Casley Family

[julesnz]

Hi Im helping a friend with his family tree, many lines still to research so I will start with the Casley line first
I have John Casley born 17 Mar 1830 St Just in Penwith Cornwall, died 17 Dec 1895 Thames NZ. Married first to Elizabeth Triggs 1853, 2nd marriage to Mary Jane Kelynack 8 Jan 1860 Saint Just in Penwith Cornwall.


Johns father is named on his marriage Cert as Archelaus Casley occup Engineer - So I have Johns parents as Archelaus Casley 1802 St Just in Cornwall married to Thomasine Quick born 1809.

looking to find Archelaus Casley 1808 parents


1851c Archileus Casley b.abt 1800 St Just. Cornwall, living in Lafronda Penzance, occup engineman, wife name is written as Thompson age 45

children - John 22 (family line), Joanna 18, Mary Jane 15, Thomas 10, Archileus 8, Nancy 5, Richard 3.


1861 The family name is now Warren ?? - Archelaus Warren 59 living in Trewellard Cornwall.

Children - Joanna 27, thomas 20, Archelaus 18, Nanny (prob Nancy) 15, Richard 13, Thomas 7, and John 6

Surely Thomas 7, and John 6 must be grandchildren on the 1861c

Many thanks from New Zealand in lockdown at the moment

[Cornish Terrier]

Hi Jules and Welcome to the site.

I have just updated my information on the Archelaus Casley family to make sure all my information is as correct as it can be. Having done that I can now attempt to answer your questions.

The first point of note is the 'birth' date of John Casley - he was actually baptized at St Just 17th March 1828 (not 1830). His next sibling, Thomas, was baptised 15th January 1830 at St Just and died in 1834 with his age recorded as 6. Archelaus and Thomasine had a total of 11 children - John (1828), Thomas (1830-1834), Johanna (1832), Archelaus (1834-1835), Mary Jane (1836), Nanny (1839-1840), Thomas (1841), Archelaus (1843), Nanny (1846), Richard (1848) and Elizabeth Ann (1852).

Another point of note is that 'Archelaus' was sometimes known as 'Hercules'. It was not uncommon to find those two names interchanged.

Next point - you are quite correct that the two youngest children in the 1861 Census (Thomas and John) were grandchildren and not children. They were sons of John Casley and Elizabeth Triggs.

In the Census records Archelaus' age generally reflected a birth of about 1801 or 1802 although his age is recorded as 64 when he was buried at St Just 15th December 1864. I believe him to be the following:-

Archelaus son of Archelaus and Cathne Casley baptised 28th July 1802 at St Just

BUT ............... you will find no marriage for Archelaus and Catherine!!! And I believe the reason for that is that there was no such event AND the naming of the father as Archelaus in the Parish Register is most likely an error on the part of the Vicar. (Again a far from uncommon occurrence)

I believe the parents of Archelaus were PETER Casley and Catherine Grenfell who married at St Just 5th October 1799. Peter and Catherine had one other son, Peter, baptised in 1800 and Catherine was buried several months before young Archelaus was baptised. Peter Casley then married Catherine Edwards at St Just in 1803.

And that is about as far as I ever got with the family. The problem is that I can find no record of a baptism for Peter Casley. He was buried at St Just in 1846 and recorded as age 73 which puts his birth somewhere in the early to mid 1770s but there is just no baptism for him that I can find. Even searching for an illegitimate Peter baptised around the right time has offered no possibilities.

There must be an answer somewhere but it will require much more time than I can put into it right now. Perhaps a search of Casley Wills might turn up something ..............

CT

[julesnz]

Thankyou for all your help, I have updated the tree for John Casley - Parents Archelaus (Hercules) and Thomasine Quick
Possible parents of Archelaus Casley Peter Casley and Catherine. Where will I find wills. So many people with trees on Ancestry have different parents for Archelaus, I guess it was a popular name. I really appreciate your help, no rush, we are in lock down here in New Zealand so plenty time on our hands

[Cornish Terrier]

Most of the Archdeaconry of Cornwall Wills can be found on FamilySearch. If you don't already have one you will need to create a new account for yourself for FamilySearch. It is quite easy and it is Free!

It is best to Login in to FamilySearch first and then use the following link which will open another window to the Wills page:-

www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/329778?availability=Family%20History%20Library

There are three pages involved in the index and you can switch between them using the 'Page' box at the bottom of the first screen. Don't bother with the first page - go straight to the second and then scroll down past all the Administrations until you come to 'Wills, surnames beginning with A'. This is the start of all the actual Wills.

As an example:-

Wills, surnames beginning with B (nos. 1-194), 1601-1608.

This example is basically what all the links will look like although some will have a little more more to deal with like this next one:-

Wills, surnames beginning with C (nos. 5309-5618), 1847-1857; Wills, surnames beginning with D (nos. 1-226), 1601-1622.

This one gives the last of the Wills for surnames beginning with 'C' and then the first part of those beginning with 'D'. It can get a little confusing at times but I am sure you will work it out.

Now, to use these indexes you will need to have an idea of what you are looking for. (You could just scroll through them all but that is far too much work!!) The best idea is to gather the details of the Wills you want to look at. To do this you can use the Kresen Kernow site:-

kresenkernow.org/

No login required for this so just click the link and it will take you to the home page. I think the easiest way to go about this would be to have a list of Parishes of interest. St Just is certainly one but you may need to look at others such as Morvah, St Buryan, Sancreed etc.

On the Kresen Kernow home page under the top banner you will see 'Explore Our Collections'. In the search box below type in the following:-

AP/c (parish name) (for Parishes that begin 'St' just ignore that and type the rest - e.g. instead of St Just just type 'Just'. So for St Just type AP/c just, for Sancreed you would type AP/c sancreed and so on.

AP/ is the prefix for the Wills and C is the first letter of the surname you want which in this case is 'Casley'.

You will need to scroll through the list of entries individually because they are not necessarily in order. What you need to take note of is the CRO Reference Number and the Year. As an example:_

Reference number: AP/C/5
Will of John Cock of St Just in Penwith
Date: 1601

You need to note the Reference Number which in this case is AP/C/5 and the Year (1601) as well as the name of the testator and the parish. Create a list of all of these for each Parish of interest and then go to the Wills Page.

Using one of the examples from above:-

To find the Will of John Cock as listed above you would need to find:-

Wills, surnames beginning with C (nos. 1-397), 1601-1617.

This is the listing for surnames beginning with 'C' with reference numbers between 1 and 397 for the years 1601-397.

Once you have selected the correct link for the Will(s) you want to search for simply click on the Camera Icon at the right. This will take you to the first of the images in that set and from there you just make your way through until you find the first page of the Will you want.

NOTE - a great percentage of the Wills have the reference number written on them. It is usually written in pencil at the bottom of the page but sometimes it can be found at the side. Not all pages for each Will necessarily has this number written but by checking images either side you will soon know if you have all pages for a particular Will. (The pages of the Wills are rarely in proper order either so make sure you do check the images)

Images can be downloaded by clicking on the 'download' button at the right of the top toolbar.

If you have any problems or it is a little confusing just send me a note and I will see if I can help you through it. After the first couple of times it does become easier.

CT