I have been researching my family history for the past two years and decided to create a website in the hopes that there are people out there who are investigating the same names as me!
Up until the mid-1800's most of my descendants lived in Abbots Ripton and Kings Ripton, two villages in the former county of Huntingdonshire (now Cambridgeshire) in England. I have made two trips to the Huntingdon Record Office since 1998, and have managed to trace one branch of the family tree back to the early 1600's.
After about 1865, my family begins to surface in various places in Lancashire, including Halewood and Prescot. It is also at this point that our surname seems to change from Crouchley to Critchley. There was little consistency in the spelling of Crouchley at the end of the 1700's, and I have seen several variations on the surname including Crouchlie, Crouchly and Cruchley. It seems likely then that the change from Crouchley to Critchley was due to a variation in spelling rather than a conscious decision to change the surname.
I still have so many questions regarding my family history, as well as gaps in the family tree which need to be filled. One of the main purposes of this website is to post an index of all my descendants up to the 1900's, as well as a family tree. Among the surnames you will find are:
CROUCHLEY
MURCOT/MURKETT
SPENDELOW
LAVENDER
I hope that you will have time to check these pages out, and please let me know if you think we have a common ancestor!
In the near future, you will also find information about Abbots Ripton and Kings Ripton on my pages. This is my first attempt at a website, so until I figure out all the technical stuff it may take a little while to get all the pages up and linked together. Please check back often though, as I will add to the site regularly.
This page created and maintained by Tracey Critchley-Thonfeld
Copyright 2001 Tracey Critchley-Thonfeld