Crawford Research: Which James Is Which?

My ancestor, James Crawford, died in Preble County, Ohio in 1854. In 1821, he sold a piece of land to Wm Sellers. This Preble County Deed (Book 5, page 87), identifies the seller as James Crawford Junr and indicates that James was from Preble County, Ohio. The deed is signed by James Crawford and Sally Crawford. Sally's signature is significant since it identifies my James Crawford and not another James Crawford living in Preble County at the time.


James Crawford married Sally Duggins in Garrard County, Kentucky on 12 Sep 1799. So far, this marriage record is the only piece of data I have that I can say for certain applies to this particular James Crawford.

In trying to learn more about my Crawford ancestry and to try and identify family units in early Kentucky, I have been going back thru the tax records. Besides tracking the CRAWFORD surname thru these tax records, I am also following the DUGGINS and the SELLERS surname.

At this point, I've transcribed the tax records for Lincoln, Madison, Garrard counties Kentucky and Preble county Ohio and am working on Barren County, Kentucky. All of these records are being summarized into what is becoming a fairly large table in Exel.

Hopefully, this study of the tax lists will help me identify the various CRAWFORD families in this area of Kentucky prior to 1800. This is an ongoing project since I likely need to add several more counties and then locate the land records for the property identified in these tax records.