Dear Walter,
my name is Ian Kelly, my maternal grandmother was Mary Emma Crosse (1907) and we are 'Fourth Cousins One Generation Removed'. Our nearest common ancestor is the Walter Crosse who was christened on 12 Apr 1815 in St Mary's Church, Ellesmere, Shropshire.

By quirk of fate, we moved to Ellesmere (a small market town) 9 years ago, with no idea of any family connection. I am now a bell-ringer at our ancestors' church. To make matters more curious, our farm is in a rural area a mile from town called 'The Cross'. The farm at the end of our drive used to be called Cross Farm and many farms are named after the owners.

I have not yet made a connection between 'The Cross' and our Crosse family and I think the name of the locality is just a coincidence. I have traced our Crosse family to Whitchurch prior to them moving to Ellesmere and have not found any to be living at The Cross (the locality only consists of about 3 houses abeit some have had several families living in them concurrently).

The earliest Ellesmere date that I've found for our Crosse family is a marriage of Andrew Crosse to Elizabeth Ann Beetenson in 1808. She died and he re-married Martha Broughall in 1811. The White Hart Inn that they ran is still open and is the oldest continously-running pub in Shropshire.

Ian@BirchHill.co.uk