Joseph L. Briles, 55, of 1027 Sequoia Avenue died yesterday at Moses Cone Hospital.
A native of Randolph County, he was founder, chairman of the board and general manager of Asheboro Concrete Products Co., Randleman Lumber Co. and Robbins Builder Supply Co.
He served in the Army Air Force in World War II, was a tail gunner for B25s, and flew 78 missions, received a Presidential citation, Distinguished Flying Cross, and Purple Heart.
HE was a member of the American Legion and disabled American Veterans, a Veteran of Foreign Wars, a member of the N.C. Concrete Masonry Association, and the National Asheboro Chamber of Commerce.
Surviving are his wife, Mrs. Mozelle Lucas Briles, daughter, Ms. Andrea Briles of Charlotte; son, Don Briles of Charlotte; brother, Raymond Briles of Franklinville, Fred Briles of Belews Creek, Rudolph Briles of Los Angeles, Calif., and Ernest Briles of West Covina, Calif.; and sister, Mrs. Lucille Rogers of Amarillo, Tex.
Funeral will be 4 p.m. tomorrow at Pugh Funeral Homes Chapel, with the Rev. R. L. Hughes officiating. Burial will be at Oaklawn Cemetery.
The family will be at the funeral home from 7 to 9 p.m. today.
Have you tried to use autosomal DNA to help break down a brick wall in your 4th great grandparent generation? If so, were you successful? As I’ve been re-assigning the colored dots on my Ancestry DNA matches so I can filter my 2nd and 3rd great grandparent couples lines, I am curious about how all of my Sellers matches fit in my tree.
I have two Sellers lines floating in my tree.
James Sellers and his wife Mary Crawford
William David Sellers and his wife Sarah Crawford
Based on their marriage records, it has been assumed that the Rebekah Crawford who owned land in early Garrard County, Kentucky is the mother of Mary and Sarah Crawford.
This is to certify that Rebekah Crawford guardian for Mary Crawford doth agree for her dautor to be married to James Sellers as witness my hand this 19th December 1791 Rebekah Crawford Teste James Crawford Wm Sellers
Kentucky, Lincoln. Marriage Records, 1781-1961. Film #192262 (DGS 007899121. Mary Crawford to James Sellers, 19 Dec 1791; Loose papers, files 1-6 1781-1809: image 145; digital images, Family Search http://www.familysearch.org : viewed online January 2019.
This is to certify that I Rebakah Crawford guardian do give my consent to the intended marriage between William Sellers and Sarah Crawford as witness my hand and seal this 2nd day of February 1796 Rebekah Crawford witness James Crawford James Sellers
Kentucky, Lincoln. Marriage Records, 1781-1961. Film #192262(DGS 007899121). Sarah Crawford – William Sellers, 2 Feb 1796; Loose Papers, files 1-6 1781-1809: image 485; digital images, Family Search http://www.familysearch.org : viewed online January 2019.
There is a marriage record for James Crawford in Lincoln County, Kentucky. The bond for this marriage was dated 2 March 1793, placing it between the marriages of the two Crawford girls to the Sellers brothers.
Know all men by these presents that we James Craford and Nathan Douglass are held and firmly bound unto His Excellency Isaac Shelby Esquire Governor of Kentucky in the sum of fifty pounds current money to the payment whereof to be made to the said Governor and his sucessors we bind our selves our heirs etc firmly by these presents, sealed with our seals and dated the 2th day of March 1793 The Condition of the above obligation is such that whereas then is a marriage shortly intended to be solemnized between the above bound James Crawford and Martha Night for which a license has paid Now if these be no lawful cause to obstruct the said marriage then this obligation to be void or else to remain in full force James Crawford Nathan Douglass Sealed Delivered in presence of Willes Green
Then in 1804, Rebecca Crawford and James Crawford of Barren County, Kentucky sell Rebekah Crawford’s land in Garrard County, Kentucky.
