Bessie Croskell

Biography contributed by Mrs Colyn Storer (nee Morley), Sydney Australia

Bessie Croskell was born in March 1851 at Anderby Lincolnshire, daughter of Joseph Croskell and Rebecca nee Marshall. She was recorded in the 1851 census as under one month old, with her parents and five older siblings. She was baptised at St Andrew’s Anderby on 27 April. She had two younger siblings. Two other brothers died in infancy.

Her mother died in 1874 at Anderby. Soon after she along with her father and brothers, Wilson and George and sister Eliza emigrated to New Zealand on the Rakaia which arrived in Lyttelton, on 7 Feb. 1875, to join her eldest brother Richard and family who had already emigrated. His wife Jane Croskell also signed the Petition, as well as Jane’s sister Mrs Gledhill, Catherine nee Johnson.

They initially settled in Christchurch and immediately associated themselves with Durham Street Methodist Church.

Then she with her father and two brothers moved to a farm at Willowby near Ashburton and made the local Methodist church her spiritual home for many years. After her father and younger brother George died in 1893-94, she and her brother Wilson sold the farm returned to Christchurch and settled at New Brighton where they continued to worship at the Methodist Church.

She was also very involved in the Ladies Guild and Missionary Auxiliary of the church. It was said that it was a joy and delight to visit her in her later years when she could not go to church.

She died on 26 August 1932 and was buried at Sydenham Cemetery. Her brother Wilson was buried in the same grave and sister Eliza and her husband Robert Johnson in the adjoining one.

The New Zealand Methodist Times had a detailed obituary on 29 October 1932. Her will which passed probate at Christchurch in September 1932, listed many of her relations both in New Zealand and Lincolnshire as beneficiaries. 

Sources

BIRTH, BAPTISM: UK GRO Indexes: https://www.gro.gov.uk/ (NOT the indexes on free.bmd or Ancestry or findmypast). These GRO indexes give mother’s maiden names and age at death.

CENSUSES, FAMILY RECORDS UK: Findmypast.com.au. Including Lincolnshire Parish registers, digitised copies

NZ BIRTHS, DEATHS, MARRIAGES: https://www.bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/ and Ancestry.com.au

Electoral Rolls: findmypast AND Ancestry.com.au, New Zealand, Electoral Rolls, 1853-1981

Death & Burial: NZ BDM online and PapersPast, Ancestry.com. New Zealand, Cemetery Records, 1800-2007. Original data: New Zealand Cemetery Records. New Zealand Society of Genealogists Incorporated.

Newspaper Reports: PapersPast for many of the family, especially Death/Funeral notices 

Obituary: The New Zealand Methodist Times 29 October 1932. Page 16 Within the Veil. Issue Group The New Zealand Methodist Times 1932 Issue Sort19321029 https://kinderlibrary.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/5387

Probate: Family Search, New Zealand, Archives New Zealand, Probate Records, 1843-1998