The earliest confirmed ancestor that I’ve found is Thomas Cross, my 5 x Great Grandfather, who married Hannah Canham in Great Holland (only a few miles from where my parents still live) in February 1776.
On Wednesday I was in the Society of Genealogists library and I found a lovely bound copy of the parish registers for Beaumont-cum-Moze – a tiny village in the same area. In the book I found a small number of references to a Cross family, and this is the earliest. It’s from 1583 and it says “Nicholas Crosse son of John Crosse was baptized the xvj of Julye”. The book also contains “John Crosse was buryed the vjth ffebruary” in 1588 and “Joan Crosse widdow was buryed xiij of Aprill” in 1589. I wonder what happened to Nicholas after that.
It seems that my family don’t move around much, so I’m pretty sure that John, Joan and Nicholas will be some kind of relation to me. I just have a gap of about 200 years to bridge in order to prove it.
Nice to have something to aim at though.