Garrard County Kentucky Deed book A page 602 (image 313)
This indenture made this 27th day of September Anno Dom 1804 between Rebecca Crawford and James Crawford of the county of Barren and Commonwealth of Kentucky of the one part and James Aldridge of the county of Garrard and Commonwealth aforesaid of the other part witnesseth that the said Rebecca & James Crawford for and in consideration of the sum of one hundred an eighty eight pounds current money of Kentucky to them in hand paid the receipt they do hereby acknowledge and for themselves their heirs do freely clearly and absolutely bargain and sell unto the aforesaid James Aldridge and unto his heirs and assigns forever One certain tract or parcel of land containing by survey ninety nine acres situate lying and being in the county of Garrard an on the dividing ridge between Boons Mill Seat Creek and Sugar Creek and is bounded as follows to wit Beginning at a sugar tree and Iron Wood on the Hickman Road thence N 36 E 240 poles to a stone from thence N54W 70 poles to two sugar trees from thence S 35W 230 poles to a Buck and sugar tree on the South side of the Hickman Road from thence with the meanders on the road to a large black walnut standing near the same on the south side from thence S 54E 6 poles to the beginning with its appertainances to him the said James Aldridge and unto his heirs and assigns forever. to have and to hold the said ninety nine acres of land with all and every of its rights members and appertain ances unto him the said James Aldridge and unto his heirs & assigns forever and the said Rebecca and James Crawford for them selves and their heirs do and shall and will by these presents warrant and defend the title of the afore said tract of land & premises against the claims of all and every person or persons whatsoever that shall or may here after claim the same unto the afore said James Aldridge and unto his heirs and assigns forever. In testimony whereof the said Rebecca Crawford and James Crawford have here unto set their hands and affixed their seals the day and year first above written
Rebecca (her mark) Crawford seal James Crawford seal
Signed Sealed and delivered in the presence of
This indenture of bargain and sale from Rebecca Crawford and James Aldridge was acknowledge din my office the 26 of Sept 1804 and is admitted to record Teste Benj Letcher CeCC
Kentucky, Garrard. Book of Deeds. Film #183242 (DGS 7899064). Crawford to Aldridge, 27 Sep 1804; Book A: page 602; digital images, Family Search http://www.familysearch.org : viewed online February 2019.
Based on the fact that no deed has been found placing my James Crawford ancestor in Barren County, it has been assumed by researchers of both James Crawford lines that the James Crawford mentioned in Rebecca Crawford’s deed to sell her land and in the Sellers marriage records is the James Crawford that married Martha Knight. Thus, most trees show James Crawford (wife Martha), Mary Crawford and Sarah Crawford as the children of Rebekah Crawford and her likely husband John Crawford. This leaves my James Crawford (wife Sally Duggins) with unknown parents.
However, I have quite a few DNA matches to the descendants of William and James Sellers. While working with the dots, I was curious about how these Sellers matches fit in my tree. Thus, I decided to experiment with my tree and ThruLines. I added my James Crawford to the family of Rebekah Crawford and removed the James Crawford that married Martha Knight and waited. Now that it has been about a week since making the change, I looked at the ThruLines and discovered that my SELLERS matches have been placed in a ThruLines for Rebekah (Douglas) Crawford.
When I checked the SELLERS matches, none of them have a dot assigned. Looking at their shared matches, I did see quite a few green dots, which represent my CRAWFORD line. However, when I looked more closely about those dots for the shared matches, I found that the green dots were for my CRAWFORD-FOSTER and FOSTER-OSTRANDER couples.
IF these SELLERS matches were to connect to my CRAWFORD family, I should have found a CRAWFORD-SMITH dot for the shared matches. Since the shared matches have the FOSTER-OSTRANDER dot, it is more likely that my relationship with these SELLERS families is thru an ancestor in my FOSTER or OSTRANDER lines.
Before working with these shared matches dots, I have suspected a relationship between these SELLERS families and my CRAWFORD family. Now I have disproven this suspicion. Thus, our original linking of the SELLERS families to James and Martha Crawford is more probable. I just need to find one of their descendants to use the dots on their matches to see what is found. And I need to disconnect my CRAWFORD line from John and Rebekah Crawford.
Thank you Diahan Southard for your Shared DNA Matches presentation at RootsTech 2023 which clued me in to a better way to use the Ancestry dots!
