Hey Crawford Researchers – Let’s Get This Right!

Anyone who has been doing genealogical research will eventually run into ‘same name’ issues, where two people of the same name are found in the same vicinity or same records. With my Crawford research, my same name struggle has been with my ancestor, James Crawford (1772-1854).

James is a common given name in Crawford research and my James seems to be surrounded by other James Crawfords during his adult life. Even though most of the time, I’ve been able to separate out the various families, I haven’t been able to find siblings or parents for my James Crawford.

However, I have encountered a lot of what I’m going to call ‘latchkey’ trees. With pre-1800 Crawford research in Virginia and surrounding areas, it is fairly easy to find published family histories for various Crawford lines. This would include David Crawford, Col. William Crawford and brothers, Alexander and Patrick Crawford. Since given names like James, John and Mary are found in many Crawford families, it is tempting to take a proven ancestor named James, John or Mary Crawford and ‘latch’ onto one of these families to identify parents of our ancestor.

With my Crawford research centered in Kentucky and Virginia, I encounter a lot of trees for these early Kentucky Crawford families connecting to Alexander Crawford and his wife Mary McPheeters or to Alexander’s brother Patrick. Some of these trees match the information in the well documented book, Descendants of Alexander and Mary McPheeters Crawford by Amanda Forbes. Unfortunately, many trees lead back to Alexander and Mary McPheeters Crawford when the documents for the child in the tree contradicts known documentation for the family of Alexander Crawford.

Unfortunately, these ‘latchkey’ trees create problems for everyone researching their Crawford line.

• They lead other Crawford researchers down an incorrect path
• They complicate the interpretation of DNA results

With autosomal DNA and features like ThruLines, an incorrect ancestor in my tree can lead all of my DNA matches down a wrong path.
Not only is this an issue with autosomal DNA but with yDNA research. In the Crawford DNA project, there were several tests with Alexander Crawford identified as the paternal ancestor. One of those is a fairly close match to my brother’s yDNA indicating that our lines might connect at some time in the past. However, there were other tests identifying Alexander Crawford as the paternal ancestor that are not related to my Crawford line. Based on information from an administrator of the Crawford project, these yDNA tests were significantly different and could not all have descended from Alexander Crawford. 
So, I’m asking for all Crawford researchers to help get this right. Let’s work together to document our Crawford lineage to make sure our trees are well documented — including parent-child links. Let’s

• Search out wills, probate records and court records that identify family connections
• Search out deeds that not only document residency but can also show movement from place to place or identify family members
• Utilize collaborative trees such as FamilySearch or WikiTree to connect with other researchers 
• Share our findings and the supporting documents on these collaborative trees or in public trees on genealogy sites

Please join me with this effort — and if your Crawford research takes you to Garrard, Madison or Lincoln counties in Kentucky prior to 1800, please contact me — I might be able to help you.

yDNA – Big News

In your genealogy research, have you ever suspected a relationship but never could find evidence to support your suspicions?

Well that’s been the case with my James Crawford research and I now have yDNA evidence to support that suspicion!

My brothers yDNA has been placed in the R-Y88686 haplogroup. My first match was to descendants of Edward Crawford of Tennessee. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to verify that our two lines resided in the same area at the same time let alone discover a family connection.

With today’s notice of a new Big Y match, I now have a match with a familiar line. The new match is a descendant of James and Rebecca (Anderson) Crawford.

The James and Rebecca Crawford family is one of several Crawford families in the Garrard County area of Kentucky prior to 1800 that I’ve been researching. Although I have been able to piece together a lot of information on these various Crawford families, I’ve never been able to find anything connecting my James Crawford who married Sally Duggins in 1799 in Garrard County, KY to any of these other families.

These DNA results not only support my suspicions but give me incentive to continue researching these various Crawford families in hopes of someday figuring out how my Crawford line connects.

These families include:

• My line: James and Sally (Smith Duggins) Crawford who migrated from Kentucky to Preble County, Ohio. Their son, Nelson Crawford, migrated from Ohio to Warren County, Indiana around 1830. Most of Nelson Crawford’s children, including my ancestor, Washington Marion Crawford, migrated from Indiana to Dodge City, Kansas.
• James Crawford and Martha Knight – James and Martha were married in 1791 in Lincoln County, KY. They owned land in Barren County, KY before migrating to Preble County, Ohio. Around 1830, James and Martha and their children migrated to Warren County, Indiana. Their grandson, Harvey Harrison Crawford, migrated to Ford County, Kansas and eventually settled in Dodge City, Kansas.
• James Crawford and Rebecca Anderson were married in 1779 in Montgomery County, Virginia. James purchased land from Thomas Kennedy along Paint Lick Creek in what was Lincoln County, Kentucky at the time. By 1811, James and Rebecca along with most of their children and families had migrated to Jefferson County in Indiana Territory. THIS IS THE LINE WITH A yDNA MATCH.
• Rebekah Crawford purchased 100 acres of land on the headwaters of Sugar and Boons Creek in 1786. She is listed as a widow on the Lincoln County tax records in 1787. Rebekah is believed to be the mother of the James Crawford who married Martha Knight along with Mary Crawford who married James Sellers and Sarah Crawford who married William Sellers. It is also believed that Rebekah was the sister of George Douglas and widow of John Crawford. More evidence is needed to prove all of these relationships.
• Mary Crawford is listed as ‘exempt’ on various tax records in Madison County, Kentucky prior to 1800. In 1791, Mary purchased 100 acres of land on Sugar Creek in what became Garrard County, Kentucky. In 1793, Mary married Alexander Moore in Madison County, KY. Alexander and Mary Moore migrated to Fleming County, Kentucky, which is where it is believed that Mary died.

Perhaps with the help of the Crawford yDNA project and other Crawford researchers, we will be able to figure out this branch of the Crawford family!