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