Form a cluster — descendants of Mary Crawford Sellers and Sarah Crawford Sellers
No recent ancestry — I don’t have any SELLERS ancestry back thru 6 generations
No Close Matches — I need to reconnect my tree to Rebekah Douglas to easily find all of these matches and document them (I should have done the documentation before disconnecting)
Large number of matches — While I identified over 20 matches descending from these 2 Sellers couples, many of them had shared matches. These shared matches may also belong to my SELLERS cluster.
Same ancestral family — William and James Sellers are brothers. They are the sons of Nathaniel Sellers (1720-1795)
Not in my tree — well they are in my tree — but they are not connected to my ancestral line.
Now, I have more ‘homework’ to identify and investigate this DNA cluster.
Have you finished your homework from RootsTech 2023? I know that I haven’t! I’ve been working on homework for Diahan Southard’s presentation about DNA shared matches. With over 124,000 matches and who knows how many ThruLines I have a lot of dots to assign, which is why I’m not finished with my homework. However, I have made some observations.
Surnames — Searching DNA match list for a surname does not necessarily mean a biological relationship with that match.
Dots — indicate a biological relationship
Dots indicate that my colonial tree has places where different ancestral lines cross
For example, my paternal grandfather’s line is Crawford-Foster while my paternal grandmother’s line is Currey-Burke. If I search my DNA list for 3C Crawford Foster and 3C Currey Burke, I get a long list of matches that have dots for both sides.
Some of these matches have the Chenoweth surname in their tree, which I recognize from my FOSTER research. However, these dots indicate that I need to also look for a Chenoweth connection to my Harris or Currey lines.
This need to be open minded about how I connect biologically to a match was reinforced when I found a known Mentzer (mother’s side) 3rd cousin in a shared match list for my Easom Graves ThruLines on my dad’s side of the tree.
Like my Easom Graves ThruLines, there is a suggested line cross on my Osborn Bland ThruLines. While I haven’t proven the descendants, one of the suggested descendants is Mildred L. Briles. The BLAND surname is on my dad’s side of the tree while the BRILES surname is on my mom’s side of the tree. Those with the BRILES surname can usually trace their ancestry back to Conrad Briles of Randolph county, North Carolina.
Ancestry has placed this BLAND shared match on the maternal side of my tree even though it looks like this match should be unassigned.
While my homework is not close to being done, I have concluded that
I need to finish applying the dots since they reveal biological connections that I would not recognize otherwise.
Have you ever clicked on an Ancestry Story hint to find that it circles back to your own research? That is what happened while going thru hints for Osborn Bland. When I clicked on the Indian Story, it took me to a ‘story’ that contains a link to my old website.
Fortunately, I have all of the files for that website and can ‘reproduce’ it below:
This is a photocopy of a letter from Robert L. Bland of Weston, West Virginia to Judge W. T. Bland of Kansas City, Missouri. The letter is dated July 1911. The body of the letter concerns the BLAND family in England.
At the end of the letter is a note addressed to Mrs. Lillie Brown of St. Joseph, Missouri. This note gives some information on the BLAND family in Virginia, Kentucky and Missouri.
July 1st, 1911. Robert L. Bland Attorney and counsellor at law, Weston, West Virginia. Judge W.T. Bland, Kansas City Mo
Dear Will;
Referring futher to your letter of June 24th,and the letter addressed to you by Hon. James H. H ull,under date of June 23rd. I beg to suggest that I do-not incline to look with favor upon the suggestion that there is an estate in Germany ,in which the Blands are interested. Of course I know nothing about the facts are circumstances upon which Mr. Hull bases his conclusions. I do know ,however, that the Bland family is pure English.
In 1826,Nicholas Carlisle published a very comprehensive work which he called “A History of the Ancient family of Blands”,and dedicated it to his friend, Michael Bland, Esquire, F.R.S., F.S.A. etc. This book was limited at the time of publication to an edition of one hundres.SO far as I have ever been able to ascertain there are but three in the United States. One is in the congressional library at Washington, another is owned by John Randolph Bland of Baltimore, ant the third I have.
It is regarded as an accepted authority in relation to the Bland pedigree. The author does the family credit to say that it is of very high antiquity and may not hesitate to compare the virtues and renown of it’s several branches with those of the proudest gentry of the kingdom.
