Revelation

Have you ever tripped over a county line? I mean, have you ever not considered a family in the neighboring county just because they are in the neighboring county?

Well, I have -- for over thirty years.

As I've written about before, I have two James Crawford families living in Preble County, Ohio. One is my ancestor and one is his neighbor.

• James Crawford of Preble County, Ohio

My ancestor was married in Garrard County, Kentucky in 1799, while the other James was married in Lincoln County, Kentucky in 1793. For all these years, I've thought that the records for Lincoln County, Kentucky were in relation to the 'other' James while the records in Garrard and Madison counties were for my James.


Recently, I did the analysis of the Madison County, Kentucky tax records and realized that the men we assumed were related to the Lincoln County bunch were listed on the Madison county records.

Then, last night, I started going thru the Lincoln County, Kentucky tax records. In 1787, I found Rebekah Crawford living near George Douglas. Also living in Lincoln County, Kentucky in 1787 was two members of the Sellers family.

This morning, I was thinking about Rebekah and Mary Crawford and wondered how far apart they were living. I already knew that Mary Crawford had purchased land from Richard Cave. That land is in Garrard County, Kentucky.

Since I have a map of the original surveys for Garrard County, I decided to see if I could find George Douglas' land. I knew the land was near the Dix River.

I found George Douglas' land on the map. Both women lived in what became Garrard County.

The above map shows the Richard Cave survey in yellow. Some of this land was sold to Mary Crawford. The George Douglass survey is outlined in orange. Some of this land was sold to Rebekah Crawford. Both pieces of land are in current day Garrard County.

Below is a broader look at the map. The area outlined in green is the Kennedy land. James and possibly William purchased land from the Kennedys.

At the time, these properties would not have been considered close to each other. However they are all in the same area of Kentucky. Thus, there may be a relationship between Rebekah, Mary, James and William.

I've been tripping over that county line for YEARS!