The Keys of Chipping Ongar

The most recent immigrant in my family tree is my maternal grandmother’s mother Daisy Henrietta Martha Keys Phenice.  She came to America with her family in July of 1887 from London, England.  They settled in southern Louisiana, and she and her siblings went on to marry and have children, grandchildren, and so on.  They are all over the place now.  I’m not going to explore all of those places now.  I’m going to look back further in time to see the family of Daisy’s father Henry Keys.  He died before the family moved from England.  It was his brave wife who brought their five children across an ocean to start a new life.  I’ve written more about her since she was the one that made it to Louisiana.  I’ve even taken a selfie with her grave.

I thought I’d start the story with Henry’s parents.  They’re the ones that had all of those Keys children in Chipping Ongar.  Chipping Ongar is a market town in the Epping Forest district, which is in the county of Essex in England.  It’s where George Keys from Wethersfield and Elizabeth Crouchman from Moreton (both places are in Essex County) set up a home and started a family.  They were married in Chipping Ongar on October 21, 1807, at the St. Martin of Tours Church of England.

There are no photos of George and Elizabeth that I know of.  I have said that about other great, great, great grandparents of mine and have later found them.  George and Elizabeth lived until the 1860s, so it is a possibility that there are photos of them.  We can only hope.  But I do have a few details about the way they looked.  George is said to have tan hair, blue eyes, and very fair skin.  I’ve never heard anyone use the color tan to describe hair, but I would assume it would be light brown.  I’m sure my sister Karen would have agreed with me when I say that ‘tan’ is a better description of light brown hair than ‘mousy brown.’

Elizabeth, on the other hand, had black hair, blue eyes, and very fair skin.  They were English, so I’m sure they did have fair skin.  At least it wasn’t described as pale or pasty.  From the photo/painting of their son Henry, it looks like he also has fair skin.  His hair looks very dark, so he probably got that from his mother.  No mousy brown hair for him!  If both of his parents had blue eyes, it’s likely that he had blue or light eyes as well.  That’s always difficult to tell from old photos unless they are distinctly light in the photo.

George and Elizabeth’s first child was born in 1809.  Eliza Keys would later marry John Reading, and they stayed in England.  George James Keys was born in 1812.  He married Elizabeth Jane Rose, and they immigrated to Ontario, Canada.  I’m glad they moved away, because this George and Elizabeth (Rose) Keys would easily be confused with his parents if they stayed in the same area.  Elizabeth Keys was born in 1814.  She married George Little, and they immigrated to Victoria, Australia.  Amelia Keys was born in 1816.  Nothing more is known about her.  Jane Keys was born in 1818.  She married George Bedford, and they stayed in England.

The next two children born to George and Elizabeth were James and Henry Keys.  They were born in 1822, and they were identical twins.  We all know that Henry married Martha Ann Cook and their children came to America.  James was never married and had no children.  The last child of George and Elizabeth was William Keys, who was born in 1824.  I’ve written about him before because he was married to Martha Cook’s younger sister Henrietta.  They stayed in England.  A few of their children immigrated to the U. S.  

My main impetus for choosing the topic of this post was a new DNA match that showed up this week.  The matching DNA was attributed to our common ancestors.  Ancestry showed that we had common ancestors of George Keys and Elizabeth Crouchman.  But they were wrong.  I definitely have ancestors by the name of George Keys and Elizabeth Crouchman, and so does the DNA match.  But it is not the same George Keys and Elizabeth Crouchman!  And they lived in the same area.

I had seen this before.  It was very confusing at first until I realized that there were two couples with the same name from the same area.  With the help of the records from my mom’s cousin Edith Keys Segraves, and with input from more distant cousins still in England, we were able to figure it out.  In case you didn’t know, the names George and Elizabeth were very common names in England at that time.  It had to do with royalty or something.  It seems like every generation of those English families repeated the names.  That’s how it ended up with cousins with the same names.

In this situation, our George Keys, who was born in 1780, had a nephew with the name of George Keys born in 1812.  Our Elizabeth Crouchman, who was born in 1781, had a first cousin by the name of John Griffith Crouchman.  His first daughter was born in 1810, and she was named Elizabeth.  And sure enough, George (1812) Keys married Elizabeth (1810) Crouchman.  And to make things even more confusing, let’s look at the names of their first few children.  As you’ve seen from our George and Elizabeth, their first three children were Eliza, George (who married an Elizabeth), and Elizabeth (who married a George).  Then George (1812) and Elizabeth (1810) had children by the names of George (married an Anne – had a son named Henry) and Elizabeth (who married a George).  Way too many common names!

So those of you who are related to me through this couple, remember that you come from the original George Keys and Elizabeth Crouchman, not from the copycats!