John Crawford of LIncoln County Kentucky

Do you ever go back thru your research (think Thomas MacEntee's Genealogy Do-Over) and find a potential family member living nearby whom you have never researched?

Well, that happened to me when I was researching Rebekah Crawford in the tax records for Lincoln County. That's where I found John Crawford.

• 1787 Crofford John - 4 horses, 4 cattle
• 1789 Crawford John - 5 horses
• 1790 Crawford John - 4 horses
• 1791 Crawford John - 4 horses
• 1792 Crawford John - 5 horses, 17 cattle and 913 acres

The tax entry for 1795 included the watercourse for the land. John Crawford land was on Hanging Fork.

Since John Crawford wasn't listed in the same tax book as Rebekah Crawford, I assumed that his land was further West. However, a Google search for Hanging Fork Kentucky proved me wrong.

Hanging Fork Creek is straight West of Lancaster, Kentucky (county seat of Garrard County). Rebekah Crawford's land is across the Dix River to the North and slightly East of Hanging Fork Creek. Mary Crawford's land is to the Northeast of Lancaster. James and William Crawford had land transactions with the Kennedy's. The Kennedy land is in the Southeast corner of Garrard County. 

John Crawford first appears in the indexes for Lincoln County, Kentucky deeds selling land. Thus, I needed to search the early Kentucky land records to find his purchase of land. 

Since I recently watched the Legacy Family Tree Webinar: Finding Kentucky Land: Grants, Deeds and the Missing Pieces by J. Mark Lowe, I had some idea of where to try and find a land record for John Crawford. 

To start my search, I went to the Kentucky Historical Society and used their Index for Virginia Surveys and Grants. Just above the book is the ability to enter a 'Text Search'.

I put Crawford in the search box and hit Go. That brought changed the list of files on the right side to include the number of times CRAWFORD was found in that particular file.

Scrolling thru the list of pages, I found a page with 6 records found. In playing around, I discovered that the page would move up and down. Thus, I could use my mouse to drag the page so I could see the bottom of the page.

By looking at the Watercourse column, I could find the information for John Crawford on Hanging Fork Creek. I recorded the information for John Crawford's 913 acres of land.

Now, I had enough information to use the records of the Kentucky Secretary of State's office. On their website, I found their page for Virginia and Old Kentucky Patent Series.

To search this collection, I first had to select a series. 

Since my index was for Virginia Survey and Grants, I selected Virginia Patents. The default sort order was patents. However, I found I could change that to name by pulling down.

Now, I could pull down the Select an Item box and scroll to John Crawford

When I selected Patent # 7612 for John Crawford, the screen began to load the various images available for this patent. For John Crawford, I was able to find the Patent, Survey and entry in the grant book.

Since I wanted to try and place John Crawford's land on a current day map, I knew I would need surrounding deeds to help anchor his land to a map. Thus, I went back to the index and searched for Hanging. I found surveys for James Logan, Samuel Craig and William Craig on Hanging Fork Creek.

I've started the process of using Deed Mapper to plot out the various pieces of land. 

So far, I don't have a deed referencing the Dix (Dick's) River. Thus, I don't know where these pieces of land lie on Hanging Fork Creek. In trying to figure out where this land might be in relation to the other Crawford families I've researched, I discovered that land on the West side of Hanging Fork Creek is in current Boyle County. 

Since John Crawford's land straddled the creek, I will have to learn more about the records for Boyle County and add it to my list of counties to search in Kentucky.

At this point, all I have is questions:

• Is John Crawford related to James and William Crawford?
• Is the John Crawford who received a Virginia patent for land the Lt. John Crawford who served during the Revolutionary War from Montgomery County, Virginia?
• Who are John Crawford's descendants?
• If John Crawford is a sibling of James and William Crawford, then who is Rebekah's husband?
• Where was Craig's settlement that was mentioned in several of these patents?