The Bland family derives it’s name from the original seat, a place called Bland, in the Parish of Sedburgh, Yorkshire.
In 1337, a branch of the line of Sedburgh settled at Gibard, in the Parish of Orton, Westmoreland. Edward Bland of Burghfield, a younger branch of the Gibard, family died at the time of Edward IV, and from him descended Rogder Bland, of Orton, who had Adam Bland, of London, Sergant Skinner to Queen Elizabeth, married about 1549 Joan dauhhter of William Atkyna Bland.
Thedorick Bland, the immigrant of Westover, Virginia, is a descendant of said Adam Bland, Prior to coming to America, he was a merchant at St.Luca, Spain, but came to Virginia about the year 1654,and settled as Westover on the James River, in Charles City County. He was one of the Kings council “and of as good repute for circumstances, and understanding as any man of his time therein”.
The family of Bland by the marriage of Samuel Bland, Esquire, to Elizabeth third daughter of Sir Edward Longueville, Bart, was intitled to a fellowship in All Soul’s College, Oxford, by virtue of their consanguinity to Arch Bishop Chichele, the founder .–Stemmata Chicheleana,No354,Page 55.
Carlisle in referring to the family of Blands observes that few families of private gentry had spread more widely are flourished farier than this well allied house. But several stout branches ‘, he proceeds “: have perished like the original stock whilst some trace their blood without hereditary possessions . Of the younger sons, who were slenderly provided for by life annuities and small monied portions ,it may be difficult to connect there descendants , though all must be presumed to bare a distant kindred to the old family tree, who have the honor to have the name”.
It is possible that some of the Blands may have settled in Germany, and that Barbar Bland, may have inter-married with Louis Fisher.
I have been able to trace them in the principality of Wales and Kingdom of Ireland, and have had very extensive correspondence with persons bearing the name in this country.
I confess, however, my inability to establish any connection with the family of Louis Fisher, and Barbara Bland his wife.
The name Barbara Bland is occasionally found in the study of the History of the English Family.
You have perhaps knowledge of Nathaniel Bland, LLD, the second son of the very Reverend James Bland. Dean of Ardfort. Who was an eminent civilian and held the metropitan seal ,and sat as judge in the prerogative Court at Dublin. Francis Christopher Bland, of Derryquinn Castle, was a near kinsman of Nathanial Bland.
He married in 1797,Lucy third daughter of Arthur Herbert , of Brusterfield, his second wife was Barbara Ash. It is possible she may have survived her husband and married Louis Fisher, but at this point I observe that Louis Fisher, and Barbara Bland, his wife, are supposed to have come to Culpepper, Virginia, between 1728,and 1832.
Then there was Henry Bland, of the city of London, whose will bore date July 11th,1726,and was proved on the third of January 1729.Whereby he gave to his wife ,Barbara Bland, certain property. This Barbara Bland, may have inter-married with Louis Fisher. I might continue in this way to mention members of the family who bore the name of Barbara. I think,however,that the Blands of Weston Missouri,who are interested in this estate would porbably make most headway by commencing their investigation at Culpepper Virginia.
If I can be of any service you need not hesitate to call upon me.
I am rather interested in the fact that there is a man by the name of Bland who bears my own initials residing at Weston Missouri. I should like to know more about him, and his family line.
With best wishes, believe me, Yours very truly, Robert L. Bland.
St. Joseph, MO 10/21/11
Mrs. Lillie Brown 1619 Savannah Ave.
