Who Is this James Crawford?

Have you ever run across a record in a county you've been researching and have no idea how the person in the record fits with known families in that area? Well, that's my situation -- and it is anoter James Crawford.

James and Martha Crawford sold land in Barren County, Kentucky. Tax lists for Barren County show a James Crawford with 200 acres on the Marrowbone River. These tax lists also show another James Crawford with 50 acres on the Marrowbone. This second James Crawford is thought to be James and Sally (Smith Duggins) Crawford.

I've also identified the family of David Crawford who died in Barren County, KY in 1812.

Now, I've found a deed for a James Crawford and Patsy his wife selling land in Wythe County Virginia to Peter Kinson. This 1806 deed indicates that James and Patsy were living in Montgomery County, Ohio at the time.

ThruLines Validating Research

I've seen several negative posts and comments about Ancestry's new DNA tool, ThruLines. I haven't come close to looking at all of my lines, let alone verifying them. However, I am thrilled Ancestry developed this new tool.

Using Land to Verify Heirs

One of the challenges I regularly face when researching my Crawford brick wall is trying to verify the identity of a James Crawford. That is the case with my attempt to rule out David Crawford of Barren County, KY as the father of my ancestor, James Crawford.

The 1812 will of David Crawford indicates he had a son named James, James Fisher Crawford to be exact. I believe that the James F Crawford in the 1860 and 1870 census records is this same James Crawford.

Unfortunately, I haven't found a record that clearly proves that the James Crawford in the census record is the same James Crawford in the will. However, I have found three land records that may provide supporting evidence. One is a partition of land by the sons of James F Crawford. Another deed is the purchase of land by the 'Heirs of David Crawford.' The third deed is the sale of land by Polly Crawford to James Crawford. I believe the partition deed is referencing the land from these other two deeds.

Deed Crawford to Kinson

I found the following deed in Barren County for a James Crawford and his wife, Patsy. This James Crawford was living in Montgomery County, Ohio in 1806. I currently do not know anything about this James Crawford.

Vols. Before A 1798-1807 Vol. A 1799-1899
FS Film 209719 DGS 7899149

Vol. A page 277 Image 270

Page 277
Crawford to Kinson

Locked FamilySearch Update

Are you using the county records on Family Search? If so, have you figured out the levels of access? Well, I thought I had until a couple of weeks ago. That's when I discovered a 4th level that isn't obvious from the icons.

In review, there are three icons that indicate where/how the microfilm records can be viewed. One of those is a microfilm reel.

The 'reel' icon indicates that the record was microfilmed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and is available for viewing at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City.

The second icon is the camera.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun

For this week's mission (should you decide to accept it), answer the question:

1)  Have you done a good job of citing your sources in your genealogy management program or online family tree?  How are you doing?  How many source citations do you have, and how many people are in your tree?  What is the sources to persons ratio?

2)  Which master source (e.g., 1900 U.S. census, Find A Grave, specific book, etc.) do you have the most citations for?  How many?  How did you figure this out?

3)  Tell us about it in your own blog post, in a comment on this blog post, or in a post on Facebook.

Randy Seaver provides another interesting challenge thru his 'Saturday Night Genealogy Fun' to look at my genealogy data in a different way.

Since I use RootsMagic, I thought I'd show how I'm getting the answers to these questions as well as answer them.