Aims of the Cree One-Name Study

The Cree One-Name Study aims to collect references to all occurrences of the surname Cree (and its variants) on a world-wide basis. However it is not just concerned with data collection. It also seeks to unravel the history of the surname and the way it has spread around the world and to research and record the genealogies and family histories of everyone who bears, or who has borne, the surname Cree.

The Study also aims to make the data collected and the results of the research available to anyone who is interested in the surname Cree and to conserve those data and results for the use of future Cree researchers.

It aims to replace the filing cabinets and shelves full of paper records that I and others have collected over many years with digital records freely available to all online. Once we have gone, we cannot expect our families to store and make available the paper records.

An aim of the Cree One-Name Study is therefore encapsulated in the phrase, "The website IS the one-name study" that appears on every page of the site. The rationale behind this is amplified in my article The website IS the one-name study which was first publiched in the Journal of One-Name Studies in January 2015.

A further aim of the Cree One-Name Study is to act as a focus of collaboration between all those who are researching and collecting information relating to the surname Cree. Some will be researching their own Cree ancestry, others will share our wider interest in the surname. All are welcome to contribute. Hopefully the very existence of this web site is a stimulus to such research and an outlet for the dissemination of its results.

In 2012 an additional web site, the Cree Family History Network, was created to complement this Cree Surname web site. It was set up and is managed by Trevor Cree to provide a forum for discussion and a medium of communication between people who are interested in Cree family history and surname research. The URL is creefhs.ning.com.

The two websites together play a central role in this process of dissemination and conservation of our knowledge of Cree geneaolgy and family history.

It's an ambitious set of aims. However the interest and enjoyment in pursuing them comes from the research process rather than in achieving a "final result."

Cree surname research

The Cree One-Name Study started in 1989 with the publication by Trevor Cree of a booklet listing all Cree entries from the Indexes to Birth, Marriages and Deaths (1837-1980) for England and Wales. These indexes are now accessible in the Indexes section of this web site.

Trevor's work triggered genealogical research by several UK researchers. Meanwhile contact was made with Robert H Cree in the USA who had spent a lifetime researching the five Cree lines emanating from western Pennsylvania in the late 18th Century. Robert has generously made his research results available and they are included in this web site.

Trevor continued his index extracts with the Scottish and Irish civil registrations. Development was boosted when it was realised that the spelling CRIE had been the normal spelling of the name in Scotland in the 17th and 18th Centuries.

Mike Spathaky traced the Derbyshire-Nottinghamshire CREE lines to a single progenitor born in 1644, showing that the line was independent of the Scottish Crees. He then researched the Scottish Cree, Crie and Cre lines and discovered a likely ancestor for them, a merchant who lived in Perth in 1459.

The Cree Family History Society was started in 1991 and reached membership of over 100 by 1999. Conferences were held in Dorset in 1993 and Perth in 1995 and 17 issues of CREE NEWS were published from 1990 to 1999. The Society published five booklets on Cree family history written by its members.

The Cree FHS was wound up as a subscription organisation in 2000, to be replaced by an informal network based on this Cree Surname web site and, since 2012, the Cree Family History Network website

Acknowledgements

This web site would not be as comprehensive as it is without the work of many researchers world-wide who have willingly contributed to the Cree One-Name Study. The special contributions of the following people to the Cree Family History Society during the ten years of its existence is acknowledged:

Trevor Cree (Sussex, England) whose research and publication work started the whole thing off and who has continued to be one of the most active of Cree researchers. Trevor also edited Cree News for a couple of years.

The late Robert M H Cree of Glasgow who made many contributions to Cree research. It was he who pointed us to the 18th Century Crie Burgesses of Perth, who turned out to be his ancestors, the earliest Cree families on record and closest to the origins of all Scottish Cree lines.

Patricia Yates, the late Brigadier Hilary Cree and Morton Fountain, who brought their various researches to fruition as authors of the books in our Cree Booklets series - all still available by downloading from the Booklets page of this web site.

Robert H Cree of Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, who has freely made available the results of his researches of over fifty years on the early Cree families of Pennsylvania and their many descendants.

Gary Maher of Elizabeth, New Jersey, who has made available the results of his thorough research into the Joseph Cree of that city. Gary has also taken on the role of Administrator of the Cree Surname Y-DNA Project.

The late Charles M N Cree (Austin, Texas) who acted as our USA Co-ordinator for many years. His efforts in mailing Crees around the USA resulted in a real boost to Cree FHS membership. He always took care to answer fully and courteously all correspondence that came his way as a result of his initiatives. Charles also wrote articles for Cree News about his own Cree ancestors in the early days of ranching in New Mexico.

In the end however, this web site and all its errors and imperfections are my responsibility. Please use the Contacts page to let me know what you think of it

Mike Spathaky