Monthly Archives: October 2015

Astle, Loyalists, New Brunswick Canada

James Astle, Loyalist of New York, Quebec and New Brunswick

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While Recommended Reads is on hiatus, I will be sharing some digitized resources  that I have written through the years and will also share a few very locale-specific books that have been invaluable to me along my genealogical journey.

Today, I’d like to share my published work on Loyalist James Astle of New York, Quebec and New Brunswick. As with my Williams book, I donated a copy of this article to the Family History Library, which has recently digitized it. However, for some unknown reason, access is limited to viewing at the library. I’ve sent an email request and made an in-person request the last time I was there to change the settings to allow public viewing online, but that has not happened.

This article was written back in 1993 and printed out on a dot matrix printer. (NOTE: This is now digitally accessible on FamilySearch.)

James Astle married Elizabeth McLean in Schenectady, New York in 1770. They had the following children:

1. Angelica, who married (1) Abel Davis and (2) James Walls. Angelica was born in 1774 and died between 1818 and 1836
2. Hannah (possibly) who married Benjamin Davis. She was probably born about 1776
3. John, who married Hannah Underhill Vanderbeck. He was born in 1779 and died 15 December 1856
4. Daniel, who married Jane, maiden name unproven but possibly Parker. He was born about 1783 and died by November 1817.
5. Joseph, who married Mary, maiden name unproven but likely Cooper. He was born about 1786 and died 19 January 1870.
6. Elizabeth (possibly) who married John Mitchell. Elizabeth died between February 1816 and 1 June 1818.

Loyalist James Astle has hundreds of descendants today. The name was quite unique in colonial America and most of his grandchildren remained in New Brunswick, Canada for many years. A few ventured back into Maine in the late 1800’s.

There was a second James Astle on the 1784 Paspebiac, Quebec lists. He appears to be a younger man than my James and was unmarried at the time. DNA testing by a 4x great grandson of each of these James Astles shows a common ancestor within about eight generations.

I have never had the feeling that these two men were father and son, although it is possible. However, I think it is more likely that they were uncle and nephew or cousins, as they didn’t even resettle in the same province. My James went to New Brunswick, while the young James remained in Quebec.

To my knowledge, the majority of descendants in these two Astle families remained in Canada, but I have not tried to trace them into the 1900’s. There are a few descendants, like me, who live in the United States and are descended from the Astles who moved to Maine.

Please contact me if you are a descendant of either James Astle.

Bager, Krok/Krook

Hans Krok/Krook & Catharina Maria Bager, Veberod, Sweden

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Are you descended from the Krok/Krook family in Skane, Sweden? This family is an old one and, while I have found the surname spelled both of these ways, the Krog/Krogh surname appears to belong to an entirely different family. Leave a comment if you have Krok/Krook in your family tree.

Hans Krok, or Krook, was baptized on 23 March 1722 in Gullarp, Malmohus (today Skane) Sweden and was buried on 17 May 1771 in Veberod, Skane, Sweden. He was the son of Jacob Krook and Anna Brita von Wowern. The Krook family would be considered upper middle class, as the males were inspectors, which I believe was a police officer. The unmarried girls were titled “jungfrau” or “young lady” and the married ladies were titled “madame” in church records.

The von Wowern family is an old noble family with roots in Sweden as early as the 1590’s. Catharina Maria Bager was born about 31 January 1729 in the nearby village of Dalbyand was buried on 17 November 1784, also in Veberod. She was the daughter of Jons Bager and Sara Prytz.

Hans and Catharina married on 13 September 1749 in Dalby. They had five children:

1. Jons, born 27 November 1750, Dalby, Skane, Sweden. Jons died before his mother’s death in 1784 as he is not listed in her probate. He may well have died before his brother, Jons Jacob, was born in 1756, but no burial record has been found for him either in Dalby or in Bonderup, where the family moved by 1752.
2. Sara Brita, born 7 March 1752, Bonderup, Skane, Sweden. She married Anders Molin on 2 February 1776 in Veberod, Skane, Sweden. They separated (or divorced) by 1785, when Anders was living in Marstrand, Sweden and Sara Brita was  living in Everlov, Skane, Sweden. She died on 5 April 1812 in Andrarum, Skane, Sweden.
3. Jons Jacob was born 3 September 1756, Bonderup, Skane, Sweden. He married Catharina Akerberg on 8 February 1788 in Everlov, Skane, Sweden. It was noted at that time that he lived in Skogamollern, which is in Veberod parish, but this couple hasn’t yet been found after their wedding date.
4. Johan Magnus, born 27 May 1760, Bonderup, Skane, Sweden. He married Christina Akerberg, believed to be the sister of Catharina, on 19 October 1787, also in Everlov, Skane, Sweden. Christina was born about 1762 and was buried on 5 August 1794 in Everlov. It appears her parents lived a few doors from the Krooks, but if she was born there, baptismal records begin there in 1768 so no birth/baptismal date has yet been found for her. Johan and Christina had two children: Hans, born about 26 December 1787 and Anna Maria, born about 13 February 1792, both in Everlov. Hans reportedly died in 1866 in Malmo. Anna Maria married Ola (Olaf) Lundgren. She died on 12 May 1869 in Palstorp, Kagerod, Skane, Sweden. Johan Magnus is found with Hans and Anna Maria in the household examination records until 1801 in Everlov. He reportedly died in 1838 in Dalby, but burial records from that time period are missing there and no probate has yet been found for him.
5. Juliana Cecilia, was born about 1763, as she was described as 21 years old in the 1784 probate records of her mother. No baptismal record has been found for her; the family may have lived elsewhere between their time in Bonderup and her father’s 1771 death in Veberod. She married Johan Peter Lindqvist on 20 August 1785 in Veberod, Skane, Sweden. This couple hasn’t yet been located after their wedding date. Johan Peter was a widower at the time of his marriage to Juliana, but no age was given. He was from “Stenhuset, Simmentorp” but he hasn’t been found in those records.