Father's Day

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun
Here is your assignment if you choose to play along (cue the Mission Impossible music, please!):

1) It's Father's Day in the USA on Sunday, so let's talk about our fathers.  

2)  Show us your favorite photograph of your father - the one that shows him in the best light possible.  Describe the occasion, the setting, and the people in the photograph.

One of my favorite pictures of my father (Eugene Crawford) is of him in his physics classroom at Dodge City Junior College.

Another favorite picture is of dad trying to read while I was sitting in his lap.

Another group of favorite pictures are of us during Christmas time in 1953. 

Sellers Deed

Have you ever encountered some random information in a Facebook post that led you to look for additional records? That was my experience recently when someone posted in the Families of Garrard County, Kentucky group about the Sellers-Kennedy riot.

Since my Crawford family left Garrard County before 1820, I haven't paid much attention to the history of the county after that. One of the Crawford lines I'm tracking from the Garrard County area had two daughters marry into the Sellers family. (William Sellers married Sarah Crawford and James Sellers married Mary Crawford) These particular Sellers families also moved out of the county.

At this point, I don't know how the Sellers of the 1873 riot connect to the Sellers family of the 1790s but I'm guessing they do connect.

One of the comments on the post mentioned the search for Sellers deeds. When I looked back at my research, I realized I did not have the deed for the sale of land. Since those records are easily accessible on FamilySearch, I located that deed today.

At first glance, this deed may be for land that belonged to James Sellers and Mary Crawford.

Deeds Identifying Miller Heirs

I'm trying to figure out whether the Isaac Crawford and wife Nancy of Jefferson County, Indiana are the Isaac Crawford who married Nancy Miller in Garrard County, Kentucky. Thus, I'm tracking the transfer of land by heirs of Jacob Miller, Nancy Miller's father.

In May 1840, James and John Crawford were identified as sons of Isaac Crawford when they sold their 1/6th of 1/11th of Jacob Miller's land to William Duff. Going back through the deeds, I have identified three other deeds where protions of Jacob Miller's land was sold to William Duff. Two of those deeds also involve heirs of Isaac Crawford.

Aristippus Brown to William Duff -- 2 May 1840

Garrard County Kentucky
Land and Property

Deeds, Vols. N-O 1838-1843
FamilySearch Film 183247 DGS 8568105

Book N
Page 396

No. 1381
Aristippus Brown [sc] to William W Duff

Am I Making Incorrect Conclusions?

Have you ever looked at the FamilySearch tree or at personal trees on Ancestry and wondered how and why they made those family connections? I know I have. I hope that others if others have such a question about the research reflected in my Ancestry tree, that they would contact me with their concerns and questions!

This is important to me. I want my tree to accurately reflect family relationships. Since I research siblings and their descendants, some might ask why it is important that I get those relationships right. As Ancestry is providing us with more DNA tools, I'm finding that my ability to interpret my DNA matches is affected by whether I have those family connections correct. This became more apparent to me when I was studying my ThruLines and discovered that I didn't have any DNA matches thru siblings of my ancestor. (See Crawford ThruLines Question)

As I'm researching the James Crawford(1758-1836) who married Rebecca Anderson, I'm finding that what I have in my tree disagrees with what a lot of others have.

Miller Heirs - Crawford Deed

Garrard County Kentucky
Index to deeds, 1797-1935; deeds, 1797-1866; births, 1789-1801

Deeds, Vols. N-O 1838-1843
FS Film 183247 DGS 8568105

Book N page 406

No 1387 James & John Crawford to Wm W Duff

Isaac Crawford Deed

Jefferson County Indiana Deeds

Book E page 452 Image 239
Family Search Film 1310268 DGS 8059613

page 453

This Indenture, made this nineteenth day of November in the year of
our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and twenty two between
Isaac Crawford & Nancy his wife of Jefferson County [and state]
of Indiana of the first part, and Thomas Alexander of the
same County of the second part witneseth that the said
Isaac Crawford & Nancy his wife for and in consideration
of the sum of eight hundred dollars lawful money [?]
United States to them in hand well and truly paid [?]

Following Women to Find Hints

Do you research the spouses of your ancestor's siblings? If you are like me, you don't spend much time identifying let alone researching the parents of an ancestor's sister-in-law.

However, with my Crawford research, I'm finding valuable clues from published genealogies. Many of those published genealogies are for the families of women who married into the Crawford family.

There are a couple of McPheeters genealogies that include the family of Alexander and Mary (McPheeters) Crawford. These works have helped me separate my Crawford line from the descendants of Alexander Crawford.