Dear Sister,
In compliance with your request I enclose you a type-written copy of the letter addressed to Judge W. T. Bland, and a part of our own History as written to me by Mr. Bland, The History he has deals with the English House of Blands and consequently, would hardly embrace the American descendants ,he has, however, numerous notes, relative to the Blands in this country, and has promised to write me more fully in regard to my special line of decent. James Bland ,a lineal descendant of the branch of Sedburgh, settled in Stafford County Virginia, and died in 1708, he had a sone John who married Marguret Osborne, John and Marguret Osborn Bland, moved to Kentuckey ,one of their children was Osborn Bland, Osborne Bland, and his wife was captured by the Indians and their baby murdered and it’s blood smeared in the mother face. He was kept bound but his wife was unfettered and he told her to try to escape this she did,l iving for two weeks before she reached the settlement’s on parched corn, and herbs, he was afterwards exchanged and the wife and husband were reunited. William Bland a brother of Osborne Bland, borned in 1777, in Prince William County, Virginia, moved to Kentuckey in 1784, married Sarah Peake, William Bland had a son Elijah H. Bland, who married Corilla Willet, Eli Bland, a son of Osborne Bland settled in Monroe County, Kentuckey, married Sarah Anderson, and died in New Orleans in 1826, Mathew M. Bland, a son of Eli Bland, settled in Platt County Missouri, in 1838,married Mary Burnes Turner, of Mason County Kentuckey in1845, born December 5th,1816,and died July the 27th,1879. Robert L. Bland, a son of Matthew M. Bland, born in Platt County Missouri June the 1st,1870.
I recently shared a poem written by my 2nd great grandfather, Washington Marion Crawford. While discussing this poem with my cousins, one shared a comment about his having a copy of Josie’s ledger of poetry. This comment reminded me that I have the actual ledger. In remembering this ledger, I realized that I hadn’t done enough to share with future generations.
When the Internet was young, I did transcribe some of these poems and contributed them to the Kansas Memory project. However, I did not submit all of the poems. Evidently, I also had never scanned the ledger. I have since scanned the ledger and created a document with the scanned image on the left and the transcription on the right. This PDF file has been uploaded as a memory to Josie Hammond’s profile on FamilySearch. I’ve also uploaded Josie’s Ledger to Archive.org. Thus, I’m hoping that her ledger will be preserved well into the future.
Your mission this week, should you decide to accept it, is to:
1) What is the most wild, crazy, off-the-wall, or really stupid thing you have done in pursuit of your ancestral families and their family history?
2) Tell us about it in your own blog post, a comment to this post, or a comment or status on Facebook.
Well, defining ‘most wild, crazy, off-the-wall, or really stupid thing’ may differ from person to person. For an introvert who was not very fond of English classes, just writing this blog is somewhat ‘off-the-wall’. Towards the end of my teaching career, I was amazed at how much writing I was doing when I didn’t like to write in high school. I will admit that the vast majority of the writing during my career would be considered ‘technical writing.’
Looking back, however, I would have to say my two trips to Salt Lake City would qualify as crazy for introvert me. Can you imagine getting on a bus for a 10 day trip by yourself when you don’t know anyone else on said bus? Thankfully, everyone on that bus had something in common — genealogy. And our ‘entertainment’ was spending as many hours as possible in the library. Not only did I take one trip but I also ventured out and took a second trip — again without knowing anyone but the tour director. Would I do something similar again? I don’t know. With the right destination, I just might.
Courier Tribune List Nemaha Serial Numbers for the Draft 24 Oct 1940
List Nemaha Serial Numbers for the Draft
Over 1600 names are in the County Roll
A Master List Will Be Chosen in Washington, D.C. Tuesday to Determine Order in Which Local Numbers Will Be Called
The Courier-Tribune prints today a list of names and numbers important to almost every home in Nemaha county. It is the list of men between ages of 21 and 36 who enrolled on Wednesday, October 16th, for possible service to their country, and with each man’s name, the county serial number which has been drawn for him by the local draft board. The arrangement is by number rather than by names because numbers will be the important thing next Tuesday, October 29th, when a master list is to be drawn at Washington, D.C. to determine the order in which local numbers will be called. President Roosevelt will draw the first number.
