James Crawford of Preble County

One of my brick walls is also one of my same name challenges. In her Jan. 16, 2019 podcast, Can You Identify Your Ancestor, Amy Johnson Crowe talks about finding information to make sure one is tracking the right person.

I've used most of her tips in my research, but I have one case where almost all of the details are the same.

	James Crawford	James Crawford
Birth	1770	1772
Residence 1820	Preble County OH	Preble County OH
Marriage Year	1793	1799
Marriage Place	Lincoln County KY	Garrard County KY
Occupation	Farmer	Farmer
Wife's name	Martha	Sally

The easiest way for me to distinguish these two men (and several other James Crawford) is by their wife's name. Since the wife's name often appears on a deed where land has been sold, I have used land records to help separate these two families.

Pauline E. Briles

Emporia Gazette
Wednesday, July 18, 1984
page 2 column 4-5

Film E1506

KS State Historical Society

150 Years Ago

This weeks 'Saturday Night Genealogy Fun' challenge is to determine which ancestors were living 150 years ago (Jan 1869).

In order to figure this out, I had to look at the data I had for each likely ancestor. Working from the pedigree view in Roots Magic, I clicked on each potential ancestor to open their data.

Family Photographer

Do you have a family member who seems to be the one person who is always behind the camera?

Growing up, that person was my grandmother. She had an 8mm camera and filmed almost every family event. Later, we would have a family ‘movie’ night to watch the new movies and re-watch the older ones.

Well, my grandmother died over twenty years ago and the 8mm camera is ‘ancient’ technology. However, my brother has taken over the position as ‘family photographer’.

Not only does he set up the camera to capture our family group pictures but he captures ordinary moments.  One of my favorite pictures is one he took during our family weekend at the lake of his wife and their grandchildren.

What’s It Worth

Have you ever watched a video of your local meteorologist giving a weather update? Or, have you watched a video of a news clip? What about a comedy monologue - have you ever watched any of those on YouTube? Or maybe, you’ve read a news article in your Facebook or Twitter feed? I know I have and I appreciate that I can.

Unfortunately, we have become accustomed to viewing and reading content for free when none of it is free to produce.

The same is true with local history and genealogy. We love locating free resources. But these free resources also have ‘production’ costs.  My local historical society recently discussed whether to continue paying to have images and other information from their collection hosted online by Past Perfect.

Ultimate Challenge

Have you ever found two men of the same name in the county records and tried to figure out which record is for which man. Most genealogists encounter this difficulty sometime in their research. I have several of those conflicts in my tree. However, my Hiram Currey same name challenge is an 'ultimate challenge'.

My great-grandfather, Hiram M. Currey (of Dodge City, Kansas) was the son of Hiram M Currey and Angelina Jane Burke of Leavenworth, Kansas. I believe this Hiram M. Currey was the son of Hiram M. Currey of Peoria, Illinois and the grandson of Hiram M. Currey of Champaign County, Ohio. Thus, I have a potential of four generations of Hiram M Currey's with very little direct evidence tying them together.

My research on this line began with Hiram M. Currey of Leavenworth. Hiram M. Currey married Angelina Burke in 1856 in Weston, Missouri. By 1860, they were living on the Kansas side of the border. Unfortunately, I haven't found any records in Platte County, Missouri or Leavenworth County, Kansas to directly tie Hiram Currey to his parents or siblings. The only information I have that might tie Hiram M. Currey of Leavenworth to parents is from the family Bible. According to the Bible, Hiram Currey was born in 1835 in Peoria, Illinois.