James Maxwell Crawford

James Maxwell Crawford¹ was born on 3 Mar 1790 in Garrard, Kentucky, United States.^1–4 He was the child of .⁵

     He signed a petition asking for a division of roads on 14 Oct 1811 in Jefferson, Indiana Territory, United States.⁶

     James purchased land being of the NE qr of section 29 in township no 4 north of range no ten east on 7 Apr 1826 in Jefferson, Indiana, United States.⁷ He lived in Jefferson, Indiana, United States on 1 Jul 1830.⁸

     He sold land being 136 acres to the county for the purpose of creating an asylum for the poor on 25 Feb 1833 in Jefferson, Indiana, United States.⁹

     James  purchased land being O T Madison Lot 51 for $1800 from Chas W. Basnett on 30 Oct 1846 in Jefferson, Indiana, United States.¹⁰

     He lived as a 60 year old male born in Kentucky who was listed as James M Crawford in Clay Township, Decatur, Indiana, United States on 11 Sep 1850.¹¹

     He died on 13 Oct 1856 at the age of 66.⁴  James was an Elder and Lay Preacher for the Indiana Conference of the Methodist Church in Indiana, United States.⁴

Light Bulb Find

Do you get 'light bulb' hints? Since I have my RootsMagic software connected to my Ancestry tree, I get a yellow 'light bulb' next to someone's name whenever there is a new Ancestry hint.

When I opened the software today, I had several of those hints sprinkled thru the first 5 generations of my tree. One of those light bulbs was for my great-great grandmother, Mary Foster Crawford.

That 'hint' was a link to a 'story' posted by another researcher. That story appears to be an obituary clipping from an unknown source.

DNA Haplogroup

Thanks to some updates to the yDNA test I manage, my Crawford line (James Crawford - born 1772, died 1854) has been assigned a new Haplogroup: R-A13336. Previously, we had been grouped in the larger R-M269 Haplogroup. According to a Crawford project administrator, I also share the Y30725 terminal SNP with another match. It is my understanding that work is still being done to determine which is older: the A13336 or the Y30725.

Database and Colors

Do you think of your genealogy research as a tree or a database? I realize many people fall into the 'tree' group, but I am in the 'database' group.

Because I think of my data as a database, I want computer software to manage that data versus only using an online tree. I use RootsMagic to manage my database. You might say, 'but that's family tree software' and I would say you are correct. RootsMagic is great software to manage family tree based research.

However, I don't just research my tree, I research their FAN club (Friends Associates and Neighbors) as well as potential lines. And all of this research ultimately ends up in my RootsMagic file. Since this is one fairly large database, I have to have a way to visually keep track of the various lines in my research.

That's where the color coding feature in RootsMagic comes in handy. I started by assigning different colors to various lines of my research.

Besides assigning a color to ancestors along a line, I've also assigned that same color to the descendants on that line. (Note: Living descendants are colored LIME so that I can quickly identify living people.)

Same Names - Identity Tag

While using The Master Genealogist software, I developed an 'identity' fact. By sharing this fact, I was able to connect two individuals whom I thought might be the same person. I used the notes field to add information about the possibility that these were the same person.

The fact type transferred to RootsMagic, but the sentence structure still needed work. As I'm encountering a lot of 'same name' issues in my current research, I want to use this fact type. Thus, I needed the sentences to work.

After some trial and error, I got the sentence structure to work for the Principal and Principal2.

I have two Hampton Crandalls in my database that I believe are the same person. Thus, I had added the Identity tag to one and shared it with the other.

In the past, this type of tag helped keep me from combining individuals before having sufficient proof that they are indeed the same person. Thus, I am going to start using it again!

Hijacked - Same Name Issues

In your genealogical research, have you researched people of the same name? Have you found it challenging to separate those individuals of the same name? I know that in my research, I have encountered a lot of 'same names'.

This experience has helped me look at my current research and question whether I'm working with records for the same person. Yesterday while working Ancestry hints for William Crawford, son of the William Crawford who was in Madison County Kentucky prior to 1800,

Since I didn't have much information on the son, William, I wasn't sure the will was for the correct William. Thus, I wanted to see whether the family in the will matched what other researchers had for William Crawford. So, I turned to the tree on FamilySearch.