The local drawing and listing was completed Tuesday except perhaps for a few straggling cards. The board officially posted the list yesterday and sent a copy to state headquarters. The Sabetha Herald and Courier-Tribune joined in setting the large amoung of type necessary and the list is printed in the two papers. TO avoid runing the type to still greater length, a key system is sued to abbreviate names of towns. Where two letters make the name of the town clear, only two are used. Seneca becomes Se; Sabetha Sa; Corning Co; Centralia Ce; Goff GO; Wetmore We; and Baileyville, Bern, Kelly, Havensville, Soldier, Pawnee, Axtell and other points are similarly abbreviated. Oneida and ONaga addresses required the use of Onei and Ona. The Nemaha County list follows:
201 Albert Benedict Hermesch Go 202 Walter Leughold Sa 203 Orlo Henry Drinkwater Ce 204 Leo Arthur spring Se 205 Jesse James Heiniger Se 206 Donald Henry Fox Ve 207 George W. McDaniel Sa 208 Lawrence Glenn Walton Sa 209 Fredrick Phillip Thomas We 210 Paul Leon Irwin Sa 211 Erle LeRoy Tallman Go 212 Floyd Henry Most Ce 213 Phillip Fredrick Metzger Sa 214 Harold Lee Ransdell Sa 215 Robert Edward Foltz Se 216 Joseph Vondemkamp Se 217 Albert Frank Tangeman Ba 218 Lyle Arthur Steck Ce 219 Floyd Leroy Coulter Ce 220 Wayne W. Donaldson Se 221 Norbert Leo Huerter Se 222 George Raymond Hittle Go 223 Theodore Locher Sa 224 Charles Francis McMahon Go 225 Eli Brunner On 226 John Charles Baldwin Se 227 Reginald Daring Ayers Ce 228 Merle Vernon Chase Sa 229 Fred Ukele Sa 230 Melvin Milo Most Ce 231 Rolland Paul Grote Sa 232 John Irven Dailey Sa 233 Clinton Barlow Hash Se 234 Bennie William Feed Sa 235 Dale Lurand Edwards Go 236 Aloysius Francis Krogman Ba 237 Milan Edward Strahm Sa 238 Vincent John Eisenbarth Co 239 Paul Benidict Schmitz Ba 240 Elmer John Jorden Ce 241 William Ard Weir Sa 242 Donald Ray Elliott Se 243 Virgil Everett Nightingale Co 244 Harold Dean Dunn On 245 William Clark Hard Go 246 Clarence Richard Hazlett Ona 247 Donald Lee Brown Go 248 Phillip Culver Moser Sa 249 Albert Charles LaFond Co 250 Cyril William Eisenbarth So
Do you live in the United States? If so, do you know where your ancestors lived prior to migrating to the United States? I live in a community where a large portion of the population can trace their ancestry back to Germany. These immigrant ancestors migrated to the U.S. between about 1860 and 1920. While everyone might pretend to be Irish today, most of my neighbors likely don’t have any Irish ancestry.
When asked where my ancestors came from, I will often jokingly respond, Kentucky. That’s because several of my lines become brick walls in Kentucky. While I haven’t sought out immigration records, I do know some of the country origins for a few of my ancestors.
Germany — Briles line traces back to the Germanna colony when Conrad Broyles, his brother and parents arrived in 1717.
England — Many of my New England lines trace back to early Massachusetts. My Hammond line likely goes back to Thomas Hammond who was born and married in England but died in Massachusetts.
Dutch — While I was aware that my Ostrander line was likely Dutch, it is only recently that I found that thru my Harris line, I have several lines going back to the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam
Scottish — I’m fairly certain that my Crawford line and several other lines go back to Scotland. However, these are the lines that are currently stuck in Kentucky
So do I have any Irish ancestry? Possibly. My Ralston line may be my Irish connection. According to Find a Grave, David Franklin Ralston was born in Ireland.
So, what does my DNA tell me? Am I Irish? According to my current Ancestry DNA, nope, I don’ have any Irish ancestry.
I’m fortunate to have also tested my brothers and my mother. These tests provide slightly different ethnicity results.
Brother 1Brother 2Mother
So, brother1 has a tiny bit of Irish ancestry and my mother has slightly more Irish ancestry. My mother’s Irish results are surprising since the RALSTON line is on my dad’s side of the tree. Also surprising is the fact that my mother’s results only show 10% Germanic Europe while brother1 shows 12% and I show 26%. This is surprising because my mother’s father was a Briles (my known German ancestry).
For me, these varying ethnicity results indicate that I might have a little Irish in me. However, when I see these varying results, I see data that reinforces the fact that my tree is deeply American. I see data that supports the concept of the melting pot.
