Why Moses Dooley Belongs in My Crawford FAN Club

When researching a difficult ancestor, sometimes the people surrounding that ancestor become almost as important as the ancestor himself. That's certainly true in my continuing effort to untangle the various Crawford families of early Kentucky.

One of those people is Moses Dooley.

Moses isn't a Crawford, and I currently have no evidence that he was related to my Crawford family by blood or marriage. Yet the more I learn about him, the more convinced I am that he belongs in my Crawford FAN club.

Why?

Because Moses Dooley keeps showing up in the same places as the Crawfords I'm trying to understand.

From Virginia to Sugar Creek

Moses Dooley was born about 1748 in Virginia. By 1780, he was involved in Kentucky land acquisition. A survey for 500 acres on Sugar Creek was completed for him on May 26, 1780. He later filed land entry papers and received a grant for those 500 acres.

Moses was also an early Baptist preacher associated with the Old Sugar Creek Meeting House in what became Garrard County, Kentucky.

That Sugar Creek land is particularly interesting to me because of its neighbors.

On a map of the original landowners, the Richard Cave tract lies east of Moses Dooley's property. That Cave land was later purchased by Mary Crawford. Mary is particularly intriguing because she may have been the mother of my ancestor, James Crawford, born in 1772, who married Sally Smith Duggins.

To the southwest of Moses's land was a tract originally associated with Jacob Myers. That property was purchased by George Douglass, who then sold it to Rebecca Crawford.

Rebecca Crawford was the mother of another James Crawford—the James who married Martha Knight.

Thus, Moses Dooley's Sugar Creek property puts him geographically in the middle of a neighborhood that included people connected to two Crawford families that I am trying to distinguish.

That alone earns him a place in my FAN club.

But the story doesn't stop in Garrard County.

Moses Dooley Moves South

In 1798, Moses acquired additional Kentucky land rights in what was then Green County.

Two certificates are particularly interesting.

Certificate No. 734 entitled Moses to 200 acres of second-rate land on the Middle Fork of Little Barren River. The certificate states that Moses qualified because he had improved the land. The description began at an ash tree marked "MD" on the west side of the creek and specified that his improvement was to be near the center of the survey.

Certificate No. 745 was another 200-acre entitlement based upon an improvement. This tract was on the waters of Marrowbone. Its description began 90 poles below Moses's improvement on the south side of the creek.

These weren't simply speculative claims. Both certificates specifically refer to improvements made by Moses Dooley.

By 1800, Moses appears in Barren County tax records and continues appearing there for several years.

And guess who else was there?

The Crawfords.

Dooley and Crawford Together Again

My research into the Barren County tax records places Moses Dooley in the same neighborhood as James Crawford who married Martha Knight and another James Crawford whom I have been tracking as James Crawford Jr.

Abner Dooley was also nearby.

That becomes even more interesting because Moses's son was Reuben Dooley, born in 1773 in Bedford County, Virginia.

And Reuben is already part of another Crawford land puzzle.

Barren County tax records associate James Crawford Jr. with 50 acres on Marrowbone, and the original patent for that land traces to Reuben Dooley.

Thus, I don't merely have the Dooley surname appearing near the Crawfords. I have a father and son—Moses and Reuben Dooley—in the same geographic area where I'm trying to sort several Crawford identities, with Reuben's land specifically entering the Crawford story.

What Happened to Moses's Marrowbone Claim?

Moses's Certificate No. 745 also raises another interesting land question.

Although the 1798 certificate entitled Moses to 200 acres, a later Kentucky patent describes 400 acres on the waters of Marrowbone. That land was surveyed on March 2, 1799, and eventually patented on August 30, 1811, to William Chamberlain, assignee of Moses Dooley.

The wording of the patent closely follows the description in Certificate 745, including the reference to beginning about 90 poles below "his improvement."

I have not yet located the surveys associated with Moses's two certificates, so questions remain. Was the 400-acre Chamberlain tract somehow connected to both of Moses's 200-acre certificates? Or was additional acreage added to Certificate 745 through some other mechanism?

For now, I don't know.

The important point for my Crawford research is that Moses was actively acquiring and improving land in the same Green/Barren County area where these Crawfords subsequently appear.

Then They Turn Up in Ohio

Eventually the story moves again.

Moses Dooley was in Preble County, Ohio, by 1814 and appears on tax records there beginning in 1816.

He wasn't alone.

Early landowner maps show a cluster of Dooley landowners in Preble County, including Moses, Reuben, Abner, George, Silas and Thomas Dooley.

And once again, the Crawfords and their associates are in the same general area.

In Section 14 was land belonging to James Crawford who married Martha Knight.

Also in that section was land belonging to William Sellers.

William Sellers is especially important to my research because he and my James Crawford—the James who married Sally Smith Duggins—purchased another Ohio tract as tenants in common.

Thus, the same surnames that were part of my Kentucky research appear again in Preble County.

More Than Coincidence?

None of this proves that Moses Dooley was related to the Crawfords.

It doesn't prove that Mary Crawford was the mother of my James Crawford.

Nor does it prove that my James Crawford and the James Crawford who married Martha Knight were related.

In fact, my yDNA research has taught me to be particularly cautious about assuming relationships among Crawford families simply because they lived near one another.

But that's exactly why FAN research is useful.

The question isn't necessarily:

How was Moses Dooley related to James Crawford?

A better question may be:

Why did the Dooleys, Crawfords, Sellers, Douglasses and other associated families repeatedly appear in the same communities?

That is a question worth pursuing.

Where Should I Look Next?

My future Dooley/Crawford research needs to concentrate on the network rather than just Moses himself.

One area I want to investigate more thoroughly is the migration from the Sugar Creek area of Garrard County to Green and Barren counties. Who from the Sugar Creek neighborhood later appears around Marrowbone and the Little Barren River? Did some of these families move together? Were there land transactions between them? Were there continuing church connections?

I also need to trace Reuben Dooley's 50-acre Marrowbone tract. Exactly how did land originally patented to Reuben become associated with James Crawford Jr.? Finding that transaction could identify additional witnesses, neighbors or associates.

The missing surveys for Certificates 734 and 745 are another priority. They may clarify Moses's Green County holdings and perhaps explain how the 200-acre Certificate 745 relates to the later 400-acre Chamberlain patent.

The Preble County connections also deserve more attention. Instead of simply noting that the same surnames were present, I want to look for actual interactions among them—deeds, witnesses, tax-list proximity, church records, estate records and other documents that might connect the Dooleys, Crawfords and Sellers.

And I want to look more closely at George Douglass. His purchase of the Jacob Myers land near Moses Dooley and subsequent sale to Rebecca Crawford provides another possible thread connecting these families.

Following the Neighbors

When I first added Moses Dooley to my database, he could easily have remained just another person associated with my Crawford research.

He isn't anymore.

His story stretches from the Sugar Creek neighborhood of early Garrard County, to the Marrowbone and Little Barren River country, and eventually to Preble County, Ohio.

Remarkably, Crawfords keep appearing along that same path.

Perhaps Moses Dooley won't tell me who the parents of my James Crawford were. But understanding why the Dooleys and Crawfords repeatedly occupied the same communities may help me understand the network in which my James lived.

And sometimes, when the direct records don't answer the question, following the neighbors is the best path forward.