Dooley

Have you ever seen a name in a deed or court document and thought to yourself, 'Hey, I've seen that name before?' Well that was my situation when I was looking at tax records for Barren County, Kentucky.

Since I found James Crawford with 200 acres of land on the Marrowbone listed on the 1800 tax list for Barren County, KY, I started looking for other people owning land on the Marrowbone. That's when I found Moses Dooly Junr also owning 200 acres of land on the Marrowbone.

Not only was Moses Dooly Junr in Barren County, but so was his father and brothers.

I remembered the Dooly name from my Garrard County map of the original land owners. Moses Dooly had a land grant (#912) for land in the line fork of Sugar Creek.

This land is near the Mary Crawford land purchased from Richard Cave. Mary's land would be to the East of Moses Dooley's land. Just to the Southwest of Moses Dooley's land is the land grant for Jacob Myers. Some of this land was sold to George Douglas. George Douglas then sold a portion to Rebekah Crawford.

So when I saw Moses Dooly Junr as a potential neighbor to James Crawford, I started paying attention to the Dooly family. Since James and Martha Crawford sold 200 hundred acres of land on the Marrowbone (see Barren County Connection), I believe the James Crawford in the tax record is the James Crawford married to Martha Knight. However, I haven't found the deed for James' purchase of the land. Thus, I can't say for certain which James Crawford is listed in the tax record.

As I was researching the two James Crawfords in Preble County, Ohio, I discovered the Dooly family on the tax records in Preble County, Ohio. The 1816 Preble County, Ohio tax list shows Moses Dooley Senr and Moses Dooley along with several other members of the family.

Since I've found the Dooley family and likely both James Crawford families in Barren County, KY and Preble County, OH, I began wondering if Moses Dooley was on the tax lists for Lincoln or Madison Counties. Thus, I returned to the tax lists for Lincoln County, KY where I had previously found George Douglas and Rebekah Crawford along with some Sellars families in 1787. I didn't find any Dooley names living near Rebekah Crawford in 1787. So, I checked Madison County, KY where I found Moses Dooley and John Doly in 1787.

This places Moses Dooley in the same taxing district as Mary Crawford, James Crawford and William Crawford in 1787. 

This may all be coincidence, but it appears that the Dooley clan followed the same migration path from the Garrard County, Kentucky area in 1787 to the Barren County, Kentucky area in 1799 to Preble County, Ohio in 1816.

Thus, I've added the Dooley surname to my FAN club.