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.

Possible Distant Cousins

Have you tested your DNA? If so, have you been able to break through a brick wall using your DNA results?

My main purpose for testing my DNA was to learn more about my Crawford ancestry. Since I already have identified my 4th great grandfather on my Crawford line, I was hoping to identify his siblings and parents via DNA. So far, my results have not helped me get thru that brick wall.

However, there is one DNA test that has puzzled me for quite some time. This is the sole test that shows up when I search my matches for ancestors born in Garrard County, Kentucky: i******. I share 23 cM across 2 segments with i****** and one of my brothers shares 24 cM across 2 segments with i******.

When I looked at shared matches with i******, I found two other matches that appear to have the same common ancestors: Isaac Crawford and Nancy Miller. In looking at matches shared with these two other matches, I discovered a fourth match who descends from a different Garrard County family.

Crawford Ancestor DNA Project

Have you heard about Ancestor DNA Projects on GedMatch? Don't feel bad if you haven't. I first heard about them last month when a member of the Clan Crawford group on Facebook posted about it.

Several members of the Clan Crawford Facebook group are trying to get a Crawford Ancestor Project started. However, they need FIFTY Crawford researchers to agree to participate to get the project established.

If you are a Crawford researcher who has uploaded your DNA to GedMatch, then please consider participating in the project.

To join the project, one must first be a member of the Clan Crawford Association Ancestry & DNA Research Forum on Facebook. If you are on Facebook, then you may submit a request to join the Clan Crawford Association Ancestry & DNA Research Forum. This is a great group that discusses Crawford DNA and/or Crawford Research.

Once your membership in the Clan Crawford Association Ancestry & DNA Research Forum, you can use the search box on the right side of the screen to locate posts on a particular topic.

A search for 'gedmatch' will bring up the post about the Ancestor Project.

The post contains a link to a Google file where one can enter his/her gedmatch number if willing to be part of the project.

If you are a Crawford researcher, please consider participating in both the Facebook group and the Crawford Ancestor DNA Project.

Cluster Overlap

Do you ever feel like you've figured out a new way to cluster matches and then realize that those clusters you thought you had found included matches from distinctly separate areas of your tree? Well, that was my experience when I expanded my mountain/valley analysis of my Crawford line.

As explained in my DNA Clusters: Mountains and Valleys post, I had a 'missing mountain' for the parents of Nelson G. Crawford in my original diagram.

DNA Clusters: Mountains and Valleys

Dana Leeds' recent blog post about "Who Is in a Cluster" demonstrates that although all people in a cluster share DNA with one person in the cluster, they don't necessarily share DNA with another member of the cluster.

Curious as to what this would look like with my Crawford branch of my tree, I looked at the DNA matches I share with a first cousin once removed. At first, I was trying to map out all of my known matches. However, this became cumbersome since I have a lot of 2nd cousin matches. As I was creating my matches diagram, I realized that I needed to be looking for matches that were for the different surnames.

Crawford Genealogy Collaboration

My Crawford line is a brick wall! I'm fairly certain my line goes back to Virginia from Kentucky -- but I can't find any land records, court records or even family members to help me go back a generation. Many other Crawford researchers also have brick walls -- maybe not in Kentucky, but somewhere in colonial America.

Not only are we struggling with our paper research, but it is difficult to break thru these brick walls by finding common ancestors from our DNA results. Since we are trying to go back 200 or more years, our autosomal DNA isn't of much help. And, our yDNA matches are for names and places that aren't familiar to us.

Crawford Clan DNA Challenge

Have you had your DNA tested? If so, did DNA help you answer a question? Based on Facebook posts I've seen, it appears that DNA is helping adoptees to connect with their birth family.

In my case, I wasn't hoping to identify a close relative. Instead, I was hoping (and still am hoping) to identify my 5th great grandparents -- particularly on my dad's CRAWFORD line. It's been 3 years since I first spit in a test tube (autosomal DNA) and since my brother swabbed his cheek (yDNA). That's 3 years of working with various DNA results and few clues about this mysterious CRAWFORD grandfather.

As I'm trying to learn more about our yDNA results, so I can make sense of how we might fit in the Crawford Clan, I've come to a couple of conclusions:

• There's too little data - I need more 5th, 6th and 7th cousins to do a yDNA test
• Determining relationships is VERY dependent on the accuracy of BOTH of our family trees

Sub-Clustering

I just watched Blaine Bettinger's video, Sub-Clustering Shared Matches. As I was following the video, I was also trying to do this with my brother's DNA matches.

The match I started with is listed on my match page as a second cousin. In reality, she is a first cousin once removed. Our common ancestors are Judson Crawford and Josie Hammond.

Her shared match list contained 157 matches. I marked them all with a yellow dot labeled: ICW EB.

DNA Painter Tree

Did you see all of the prettily colored trees on various Genealogy Facebook groups this last week? Jonny Perl created a new tool on DNA Painter: Trees. 

With the new trees feature, one can create ancestral charts in pedigree, fan and text view. What makes this tool unique is the ability to mark common DNA ancestors and then see a visual representation of those matches on the chart.

I tried doing something similar with my DNA Circles. I printed out a fan chart and then used a highlighter to mark the various circles I had.