Below are posts that I’ve written in the past about my Irish (or lack of Irish) ancestry.
Is the word ‘homework’ part of your daily vocabulary? Perhaps as a student or parent one may deal with homework on a regular basis. However, as a retiree, I haven’t considered myself having homework.
During my working years, I attended quite a few education related conferences . When I would come home from many of those conferences, I would spend the next week or so investigating and often implementing something I learned at the conference. Thus, one might say I was doing ‘homework’ as a result of attending that conference. I can even remember some of that homework: building a Moodle server over spring break or setting up Google for Education accounts.
During my working years, I occasionally attended genealogy conferences. While I learned a lot from these conferences, I don’t remember coming home from a conference and implementing what I learned. In other words, I don’t remember doing any ‘homework’ for those conferences.
A speaker at RootsTech 2023 reminded attendees that we should be doing homework. In Diahan Southard’s DNA Shared Matches – the only DNA Tool You Will Ever Need, she even ‘assigned’ homework. And that homework involved re-doing my dots! Wanting to know more about the process of re-doing my dots, I watched the RootsTech session multiple times and her ‘AncestryNDA’s Dot System: An Introduction’ video.
While I’m not sure I’ve re-done my homework ‘correctly’, I have redone a lot of them — at least TWICE.
It took re-watching the webinar several times to figure out who gets multiple colors, but I think I finally understand it enough to continue modifying my dots. (Note: it is about 29 minutes into the presentation when the ‘layers’ of colors is discussed.)
I’ve also come to the conclusion that the dots need RE-DONE for each genealogy puzzle one is trying to solve. My ‘spotlight question’ is as follows:
Verify my connection to James Crawford and find more descendants to help me.
Since James Crawford is my 4th great grandfather, I will need to use several levels of ThruLines to filter out shared matches that are NOT thru this Crawford line.
Based on my understanding of how to apply these dots, whatever color I give to second cousin shared matches will be given to all of the ancestral lines for that couple. To help me visualize the process, I named my dots based on the cousin level and the couple and assigned them a color.
Then I annotated a screen shot of the pedigree to add these names. I also added boxes filled with the appropriate colors so I could see which color dots each set of cousins should get.
Now that I hopefully understand how to apply the colored dots, I just need to start over on my dots and see what I find.
Have you ever just stumbled upon a find for a FAN club member that may contain just the clue you need to expand your brick wall research. Well, that’s what happened to me when researching Moses Dooley. I consider Moses to be a SUPER FAN member of my Crawford FAN club.
Moses Dooley owned land in Garrard County, Kentucky near the land owned by both Mary Crawford and Rebekah Crawford. These three neighboring families likely all went to the ‘Old Sugar Creek Meeting House’ on William Miller’s land.
Moses Dooley is shown on the tax rolls of Barren County, Kentucky owning 200 acres of land on the middle fork of the Barren River.
Moses Dooley is on the tax rolls in Preble County, Ohio by 1816.
My ancestor, James Crawford, married Sally Duggins in Garrard County, Kentucky in 1799. While I need more documentation, I believe my James Crawford was living in Barren County, KY in 1803 with 50 acres on the Marrowbone. James Crawford, along with Moses Dooley, cast votes in the 1816 election in Preble County, Ohio. Since the migration path for Moses Dooley is similar to the migration path for my ancestor, I consider Moses Dooley to be a SUPER FAN.
Thus, when I found an obituary for Moses’ son, Silas that also discusses Moses’ life, I consider it a major find. The information about Moses’ life may provide the clues I need to learn more about James Crawford’s life and hopefully identify his parents.
