Birth Notice

To Andrew and Kate Cree of Bristol, England, a daughter, Martha Grace, on 26th April 2009. Congratulations!

A visit to Criehaven

News of a visit to remote Criehaven from Bjarni Brown in the USA. Criehaven is the name of the settlement on Ragged Island, described as "the farthest offshore inhabited island on the East Coast [of the USA]" (See the Criehaven web site.)

However, to start at the beginning, Bjarni Brown of Exeter, New Hampshire, USA, wrote in April:

Hello,

I feel like I just hit the jackpot!! I have been going around in circles online trying to find genealogy info on my ancestor, John Crie. My great-grandmother was Lillian Crie, from Criehaven Island in Maine. I am researching my family tree back to Glasgow and finally found the connection! I still have lots more to look at on your site, but just wanted to write to you to tell you how excited I am by your site!

Sincerely,
Bjarni Brown
Exeter NH

In further correspondence Bjarni told me that he was descended from John Crie, the Scottish immigrant founder of this Crie line, through his granddaughter Mary Jane (Crie) Kelley. It is thought that John Crie was press-ganged on the streets of Glasgow, Scotland, to fight in the American War of Independence and afterwards decided to stay in the USA, settling on Matinicus Island. It was his grandson Robert Crie who moved to neighbouring Ragged Island and founded the settlement there called Criehaven. Bjarni Brown made it to Criehaven this Summer and wrote:

Hi Mike,

I just wanted to write to tell you that my sister and I made it to Criehaven!!! All the details just fell into place at the last minute, the weather was amazing and we got out there for a day to explore. We rode out on a lobster boat - the owner was going out to work on his traps and gave us a ride.

We walked the whole island, met a few people, poked around the 'library' and found the cemetery. It was just so cool... the island is as you can imagine, several fishing camps right on the docks, several small camps around the harbor, several others scattered around the island.

It's about 350 acres, with a grassy airstrip, surprising amount of big trees, lots of beach roses and scrub brush. It was just so great, we had an amazing time!

My sister took a lot of pictures, and once she uploads them to Shutterfly I can send you the link, if you're interested. Here are two I took of the library and cemetery.

It was just so neat to finally make the connection - I am truly energized to do more research and find more information to fill in the blanks!

Thanks again,
Bjarni

See the Crie in Maine page for a further photo from Bjarni and more details about the Crie line of Criehaven.

Best Wishes,

Mike Spathaky