With DNA Painter, I get a similar chart showing my genetic genealogy.

This chart was very easy to create.

DNA Stats

Have you been keeping track of your DNA statistics? I know I keep track of my DNA statistics. Prior to Roots Tech 2019, I tracked the number of pages of Ancestry matches.

Thanks to Ancestry updates, I can more easily track this information.

When I add in my mother's DNA, I have over 350,000 DNA matches. Buried in all of this DNA data may be a clue to break thru my brick walls. Now, I just need time to work thru at least some of this data.

Am I Making Incorrect Conclusions?

Have you ever looked at the FamilySearch tree or at personal trees on Ancestry and wondered how and why they made those family connections? I know I have. I hope that others if others have such a question about the research reflected in my Ancestry tree, that they would contact me with their concerns and questions!

This is important to me. I want my tree to accurately reflect family relationships. Since I research siblings and their descendants, some might ask why it is important that I get those relationships right. As Ancestry is providing us with more DNA tools, I'm finding that my ability to interpret my DNA matches is affected by whether I have those family connections correct. This became more apparent to me when I was studying my ThruLines and discovered that I didn't have any DNA matches thru siblings of my ancestor. (See Crawford ThruLines Question)

As I'm researching the James Crawford(1758-1836) who married Rebecca Anderson, I'm finding that what I have in my tree disagrees with what a lot of others have.

DNA and Descendancy Research

Do you try and connect with other genealogists to pick up tips and tricks? Living in rural America, I rely on connections over the Internet to pick up many of those tips and tricks. I've recently been watching one of the Barefoot Genealogists' recent videos: Making Discoveries with the New and Improved AncestryDNA Match List.

Ancestry DNA Tips

This morning, I watched one of the Barefoot Genealogist''s new videos: What Are Ancestry ThruLines?

Even though I was already familiar with Ancestry's ThruLines - and appreciate how they are helping me with my DNA matches, I learned several things about how Ancestry's 'Common Ancestors' and 'ThruLines' work from this video.

How Many DNA ThruLines

Recently, Randy Seaver posted about the number of DNA ThruLines he had for each ancestor. Curious, I decided to check out my own ThruLines to see how many I have for each ancestor.

How Many DNA ThruLines do I have for each ancestor?

Grandparents:

• Leon Russel Crawford / Winnie Letha Currey - 2
• Edward Osmond Briles / Pauline Edith Mentzer - 7

ThruLines Issue - Can I Resolve It?

While trying to figure out why I can't find 4th cousin matches for descendants of Nelson G. Crawford, I ran across my first obviously incorrect ThruLines screen. One of my known third cousin once removed showed up on the ThruLines for my 4th great-grandfather, James Crawford thru the Walter Beggs and the Monroe line.

Common Ancestor Puzzle

Do you ever participate in one of Blaine Bettinger's DNA quizzes? Or, do you ever see someone else's post about their DNA stats and decide to investigate your own? I know I often take the time to look at the data and see how my data compares.

That happened two days ago when someone (and unfortunately I don't know who and can't find the original post) posted about his Ancestry DNA Common ancestors. Basically, the poster indicated how many common ancestors he had at each cousin level and wondered how that compared to other testers.

Thus, I decided to look at mine:

• One 1st cousin
• Three 2nd cousins
• Five 3rd cousins

With over 3,000 4th cousin or closer DNA matches, I expected a lot of common ancestors at the 4th cousin level. Thus, I was shocked to only find EIGHT.

Out of curiosity, I looked at my incomplete ThruLines spreadsheets to see how many cousins I have identified so far.

DNA Stats

Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings is known for his Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenges. His blog post, DNA Tests and Analysis Summary wasn't a Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge, but I decided that I needed to view it as a challenge to review my DNA results.

Gedmatch

• highest cM match - 387.2 cM
• # matches sharing 68 cM or more - 9
• # matches sharing 34 cM or more - 53

yDNA matches

• 18 at 111 markers with genetic distance of 6 or higher
• 52 at 67 markers with genetic distance of 1 or higher

ThruLines Validating Research

I've seen several negative posts and comments about Ancestry's new DNA tool, ThruLines. I haven't come close to looking at all of my lines, let alone verifying them. However, I am thrilled Ancestry developed this new tool.

Theories, Trees, Brick Wall Ancestors

Last week, My Heritage announced their new DNA tool, Theory of Family Relativity. When I first looked at the Theories for my DNA kit, I was a little disappointed. I only had a few. Then some greater voice in the genealogy world reminded me why I only had a few.

My tree is basically a U.S. tree. The majority of DNA testers on My Heritage are European. Thus, I won't have as many matches on My Heritage and thus will have fewer Theories.

When I re-looked at one of those theories, I discovered a major clue -- not in the DNA itself -- but in the Theory paths. I hadn't noticed that a theory could have different paths.

Searchable Trees

Do you have a private tree on Ancestry? If so, I would like to convince you to make it searchable -- especially if you have a DNA test attached to that tree. (See AncestryDNA ThruLines FAQ)

Ancestry's new DNA ThruLines tool is helping me figure out how I connect with my multitude of DNA matches. The clues provided on my James Crawford ThruLines have helped me identify another granddaughter, Matilda Caroline Stoner.