Could anyone please help me with a UK look up for George Norcross?

Question

Hello, my friends!

I've been working on a PGM profile for Jeremiah Norcross (https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Norcross-14) and found a new father for him: George Norcross. With your help I discovered that their surname had been incorrectly spelled in the transcriptions available for his baptism records due to what seems to have been a mistake made and corrected by the scribe at the time. The Norcross name has not been an easy one to find in records. It's spelled very differently and, probably because it's not very common, sometimes transcribed as another name entirely, such as Morecross, Norerosse or, as in this case, simply Nor. So it's been quite a journey!

Checking under the surname of "Nor" for the parish of Priston, Somerset, where Jeremiah had been baptized, I found two more baptism records on Family Search with George Norcross as father: Martha, 1591 ("England, Somerset, Church Records, 1501-1999", database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6D96-HMZR : 25 February 2022), George Nor in entry for Martha Nor, 1591.) and Alexander, 1594 ("England, Somerset, Church Records, 1501-1999", database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6D96-392C : 25 February 2022), George Nor in entry for Alexander Nor, 1594.).  I also found a marriage (possibly a second one?) record for a George Norcross, 1608, also in Priston, Somerset on Family Search ("England, Somerset, Church Records, 1501-1999", database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6DM2-PDD3 : 25 February 2022), George Norcross in entry for Als Frankland, 1608.).

Family Search only offers an index of those records, no images. The latter are linked to more detailed indexes on Find My Past that offer pretty much the same information. Ancestry offers images, under the incorrect surname of "Nor". I'm based in the US and don't have access to the European Ancestry. I was wondering if anyone could look up those records, or any other available on Ancestry for George Norcross or George Nor of Priston, Somerset, England. It would be really helpful to know if they all relate to the same person. And if you could share a free ancestry link to the records that would be amazing. Of course, any more information on him or on the family would be greatly appreciated.

I thank you all in advance!

Marcia

Comments

Thank you for following up and actually detaching Jeremiah from his incorrect parents.Unfortunately this sometimes doesn't happen for project-managed profiles.

I wonder if the surname Norcross was sometimes written as Nor followed by a cross symbol and has been subsequently wrongly transcribed as Nor. Unfortunately findmypast doesn't have the images so I can't test that theory.

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My pleasure! I like to do as much as I can in a profile before I move on to the next one. I don't remeber seeing any documents with a "nor" followed by a cross. They're quite possibly out there transcribed incorrectly and in that case will only be found by chance. The Priston parish books show the surname as Nor (deletion) crosse. Whoever transcribed it for Find My Past interpreted it as "nor" and ignored the "crosse" after the deletion. There was another G2G post in which we discussed that. If you're interested you can find a link to it on Jeremiah's profile, on the upper right.

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Interesting that Martha's and Alexander's baptism records have exactly the same smudge/deletion as Jeremiah's, again both their respective surnames and their father's are written as 'Nor (deletion?) crosse'

I wonder if it is some archaic religious superstition, that writing Norcrosse, would be something akin to 'No Cross'.  It's definitely odd.

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There is burial information for an Elixsander Norcross on 24 November 1609 at Publow, but his surname is written as Norcross, no smudge/deletion.

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Thank you so much, John! I guess at some point they learned the correct spelling for Norcross? Or maybe the burial record was made by a different scribe. When I first saw the deletion I thought it could have been spelled as Northcross at first. Afterwards someone realized the mistake and deleted the "th". Of course, this is just one of many theories.

Answer 1

I’ll have a look Marcia,

Ann

Comments

Sent you message with link the writing has faded but it’s Jeremiah Norcross baptised 5 May 1588 at Publow Somerset
About 7 miles from Priston
Ann

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Thanks, Ann. I've got that one. I was trying to get access to other records to George Norcross to improve his profile as much as I can before I'm done with the Norcross family.

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Freereg shows him as NorcrossE in Jeremie's birth record

But FreeReg is just a transcript

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Lots of records show their surname as Norcrosse. That's also how it's spelled in Jeremiah's wills.