A few weeks ago, the following comment was posted on my ‘About’ page.
Hello, I’m a descendant of Joseph B. Ham and Dolly Crawford of Madison County KY. Married in 1795. I am at a brick wall trying to find Dolly’s ancestry. All I have is that she listed her mother as Molly on the marriage record. I can’t find any Molly in Madison County KY at this time. Only the Mary that you write of who based on her marriage and timeline seems to be too young. Any help is appreciated.
I do have Dolly Crawford and Joseph Ham in my database. According to the book, Madison County Kentucky Marriage Records Vol. 1 1786-1822 by Bill and Kathy Vockery, they were married in Madison County in 1795.
Since I don’t have any other information on this couple, I decided to see what tax records for Madison County might reveal. Since I’ve already used these records for my CRAWFORD research, I was primarily looking for the HAM surname. However, when I found Joseph Ham, I also located known Crawford family members and associates in that year’s tax record.
Madison County Kentucky
Tax Books, 1787-1874Tax Books, 1787-1797, 1799-1807
FamilySearch Film 8126 DGS 78344781787
Image 15 – ‘H’
Nil HamImage 30
Nil HamImage 40 – ‘H’
Ham Wm Wm Ham – 0 – 1 – 0 – 6 – 18Image 55 0 1788
Image 65 – ‘H
Image 73 – 1789
Image 77
Ham William 1-1-? – 11 – left at 10/Image 82 – ‘H’
NILImage 90
Mary Crawford
No HamImage 99 – 1790
Image 103 – ‘H’
Nil HamImage 111 – 1791
Image 115 – ‘H’
Ham, William – 1white- 1 Black > 16- “ – 5 horses – Stud 15
Image 124 – ‘H’
NIL – HamImage 129 – 1792
Image 134 – ‘H’
Hamm Drury – 1 – blank – blank – blank – 6 – 6
Image 141 – ‘H’
NIL Ham
Image 150 – ‘H’
Ham, William – 2 (or possibly 7) white > 21- dash white above 16 – 3 total blacks – 2 blacks > 16 -7 horses – 30 cattle- – – 100 Acres of Land- 1 stud – 6 rateImage 157 – 1793
Image 163 – ‘H’
Ham Wm – 1 – dash – 4 – 2 – 8 – 31 – 100Image 170 – 1794
Image 176 – ‘H – faded
William Ham may be on this page
May be another Ham toward bottom of page – can’t decipher first name
Image 187 – ‘H’ starts
Image 198 – ‘H’
NIL HamImage 206 – 1795
Image 214 – ‘H’
Nil Ham
Image 227 – H
Ham William Madison County Silver Cr 100 acres
Do do do 150 acres
Do Mason Lee Cr 1400
Image 239 – H
Image 259 – H
Ham William – 1 white over 21 – . – 5 total blacks – 3 blacks under 16 – 5 [H H) Colts & Mulres – 33 Cattle
Ham Drury – 1 white over 21 – . White over 16 under 21 – 1 total blacks – 1 blacks under 16 – 5 [H H] Colts & Mules – 8 CattleImage 266 – 1796
Image 271 – Edward Crawford
Image 277 – H
Ham Joseph – 1 male over 21 – 2 horses – 2 cattle (no land listed)
Ham Drury 116 – Paint Lick Madison from Elijah Kritly 1white >21 -. Above 16 under 21 – . Black above 16- 1 total blacks – 5 horses mares – 5 cattle
Image 278
Ham William – 300 acres – Silver C – Madin – G Clay & Hancock -1 white male > 21- . white males > 16 – 2 blacks > 16 – 5 total blacks – 5 horses – 33 cattle
Image 310 – H
Image 333 – Crawfords (James, William and sons) — NO Rebecca or Mary Crawford
Image 334 – Duggins / Dooley
Image 337 – H
Image 340 – Alexander Moore (Mary Crawford’s husband)Image 353 – 1797
Image 360 – H
Image 382 – H
Image 406
Crawford Edwd
Image 410 – H
Image 412
Ham Drury – 116 acres Paint L Madn C Elijah Kurtley – 1 male > 21 – 1 total black – 6 horses
Ham William – 450 acres – Silver C Madn C – Green C Hancock – 1 male > 21, 1 male 16-21, 1 black > 16, 4 total blacks – 7 horses
Do – 700 acres – Lees Creek – Mason C – Wm Tomlin
Even though tax records do not prove relationship, they can provide some clues.
- William Ham is the first Ham family member shown on the tax list
- William Ham owned at least two parcels of land: one on Silver Creek in Madison County and one on Lees Creek in Mason County
- Drury Ham appeared on the tax list in 1792 with no land suggesting a possible relationship between William Ham and Drury Ham
- Joseph Ham appeared on the tax list in 1796 in the same assessment district as Drury Ham and William Ham also suggesting a relationship between Joseph Ham and William Ham
- In 1796, the three Ham households were not in the same assessment district as the Crawford families I’ve been researching suggesting that these two family groups did not live near each other. [My Crawford research involves William Crawford, James Crawford (wife Rebecca Anderson), James Crawford (wife Martha Knight), James Crawford (wife Sally Duggins), Mary Crawford (husband James Sellers), Sally Crawford (husband William Sellers), widow Mary Crawford and widow Rebekah Crawford.]
- There is an Edward Crawford in the same assessment district as the HAM families. [I don’t know much about this Crawford family.]
So, back to the question. Could Dolly Crawford be the daughter of Mary Crawford? Could Dolly Crawford be a sibling to my James Crawford? Yes, that is possible, but I will have to do more digging to find a connection between the two families.
Could Dolly Crawford be a sibling of the James Crawford who married Martha Knight. This is very doubtful. James and Martha were married in Lincoln County. James’ suspected siblings, Mary and Sally, were also married in Lincoln County.
Could Dolly Crawford be a daughter of James and Rebecca (Anderson) Crawford. Again this is doubtful. None of my research of this family has any records connecting the Crawford and Ham families.
Could Dolly Crawford be a daughter of William and Elizabeth Crawford. This is possible but doubtful.
Based on the tax records, I would look for a connection between Dolly Crawford and the Edward Crawford on the 1796 tax list.
Curious as to what others have concluded about Dolly Crawford, I looked at trees on Ancestry and FamilySearch. The FamilySearch tree has a Dolly Crawford [LLHZ-852] married to Joseph Ham [M76X-C5Z]. Dolly is shown as the daughter of Alexander Crawford and Molly Burris. However, there are no sources attached to Dolly, Alexander or Molly. Ancestry has over 200 trees for Dolly Crawford and Joseph Ham. I have not looked at all of them, but I looked at several that indicated they had multiple sources attached to Dolly. Those ‘multiple sources’ turned out to be multiple other Ancestry trees.
Thus, more information (documentation) is needed for the Joseph Ham family. To attack this problem, I would
- Thoroughly research all of their children.
- Locate land records for William and Drury Ham to see if they provide a clue to family relationships.
- Identify locations where Joseph Ham resided.
- Locate land records for Joseph Ham.
- Search for county histories or family genealogies that have information on the Ham family.
- Keep an open mind. The trees may all be wrong.
