Building a Family Tree from Online Sources using the Cretney family as an example

1. Building a Family Tree from
Online Sources

2. By 1860, one fourth of mostly urban
English children age 5 and under
had died. Education Act of 1870
said all children between ages 5 and
10 should be educated. In 1880
schooling became compulsory. By
1891 schooling was free. Not until
1902 was there a system of public

3.  One consequence of so many children not
surviving to age five is that they might not show up
on the censuses because they were born and died
between censuses. One way to look into this is to
consider that in most families, children were born
about every two years. If there is a gap of more
than three years, consider looking for a child who
was born but died during that period of time.

4. William Sinclair Gelling Family Group
Sheet
This is all the information Sister S started with. She was also interested where the
name “Sinclair” came from, since it is not a common name on the Isle of Mann.

5. Jane QUINE and Thomas CRETNEY,
Rebecca GARRETT and William Sinclair
GELLING,
and their children, Hannah GELLING and Robert
CRETNEY

6. Thomas Cretney Marriage Record to Jane Quine
Bride's marital status: not stated. Bride's father: not stated.
(MS09754/3/1)

7. Thomas Cretney and Jane Quine Family Group
Sheet
Notice the six year gap between John and William. You would expect more children to have
been born in this time period. Sister S later learned that both John and Robert emigrated to
the United States. Robert and his wife, Hannah, lived and worked on John’s farm. William

8. Thomas Cretney Family Tree taken from
Ancestry.com
Other children and their birth information are included, but not
documented

9. John Cretney (son of Thomas and Jane, b. 1836)
and his family in the 1870 US Census
John said he was born in “England” rather than “Isle of Mann” a common practice.

10. Application-Front.
While he is not a
direct ancestor of
Sister S, he was
famous, and his life
is well documented,
including
information that
does relate to Sister
S’s direct line
family.

11. Thomas A
Cretney
Passport
Application-
Back Side,
which includes
a detailed
physical
description.

12. Thomas A.
Cretney
Passport
Picture

15. Robert Cretney Family-1900 Census. Hannah says that she has
born 5 children (Jennie, James, Effie, Ernest and Gladys) and all 5
are living, but the gaps in the ages doesn’t support it. Since Hannah
was born too soon for compulsory education, she could probably
neither read nor write. She is also an immigrant and may not have
understood the question or how to answer it.

16. Robert Cretney Family on the 1880Census
Tracking the Robert Cretney and Hannah/Annie family back from 1900,
the 1880 census shows five children, the youngest is an unnamed two
month old baby, all of whom have whooping cough. Comparing the
children to those listed on the 1900 census (Jennie b 1875, James b
1784, Effie b 1886, Ernest b 1891 and Gladys b 1898) Thomas and
William aren’t listed. Are they married or dead? Rebecca J is likely
Jennie, and Edith and the unnamed infant are missing in 1900, likely
deceased.

17. Robert Cretney Naturalization Card.
At that time, a man’s wife and children were
automatically naturalized when he was.

18. Robert Cretney in the 1895 Wisconsin State Census
It is hard to see in this picture, but Robert Cretney is listed as having 5 males and 4
females in his family, 7 born in the United States, and 2 born outside the US (he and
his wife). If you remove him and his wife from the numbers, that leaves 4 males and 3
females, and we know that the unnamed baby did not survive.

19. This obituary confirms the information previously gathered.

20. This page contains the obituary of a Lorraine M (Morgan) Cretney married to a Robert G Cretney, the
son of the previous Robert Cretney. More research is needed to show a connection.

21. Madison, Wisconsin, p. 26
This Gladys Lynch is Gladys Cretney,
daughter of Robert and Hannah. The
obituary mentions eight brothers and
sisters, apparently not counting the
infant who died. Perhaps Gladys did
not know about the baby girl if the
family did not talk about her.

22. (Ernest)
The SSDI gives the exact birth and death dates of Robert (Ernest) Cretney.

23. This is a comparison screen of Sister S’s RootsMagic family
data and the same William Sinclair Gelling family on
FamilySearch. While there are possible new family members,
they need to be researched, documented and verified before she
adds them to her tree.

24. William Sinclair Gelling & Family on
FamilySearch.org

25. This match on MyHeritage shows the maiden name of James Henry’s spouse, Amelia.
Sister S wanted to go to the Isle of Mann iMuseum site to verify the information.

26. In comparing Effie Catherine Gelling to possible Family Search
matches, one record showed a spouse, and another showed her
parents, both of which need further research.

27. Edith Margaret Gelling (daughter of William and Rebeccah)
was not found on the Isle of Mann. Sister S surmised she
may have gone to the mainland. On Free BMD, she found a
Edith getting married in Jun 1896. Based on what she knows
about the Isle of Mann naming patterns, she is guessing that
she married William Clucas Kennaugh. When she searched
Ancestry.com, she found a Wm C married to an Edith on the
1900 census.

28. William Clucas and Edith Kennaugh family
on the 1911 Census
Line 7 shows a visitor, John Gelling b ~1853, who is single. This is Edith’s brother , John,
who never married.

29. Effie Catherine Gelling, daughter
of William Sinclair Cretney,
married Arthur Bintley in 1896.
the following page is from
Ancestry.com and has a picture as
well as birth and death dates.

31. Hannah Cretney (widow of Robert) as Widow-1905
Wisconsin Census

32. Excerpt from Book about the Cretney’s
Home Area
One exciting thing about this excerpt is that where there is information about
one family member, there is likely to be information about others, especially
since the phrase “youngest daughter” is used. Likely more information about
the parents and siblings will be included.

33. This Isle of Mann record shows
the baptismal record of a
William Sinclair Gelling whose
parents both have the surname
of Gelling, which is unusual.
Access to the imuseum is
usually by subscription but if
you have an Ancestry.com
account, you can access it
through their website.

34. Due to the work of indexers, several record hints are
available for Thomas Cretney and other family
members.