Henry

 Do you have slave owners in your tree? I wish that I could say that I don't, but I do have a few. Thus, when I come across a document identifying a slave, I feel obligated to share it. Below is a deed where Matthew M. Bland grants freedom to a slave named Henry -- at the cost of $1000. I have no idea who paid the $1000 but that would have been a lot of money in 1855!

Platte County, Missouri

Volume L
Film 988442 DGS 8486854

image 175 of 431
Page 300

M. M. Bland
To deed
Manusituate
Henry
Know all men by these presents that I Mathew M. Bland
of the County of Platte and State of Missouri hath this
day for and in consideration of the sum of one thous
and dollars to me in hand paid manumit[ates] and set
free and by these presents do manumit and set free one
negro boy named Henry owned by me said Henry is of
a Black color twenty eight years of age five feet eight
inches high with his shoes off and a sear by bruise on
the corner part of the left wrist and I do by these presents
as fully and perfectly set free said Henry to all intense
and purposes as if said Henry had been born free and I do
hereby release all right title interest claim and property
which I now have in and to said Boy Henry
Given under my hand and seal
this 17th day of March A. D . 1855 .
Attest Mathew M. Bland (seal)
State of Missouri
County of Platte ⎬ SS
Be it Remembered that at the March
Term of the Platte Circuit Court held at Platte City on

page 301 Monday March 31st 1855 , among other things we the following
to wit Now at this day comes Mathew M Bland and presents
in open Court a Deed of Emancipation ofslave Henry thereupon
the said Mathew M. Bland acknowledged said deed of Emance
pation to be his act and deed for the purposes therein menti
oned
State of Missouri ⎬
County of Ralls ⎬ SS
I William C Remington Clerk of the Circuit
Court within and for said County do certify that the above and f
foregoing is a correct copy of the acknowledgement taken in
open Court of Mathew B. Bland to deed of Emancipation of
Slave Henry as the same now remains of record in my office ℗

In testimony whereof I have unto subscribe
my name and affix the seal of said Court
at office in Platte City this March 17th A. D . 1855 .

W C Remington Clerk
By P. J. Collins DCC

Filed for Record July 3rd Recorded July 24th 1855
W. S. Remington Recorder

Missouri, Platte County. Deed records, 1839-1895. Film #988442 DGS 8486854. Mathew M Bland, 1855; Vol. L: pages 300-301; digitized images, FamilySearch www.familysearch.org : viewed online 11 April 2024.

Crawford yDNA

My brother's BigY test recently verified what I and others have believed for a long time: that my James Crawford is somehow related to the James Crawford (1758-1836) of Garrard County, KY that was married to Rebecca Anderson. These results also indicates a relationship to Edward Crawford (1762-1826) of Overton, TN.

One of my yDNA 67 matches is a descendant of William Nelson Crawford (1829-1907). I am also an autosomal DNA match with descendants of William Nelson Crawford. This descendant also shares autosomal DNA with a descendant of James Crawford (1770-1833) who married Martha Knight and with a descendant of William Crawford (1748-1809). James Crawford (1770-1833) and William Crawford (1748-1809) were both in the Garrard County, KY area at the same time as my ancestor.

A descendant of Alexander Crawford (1715-1764) is grouped in the R1b group on the Crawford project.

The researcher who is a descendant of William Crawford (1748-1809) believes that his William Crawford is a 1st cousin once removed from Alexander Crawford.

The above photo is an attempt to show how this researcher believes these various lines might be related. Note that my James Crawford line is not connected. Nor is the Edward Crawford line.

Source Mystery

Do you like to dig into old deeds and court records to figure out family ties? If so, has the closure of libraries and Family History Centers impacted your ability to access those records? My answer to both questions is YES. Of course, I could be using Ancestry databases to research other branches of my tree, but the pull to research my Crawford line is very strong -- and that means accessing Virginia records.

Even if the Family History Centers were open, I'm under a county 'Stay at Home' order. Thus, I'm digging thru my files from previous Virginia research to see if I can make pull any new information from that research.

Out of curiosity, I searched my Crawford files to see if I had any records mentioning Overton, Tennessee. (One of my brother's BigY matches is to a Crawford family from Overton County, Tennessee.) Since I've never done any Tennessee research, I didn't expect to find much. Thus, I was surprised when I found a document titled: Crawford Families of Virginia and Overton County Tennessee.

What I have is a scanned image of a photocopy.

Crawford Marriages

Have you ever felt the need to go back thru your genealogy research hoping that some new insight can be obtained from those notes and records located years ago? That's where I'm at with my Crawford research. I started with some marriage records from Augusta County, Virginia.

Vogt John & T. William Kethley, Augusta County Marriages, 1748-1850 (N.p.: Iberian Publishing Company, 1986).

While reviewing these records, I found that I already had most of these Crawfords in my database. However, I often was missing their spouse and/or documentation of their marriage.

In the process of re-looking at these records, I also took the time to find them on FamilySearch so I could see what other researchers might have on these families.

Below are my notes for Crawford males and females married in Augusta County prior to 1801.

Augusta County Marriages 1748-1850

Crawford.VA.030

by John Vogt & T. William Kethley
Iberian Publishing Company, np, 1986

Only transcribing marriages prior to 1801

page 66 - Men’s Names

Alexander Crawford [FS LZN5-951 - grandson of Alexander & Mary (McPHeeters) Crawford] & Rachel Lessley [Leslie FS 2W3B-9BV] - 20 Feb 1793 consent William Bell

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.

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.