Creer from the Isle of Man - Family history

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Incidence of the Creer Name

United Kingdom - In the 1881 UK Census there were 420 recorded incidence of individuals with the Creer surname mainly in the IOM and England. There appears to be one example of the same person being recorded twice in this census at two different (but relatively close) addresses, so the real figure is 419 (although the accuracy of any such census must always be questioned). There were also 4 McCreers (one family) recorded in Scotland so by now this version of the name may be extinct. In this census Creer ranked 50th in the number of people in the IOM with Manx names.

Only 8 Freers were recorded as living in the IOM. The UK 1901 census strangely also records 419 individuals that can be identified as having the Creer surname, (although the quality of transcription in this census appears of poor quality with a number of names such as Creet, Creen, Crees, Green etc ultimately proving to be Creer!!!). This 1901 figure is no doubt understated.

In the 2001 IOM telephone directory (which includes some mobile numbers) there are 47 individuals or families recorded under the name Creer.

In the 2000 UK electoral roll records, ie those of 18 years and over who have taken the effort to register to vote, there is a total of 370 people with the surname Creer in the whole of the UK. 58 only of these are shown as living in the IOM (cf 47 in the telephone directory) and the combined electoral roll and telephone directory for the IOM contains 82 unique records. There were no McCreers recorded.

In the same database there are 4682 GREERs living in the UK, including 2 in the IOM plus a further 153 in the Irish Republic. There are 2240 FREERs in the UK, none recorded in the IOM and 46 in the Irish Republic. There were 337 FREARs in the UK only. Finally another surname which may have similar origins to Creer is McCREERY and there were 461 recorded to be living in the UK (none in the IOM) and 45 in Eire.

The name CREAR appears to have possibly evolved in a similar way to Creer. In the UK 1881 census there were 72 people with this family name, almost exclusively in Scotland. At the same time there were 5 McCREARs. However, in the UK 2000 Electoral Roll there are only 36 Crears , so this name appears to be in decline. It is conceivable that Crear could have evolved from an old Gaelic name via McCrear, in a similar manner to Creer, but in a different part of the United Kingdom.

USA - It does appear that a number of Manx emigrants to the US in the 19th century established settlements in Utah and within the LDS records there are family trees for several Creer families living in Utah. The US Social Security Death Index database records 177 Creer deaths. Creer is recorded as the 41,045th most popular family name in the USA - here

Australia and Canada - There are Creer families living in both Australia and Canada today, descended from emigrants from the IOM. The number of these is not known but it is estimated there are ca 80-100 in Australia and a similar number in Canada.

Any more information on the incidence and numbers of Creer families around the world from other researchers would be welcomed.

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