 At 45, Helen Crane had suffered the early deaths of her previous four children, each of whom died within one year of birth.Nicknamed "Stevie" by the family, he joined eight surviving brothers and sisters—Mary Helen, George Peck, Jonathan Townley, William Howe, Agnes Elizabeth, Edmund Byran, Wilbur Fiske, and Luther.The Cranes were descended from Jaspar Crane, a founder of New Haven Colony, who had migrated there from England in 1639.