posted March 02, 2002 01:28 PM               

I have just started to compile my family tree, and I have found that my Mother's Father came from Utah in the mid 1800's.

As his name was Stephen Moorcroft and your Moorcroft is not that far away, I
wondered if there might be a connection.

Stephen married a Miss Smith who was a school teacher, and they lived for a while in the village of Burbage, Wiltshire, before moving to London where my Mother was born.

Stephen was very fond of horses and worked for an undertaker in London where his main job was looking after the horses that pulled the hearse. He was also the man who walked in front of the cortege where he would lead the horses, dressed in black complete with black top hat.

Is there anyone in the town who is interested in genealogy who recognises Moorcroft as a surname? Or who can tell me how the town of Moorcroft came to be named?

I will be grateful for any information you can give.

Yours sincerely

posted March 02, 2002 11:12 PM               

There's limited informatin available for you, but here it is:

No information was available explaining how the town got it's name, however, it was recognized as one of the largest shipping points for sheep and cattle on the Old Texas Trail during the 1880s and 1890s.

Current population of Moorcroft, WY is less than 1,000 and the total amount of land area in the town is 2.782 square kilometers.