Obituary
Dooley — At his residence near Eaton, Ohio, on Sabbath, July 8th, 1877, after a painful illness, Silas Dooley, Sr., aged 91 years and 4 months. The death of this venerable pioneer is an event which must attract the attention of the thoughtful. It seems appropriate to furnish the public with a few of the leading incidents of his career. Moses Dooley, the father of Silas, with his family emigrated in 1781 from Bedford county, Virginia, to Kentucky, a wearisome journey over the mountains. His mother carried her youngest child in her arms. On account of the barbarities of the Indians, the family for some time lived within a fort. Afterwards they settled in Madison Co., Ky., where Silas was born, March 8th, 1786. When he was 19 yers of age, in 1805, himself and his father and Jacob Railsback came to Ohio in search of permanent homes. They stopped at Springdale, Hamilton Co., O., (then called Springfield). Silas worked a month for Rev. Jno Thompson, the presbyterian minister. The company then travelled northward, Jacob Railsback located 160 acres in seven Mile, and Moses Dooley the same amount on Paint creek. While his father returned to Kentucky for his family, Silas worked a while at John Pottenger’s, at seven Mile. Becoming discouraged, he was about to go back to Kentucky, when david E. Hendricks hired him to clear six acres of land where Camden now stands. The deer were very numerous in the woods, as also were wild turkeys. Near the end of 1805 his father took possession of the farm on Paint creek and had to worked hard to build a cabin and clear enough ground to raise a little corn. A wonderful and total eclipse of the sun took place about noon, June 16th, 1806. A few days after this family held at a Thanksgiving meeting at James Crawford’s. In the spring of 1807 Silas Dooley entered 160 acres of land on Paint creek, where he spent all the rest of his life. He was married May 5th, 1808, to Johannah Westerfield, daughter of Samuel Westerfield, daughter of Samuel Westerfield — probably this was the first wedding in Preble county, which about the time had been separated form Montgomery county. The wedding guests were Cornelius, Katy and Polly Vanausdal — Katy afterwards became Mrs. Campbell, and Polly, Mrs Hawkins; Sally Curry, wife of Judge Wm. Curry, was also present. Silas’ mother died January 7th, 1819. HIs father died of fever in the winter of 1822, while attending a “big meeting” at the house of his son-in-law, Richard Leeson, on Walnut Level. William Castor, at the present time perhaps the oldest man in Preble county, assisted in bringing the coffin from Silas’ home. His wife died much lamented, April 14, 1859. They had seven children, only on of who (Silas, Jr.,) services, who lives upon the old place. There are several grand-children living; also several great-grand-children. In 1812 he was a member of Captain David E. Hendricks’ rifle company, numbering 64 men. The writer became acquainted with this venerable man only during the last years of his life. The infirmities of age were pressing heavily upon him and he was confined mostly to the house. Notwithstanding great deafness he could sing well — he might be styled “the Singing Pilgrim.” He loved the songs of Zion and to hear the Bible read — he loved the Savior and His people — his whole life was singularly honest and pure — he was never contaminated by vice. He was a fine example of a pioneer patiently toiling to make a home and always living in it. He never was possessed by greed for gain. He never held any office, yet he to the last had an intelligent understanding of his duties as a citizen, and took pains to vote at the last Presidential election. How many changes have occurred in the world and in the United States durin the ninety-one years he lived. We will mention some of the great events n our own country. Silas Dooley was old when the Federal Constitution was adopted in 1787; he was three years old when Washington was elected president. The population of the United States was, at his birth about three millions; now it is forty millions. Then the population was just beginning to cross the Alleghany mountains and; not it extends tot he Pacific ocean. Then there were thirteen States; now there are thirty-eight. Then the great practical intentions were unknown, now the numerous applications of steam, the telegraph, the power printing press and many machines in various departments of industry were unknown. The funeral services of Silas Dooley were held Monday, 3 p.m., July 9th, The friends gathered at the house, and then proceeded to the Friendship Church, where a funeral sermon was preached by the writer form 1 cr 15.58. “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding the work of the Lord; for as much as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” Notwithstanding it was harvest time, a large number of persons were present, among whom were Job Jefferson and Judge William Curry. The remains of Silas Dooley were laid to rest among his kindred, and await a happy resurrection at the coming of the Lord. The statements made in the foregoing obituary were drawn from an article in the Eaton Register, Feb. 20th, 1873, and also from conversations with William Castor and Judge Curry, and form personal knowledge. A. J. Reynolds
“Obituary,” The Eaton Democrat (Eaton, Ohio), 19 July 1877, page 3; digital images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : viewed online 7 March 2023).
Heartland Genealogy 
