Researching William Calcraft
Delve into the history of William Calcraft using the links below. We hope you find this information useful!

The name William means "resolute guardian" and is of German origin.
Records of William Calcraft on Ancestry
Ancestry is a major source of information if you are filling out the detail of William Calcraft in your family tree. Many large databases are available to search covering from births, deaths and marriages, military records, census records and immigration records with many other smaller collections too. Free trials are normally available and are a good way to fill out a lot of your tree quickly.
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Ancestry.com Global records search results for William Calcraft. |
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Ancestry.com US records search results for William Calcraft. |
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Ancestry.co.uk UK records search results for William Calcraft. |
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Ancestry.ca Canadian records search results for William Calcraft. |
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Ancestry.com.au Australian records search results for William Calcraft. |
DNA
Sometimes you can run into a brick wall in your tree and you just don't have enough evidence to make that next step back in time. If you are lucky then you may find some previously undiscovered Calcraft ancestors. Additionally, the modern DNA test can give you a breakdown of your ethnic mix - you may be surprised at the results!
Have you reached a brick wall in your Calcraft Tree?
Birth, Death and Marriage Records for William Calcraft and the Calcraft Family History
Birth, Death and Marriage records are often the best method of making the links to the Calcraft Genealogy that will form part of your family tree. Although records vary from country to country, they are normally the most formal record of a person's relations. From the sources listed below it will be possible to locate a birth record and, from that record, a birth certificate may be obtainable which is likely to list the names of the parents, therefore taking you back another generation. A marriage certificate may also list the names of the respective fathers of the bride and groom which may then help you to find them earlier in life on a census record enabling you to fill out more detail in the Calcraft family tree.
Study Parish Records for William Calcraft at Find My Past.
Search for the UK registered births, marriages and deaths of William Calcraft using the FreeBMD database.
Study Genealogy Bank for William Calcraft records.
Search MyHeritage for William Calcraft information.
Search the LDS Database for records about William Calcraft.
Research the Calcraft surname using fold3 Military Archives and view images of original Calcraft Military records.
Calcraft Family Tree Databases
Another way to build your tree quickly is to use the research other people have already done. This can help to confirm or refute your own deductions - however, be wary of taking this data at face value as other researchers may not have been as meticulous as you. Always try to back up deductions with some definitive sources rather than relying too heavily on others.
Study the WikiTree database for user contributed records for William Calcraft.
Study MyTrees for information on the Calcraft family and people looking to contact living Calcraft relations.
Study One Great Family for Calcraft records submitted by people who are already researching the Calcraft Family Tree.
Find William Calcraft from Ireland on findmypast.ie
Calcraft Forums
There are a number of forums which are dedicated to rearching particular surnames. These can be good places to share your findings and also to tap into the knowledge that others may already have. These can sometimes be a good way of finding living relations as these tend not to show up on the other sources of information for privacy reasons.
Research the Calcraft surname using Genealogy.com forums .
Miscellaneous Calcraft Databases
Explore the Ellis Island Database for information on William Calcraft. This database contains over 25 million immigration records detailing passengers arriving in the United States of America.
Some Famous People called William Calcraft
William Calcraft
William Calcraft (11 October 1800 – 13 December 1879) was a 19th-century English hangman, one of the most prolific of British executioners. It is estimated in his 45-year career he carried out 450 executions. A cobbler by trade, Calcraft was initially recruited to flog juvenile offenders held in Newgate Prison. While selling meat pies on streets around the prison, Calcraft met the City of London's hangman, John Foxton.
After Foxton's death in 1829 the government appointed Calcraft the official Executioner for the City of London and Middlesex. Following this, his executioner services were in great demand throughout England. Nevertheless, some considered Calcraft incompetent, in particular for his controversial use of the short-drop hanging method in which the condemned were slowly strangled to death.
Because with Calcraft's methods the condemned took several minutes to die, to hasten death Calcraft would sometimes dramatically pull on legs or climb on shoulders in an effort to break a victim's neck. It has been speculated that Calcraft used these methods partly to entertain the crowds, sometimes numbering 30,000 spectators or more.
Executions in England were public until 1868. That year the law changed, mandating executions would take place privately and inside the prison. In 1868 Calcraft carried out the last public and first private executions. Among his executions were Marie and Frederick Manning, the first husband and wife to be hanged together since 1700.
Source: William Calcraft, Wikipedia, The Free EncyclopediaOther names that sound a bit like Calcraft
Family names can get corrupted over time, particularly where literacy was not as good. The following list contains some names that have similar sounds so you may want to also look at one or two of the more likely possibilites.
Calchera Callacher Callegari Chalcraft Chalcroft Chalker Clackers Clackworthy Clauser Clocker Closser Clouser Clowser Colagrassi Colagrossi Colasurdo Colcher Colcord Colecrough Colegrove Colgrave Colgrove Colleasure Colqueran Colsher Coulcher





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