I have been in e-mail with Anthony Crump, whose y-chromosome DNA suggests that he is closely related to me. The Crumps, like several of my ancestral lines were found in 17th century Gloucestershire.
My proven ancestral name, Saunders, is also in Gloucestershire. It is particularly intriguing that there are examples of Saunders and Crumps intermarrying in Great Britain (and also in later times in Massachusetts).
For any family historians with information on the Saunders and Crump families in Gloucestershire or any other examples of their association with each other to alert me at ffvsearch@yahoo.com.
In the meantime, here are some of the curiosities in the interactions between persons surnamed Saunders and Crump:
Virginia-born Clarence Saunders (1881-1953) created the Piggly Wiggly stores, the first markets in which food items could be selected by customers rather than be handed them by clerks.
Associated with an attempt to “corner the market” in Piggly Wiggly stock, as a defense against a “bear raid”, he lost control of the Memphis-based company in 1923.
Five years later he an Memphis political boss E. H. Crump backed opposing candidates for Governor of Tennessee.
That campaign was associated with unprecedently vitriolic newspaper advertising by Saunders and Crump.
Edmund Holl “Boss” Crump
E(dmund) H(oll) Crump (1874-1954) was the undisputed political boss of Memphis and a major figure in Tennessee politics in the first half of the 20th century.