life as a Customs Officer
and when he reached Ryde he resigned, married a girl
from the Island and lived there for the rest of his
life.
I also heard this year that another
Cotgrove family has retired to New Zealand . May
I wish them well. I now send four copies of this News
Letter there. If this continues we will soon out number the sheep !
Incidentally 20 copies go to Australia.
So may I wish you all a Happy Christmas and
a Prosperous New Year for 2005 and also I send my thanks to all who have
already sent me Greetings Cards.
Yours sincerely,
Norman Holding
PS. If this all comes as a great surprise to you,
may I say that I am the great grand son of Eliza Cotgrove and for the last 20
years I have been researching the origins of the Cotgrove Family of Leigh from
its arrival in Essex in about 1680 until the present day. I have a complete family tree and I’m of
always interested in hearing from Cotgroves world
wide. Any anecdotes and any pre 1900
photographs would be much appreciated.
NHH.
