Welcome to my CROM family page. I am descended from Rev. John Crom (1781-1851) who was born in Lancaster Co, PA and was a United Brethren minister. He married Margaret Miller (1780-1854) and ended up in Wood Co, OH via Harrison Co, OH (and possibly others). My branch of the family ended up in Clinton Co, MI and married into the Beck family.

There's a rumor that we're connected to the Dutch immigrant Gysbert Crom (1650-1724), but since there's a 130-year gap between him and Rev. John and we don't know who the latter's parents were, this connection may never be proved. Another tantalizing possibility is here. While the name matches and the birth date is only off by a week, there's no other information on wife/children :^(

If you have any problems accessing anything, or any additions/corrections, please let me know at [email protected].
Happy hunting!

Contents of this page:

• A list of my Crom ancestors and their spouses
• My Crom Descendants List with living persons info deleted per my privacy policy. Warning: big file! (102k, 63 pages). Most of this information came from my cousins Russell Crom and Karl Oberdorf; the latter supplied me with a nice Oberdorf book and a CD copy of it, and has given me permission to put as much of it on the web as I want; I have yet to do that, but my Oberdorf Descendants List may be found here.
• Rev. John's will and obituary. Also, from the "Early History of Bowling Green, Ohio" part of the Commemorative, Historical and Biographical Record of Wood County, Ohio: Its Past and Present; Chicago: J.H. Beers & Co., 1897:
  
  The United Brethren Church was organized in 1874, with a few members. For forty years prior to that time itinerant preachers of this denomination visited Bowling Green, Rev. John Crom being the pioneer in the work.
  
  
• A write-up on the "Leatherwood God" about a cult that flourished briefly in 1828 in Guernsey Co, OH; it mentions a "Rev. John Crom, PE", and since Guernsey Co. is right next to Harrison Co, OH, I'm suspect this is "my" Rev. John.
• There is a Crom street in Tontogany, Wood Co, OH; I thought it was named after a Crom who donated land for the cemetery there, but the deed I found indicates it was a Caleb North who donated it...
• Write-ups on William O. Crom and David Henry from "Stories of Nebraska"; they were the
  son and son-in-law of Rev. John's first son Rev. Jacob Crom and his wife Anna (Overholt/Overholser)
• Rev. John's son Josiah's picture (copy of a copy which explains the quality).
  It appears when he moved out West he went by Joseph.
• Rev. John's daughter Mary's obituary; she married John Willennar.
• Rev. John's daughter Hester's picture along with her husband John Hill.
• Some biographical info on Rev. John's son Daniel Crom (my fourth great-grandfather). The bit about his being born in Oxford Co, PA is wrong since there is no such county. He married Barbara Oberdorf. Also some of his estate records. There appears to have been some problem with the administration of it, but this doesn't appear to be the whole story.
• Some biographical info on Daniel's son Simeon Crom along with a supposed picture of him.
• The Civil War records of Daniel's son John, my third great-grandfather, including his signature on his volunteer enlistment. Note that he died of measles three weeks after enlisting :^( (more deaths were caused by disease in the Civil War than by battle). He married Sarah Jane Lee
• Civil War John's oldest son Edwin "lived most of his life in or near Bowling Green, Ohio, where he ran a livery stable, and later had a Cadillac Dealership. He owned a farm near Leslie, MI (he's listed in the 1916-21 Ingham County, MI Directory), but this was not profitable, as he trusted tenant farmers to manage it for him and they ran him in debt terribly" (quote from my grandmother's Crom booklet mentioned below; the picture is from "Bowling Green, Ohio: A Sequiscentennial History 1833-1983" (1985)). My grandmother lost contact with his descendants, so I have little info on them.
• The following articles were taken from my Grandmother Dorothy Beck Cressman's booklet "A Brief History of the Ancestry of George Crom and Louisa (Nelson) Crom and a Record of Their Descendants Through 1978" - I helped her with some of the typing for this booklet, and this is probably what planted the seed of my future interest in genealogy. George was the son of Civil War John, and my great-great grandfather.
• George Crom's early life, and a picture of him as a young man
• "George Crom takes a bride", and a picture of them, possibly on their wedding day
• "An account of the lives of George and Louisa Crom", a picture of them, possibly on their 25th anniversary, and some August, 1995 pictures from the north, east, and south of the house south of Elsie that they ended up in (I assume this is the main house - I don't know where the tenant house was or what happened to it). This house was bought by the adjacent school and torn down in late 1995 to enlarge their football field :^(
• Also, I found this page showing the George Crom farm of Elba Township, Gratiot Co, MI. Note from the previous accounts that George lived in Fulton Center, Gratiot County (west of Elba Twp), then North of Elsie. I had thought this was _just_ north of Elsie, thus still in Clinton County, but the farm pictured was supposedly in Gratiot County, so I need to do some more research to try to confirm that this really "my" George Crom's farm.
• "The Crom daughters", and an undated picture of them
• "Memories of a visit to my Grandparents", by my great-uncle Gaylord Beck
• "Recollections about great-Grandpa Crom and my Sister Donna Beck",
  by my mother's cousin Mary Jane Beck Larsen
• "Some Recollections of my grandparents" by my grandmother Dorothy Beck
• "Christmas at Grandpa and Grandma's" by my grandmother Dorothy Beck
• Gravestone pictures:
• Rev. John and Margaret (Miller) Crom
• Their son Daniel and his wife Barbara (Oberdorf)
• Daniel's son John, who died in Tennessee of measles in the Civil War, 3 weeks after he enlisted. I haven't confirmed whether he was brought back and buried here, or if this is just a marker (note it's on the same stone).
• Subscribe to the Rootsweb Crum mailing list (there isn't one for Crom yet). If that link doesn't work for you, send e-mail to [email protected] and type "subscribe" only in the subject and body of your message.
• To just search the Rootsweb Crum mailing list, go here, but it's not an active list, thus you won't find much there :^(
• Other Crom links:
  • Yahoo/Google search results for Rev. John Crom
    (less than six, two of which are here and here, both by the same poster, but e-mail to him bounces :^(
  • Rev. John's Ancestral File
  • The Genforum Crom page (30+ posts, most related to Rev. John)
  • The familyhistory.com Crom forum (30+ posts, many related to Rev. John)
  • Crom World Connect Files; lots of them - suggest you search by name or state.
  • The Gendex Crom files, 108 listings
  • Rootsweb Crum resources
  • The SurnameWeb site, nothing there other than a link that doesn't work :^(
  • A biography of my third cousin thrice removed John Maurice Crom, engineer and inventor. He founded the Crom Corporation, though it's no longer in family hands. More references to it may be found here and here (about 130 links total). John's son Ted Crom (businessman, clock hobbyist, B negative blood donor) ran it for a while; more about Ted may be found here, here, and here (about 100 links total).
  • A list of Crom material available from cousin Sandra Oldman. She's willing to share, but would like to trade for things she doesn't have.

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Copyright © 2001 by Ronald D. Bauerle. The material published on this site may not be reproduced for commercial purposes. Genealogical researchers are free to use this material for reference and research purposes. All other rights reserved.