Heartland Genealogy

Anyone who has been doing genealogical research will eventually run into 'same name' issues, where two people of the same name are found in the same vicinity or same records. With my Crawford research, my same name struggle has been with my ancestor, James Crawford (1772-1854). James is a common given name in Crawford research and my James seems to be surrounded by other James Crawfords during his adult life. Even though most of the time, I've been able to separate out the various families, I haven't been able to find siblings or parents for my James Crawford. However, I have encountered a lot of what I'm going to call 'latchkey' trees. With pre-1800 Crawford research in Virginia and surrounding areas, it is fairly easy to find published family histories for various Crawford lines. This would include David Crawford, Col. William Crawford and brothers, Alexander and Patrick Crawford. Since given names like James, John and Mary are found in many Crawford f...

Garrard County, Kentucky Deeds 1787-1902; indexes, 1899-1960 Vol. C 1793-1796 Family Search DGS 183284 Film 008141322 Book C page 554 - image 291 This Indenture made this 6th day of October in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and ninety five Between Charles Bland of the County of Madison and State of Kentucky of the one part and Fethergill Adams of the state and County aforesaid of the other part witnesseth that for an inconsideration of the sum of one hundred and twenty pounds current money of the aforesaid state to him in hand paid by the said Fethergill Adams, the receipt whereof the said Charles Bland do hereby acknowledges and himself therewith fully satisfied and contented hath granted bargained sold aliened and confirmed and by these presents doth grant bargain sell alien and confirm unto the said Feathergill Adams one certain tract or parcell of land containing one hundreds and twenty six acres situate lying and being in the County of Madison and on th...

Do you ever attempt to connect a genealogy line to a major historical event? I'm sure most genealogists with families in the United States have tried to connect ancestors to military records related to any of our major wars.  With my early Kentucky research, one of my goals is to figure out when they arrived in Kentucky. Thus, I checked the list of " Early Settlers of Boonesborough " for my Crawford families and did not find them listed.  As I've dug into these Crawford families, I've started looking at other family ties. One of those ties is to the John Anderson family. John's daughter, Rebecca, was married to James Crawford. Since I couldn't find documentation of James' arrival, I started looking for information for the arrival of Rebecca's siblings.  Thanks to a 1798 Madison County Kentucky deed , Rebecca's father was identified as John Anderson and her siblings as the following: Samuel Campbell and Mary his wife Bez'l...

One of the challenges with my CRAWFORD research is separating my CRAWFORD family from the family of James and Martha Crawford. My ancestor, Nelson G. Crawford is the son of James and Sally (Smith Duggins) Crawford. Both James Crawford families lived in Preble County, Ohio before James and Martha and their children along with my ancestor, Nelson G. Crawford, moved to Warren County, Indiana. So, when I saw that Nelson Crawford was a first land owner in section 8 with James Crawford listed as a first landowner in both section 5 and section 8, I had to wonder if this could be MY James Crawford.

Today, I learned of the passing of Cletus Suther. For those in the Seneca area, the Suther name is associated with lumber and building. However, in the Nemaha County genealogy world, Cletus' name is associated with cemeteries. Before Find a Grave and before the Internet, there was Cletus' cemetery work. Living in Ohio, Cletus wanted to give back to his Nemaha County roots. Thus, he researched not just one but EVERY cemetery in Nemaha County. Cletus doggedly located the original record holder and transcribed those records into his cemetery notebooks. He then added obituary references for any and all that he could find. Those cemetery notebooks were then FREELY given to the Nemaha County Historical Society and the public libraries in the county. This body of work was and still is an ENOURMOUS contribution to Nemaha County Genealogy. By using the original records, Cletus' notebooks contain information for burials with no tombstone. Thank you Cletus for your d...

Cynthia Crawford was the child of  James Crawford and Rebecca Anderson Maxwell Crawford. She was born about 1802. Cynthia lived as a 50 year old female born in Kentucky who was listed as Cynthia Crafton in Clay Township, Decatur, Indiana, United States on 11 Sep 1850. 3 Cynthia Crawford and John Crafton 4 were married on 1 Apr 1823 in Jefferson, Indiana, United States. 2 , 5 – 11 John Crafton 2 was buried in 1836 at Nauvoo Cemetery in Milford, Decatur, Indiana, United States. 12 He died on 12 Dec 1836. 12

Do you ever go off on tangents with your genealogy research? If so, welcome to the club! I often go off on tangents with my FAN club. For the past several months, I've been on one of those tangents -- researching the descendants of James Crawford and Rebecca Anderson Maxwell Crawford. My most recent quest involves the descendants of Cynthia Crawford and John Crafton. This family is elusive! Born between 1824 and 1832, their children include John S., Barzilla, Patrick H, Rachel and Mary I. Even though I have approximate birth dates for all of the children, I only have a death date for John S. Crafton. This past week, I've been investigating the family of Mary I Crafton who married Jacob Cole in Indiana in 1865. According to Find a Grave, Jacob Cole died in 1893 in Ouachita County Arkansas. In an attempt to learn more about Mary Crafton Cole, I started investigating the Arkansas branch of the family thru their son James Franklin Cole. Since I didn't know a lot about t...