Guild of One-Name Studies

This is version 5.1 of the Craxford family tree - a family apparently originating in Gretton, Northamptonshire, England in the early 1600s. My sister Brenda drew up the first tentative tree some years ago but my interest was sparked when I found another Alan the same age as me and born only 40 miles away from my home town - and we did not even know of each other's existence! Alan's sister, Maureen, had also been similarly active in gathering data. Information to date has been collected laboriously from parish records and archives as well as web searches of the internet, Ancestry.com, 1837online.com, UK Census Collection (1851 - 1901), FamilySearch Internet Genealogy Service (the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints database) and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission web site.

From a data management point of view this web site is the product of two separate software systems. The main database is held on a local computer using the genealogy package Legacy6. This is also where the articles are written and formatted and the photographic materials are processed. The family tree information is then transferred to a mainframe web server and this site is maintained using the TNG (The Next Generation) site building programme. You can see more of this on Page 4 on the Contents section. We started off, quite reasonably, documenting just our own immediate family and, because of the somewhat unusual nature of our name, were content to maintain the database as a single name project. After the site had been running for some months, and a certain amount of interest and notoriety had been generated, first one and then several other people and families wanted to get involved too.

Trees and database

We have two family trees within our database. The main tree is still that devoted to the Craxford family and to other family elements that have become associated with us by marriage. The inclusion of the second tree (the Nesworthys) came about almost by coincidence. This is Judith's mother's name and we did introduce a few of her forebears to the main system. However we soon ran across a genealogical conundrum from the Tyneside of the 1860s which led us into contact with people already involved in this reasearch. Our second tree is a subset of a much larger and independently held database in Canada. More recently I have been on the trail of one of my grandfather's sisters, missing from collective family memory and the archives. Her recent discovery has also led to the discovery of a whole new family tree (by marriage) - the Hobbs - which has become our third tree. There is a certain amount of overlap between the trees but our purpose is to provide a collaborative experience.

The TNG software is a constantly developing phenomenon and version 6.1 has just been released. It is this which allows you, our reader, to delve into the secrets and mysteries of our family's past. There is a comprehensive search facility and many more simple, and more complex, functions built in. To get an idea of what is on offer have a look at the data page for John Naylor. These are all accessible from the lower part of the red column to the left.

There are now over six and a half thousand names spread across the two trees. We have also added nearly seven hundred photographs (including two hundred and twenty birth, marriage and death certificates and census returns) in our database. The site can be browsed casually but if you would like a deeper look at our family please ask for a logon account. Additional ancestors, relatives, photographs and anecdotes are being added regularly. You can find details of these additions on the "What's New" page. You will also see that I have activated a page where photographs and documents relating to the ancestors of a particular individual are collected. At the moment this facility is "hardwired" into the software and only one person can be allocated at a time to each menu line (presently I have had to choose who it is you are able to see!) but I will modify this from time to time . However I am looking to be able to give you the option of choosing the person whose collection you would like to see. If you do have any specific requests for people to be added to this facility do send me an email - I will consider all ideas but it will depend on how much material is available to make the request useful.

Newfloridian - Site Administrator
(Alan D. Craxford) May 8th 2008

THE NEW CRAXFORD COAT OF ARMS After a long gestation period, we can proudly unveil this new coat of arms. The full story of its design and background can be found here: NO SUCH THING AS A CRAXFORD FAMILY COAT OF ARMS!

The latest three published articles are listed below. To see other recent additions click here for:
THE CONTENTS PAGE

The Family Magazine

We have now traced branches of the family around the country to Leicester, Birmingham, Warwickshire, London, South Wales, Lincolnshire and Tyneside; over the Atlantic to Canada and the States and recently to Australasia and South Africa. We hope to be able to connect up with all our cousins out there. I am pleased to be able to fill out to more branches closer to home with grateful thanks to Reg, Andrew, Philip , Thelma, John, Anne and Irene.

If you have any questions or comments about the information on this site, please contact us at either AlanCrax@aol.com or Newfloridian@hotmail.co.uk. We look forward to hearing from you.