Saturday Night Genealogy Fun

A Halloween Marriage License and Some Crawford-Sellers Connections

It's Saturday Night, and time for another round of Saturday Night Genealogy Fun!

This week's challenge from Randy Seaver at Genea-Musings is to identify an ancestor who experienced a life event on Halloween, October 31, and share something about that person's life.

Since I use RootsMagic 12 to manage my genealogy research, I decided to start with an On This Date report for October 31.

Unfortunately, I didn't find any close relatives who were born, married, or died on Halloween. However, one event caught my attention because it involved two surnames that frequently appear in my Crawford research.

On October 31, 1859, Theophilus S. Seller obtained a marriage license to marry Myra Crawford in Hendricks County, Indiana.

While neither individual is a known direct ancestor, their families have some interesting connections to my ongoing Crawford research.

A Halloween Marriage License

Myra Crawford was born on October 30, 1838, in Hendricks County, Indiana. Thus, she had celebrated her 21st birthday just one day before obtaining her marriage license!

Her parents were Moses Crawford and Melinda Churchman. Her paternal grandparents were English Crawford and Mary Caldwell.

Theophilus S. Seller was born on January 21, 1827, in Greencastle, Putnam County, Indiana. He was the son of John Finley Seller and Rebecca Sellers.

The couple obtained their marriage license on Halloween, October 31, 1859, in Hendricks County, Indiana. Their marriage took place a little over a week later, on November 8, 1859.

The marriage license is recorded in Hendricks County Marriage Record, Volume 5, page 362.

While Halloween is generally associated today with costumes, candy, and trick-or-treating, for Myra and Theophilus, October 31, 1859, marked an important step toward beginning their married life.

The Life of Myra Crawford Seller

Following their marriage, Myra and Theophilus lived in Greencastle, Putnam County, Indiana.

The 1860 census identifies Theophilus as a 32-year-old farmer, with his 21-year-old wife, Myra, living in the household. Although he was listed as a farmer in that census, other records identify Theophilus as a physician.

In June 1863, during the Civil War, Theophilus registered for the military draft in Indiana.

The couple had three known children:

• Jennie Sellers, born about 1865 in Indiana

• Walter Sellers

• Luna W. Seller, born December 21, 1868

The family continued to reside in Greencastle, where they appeared in the 1870 census.

Unfortunately, their marriage ended with the death of Theophilus on September 6, 1871, at the age of 44. He was buried in Forest Hill Cemetery in Greencastle.

Myra was left a widow with young children.

On April 2, 1874, Myra obtained a marriage license to marry Wallace Johnston. By 1880, she was living in Putnam County, Indiana, in the Johnston household.

Myra and Wallace had a daughter, Minnie Johnstone, born in 1876 in Indiana.

Myra died on February 18, 1917, at the age of 78. She was buried in Forest Hill Cemetery in Greencastle, the same cemetery where Theophilus was buried.

The Crawford-Sellers Connections

What makes this Halloween marriage license particularly interesting to me is the connection between the Crawford and Sellers families.

Myra's Crawford ancestry is relatively straightforward:

• Her father was Moses Crawford, who married Melinda Churchman.

• Her grandfather was English Crawford, who married Mary Caldwell.

Although I have researched numerous Crawford families, I have not established how English Crawford fits into my larger Crawford family research.

The Sellers side of this marriage, however, is much more intriguing.

Theophilus Seller's father was John Finley Seller, the son of John Sellers and Elizabeth Finley.

John Sellers was a son of Nathaniel Sellers and Sarah Crawford.

But the connection doesn't stop there!

Theophilus's mother, Rebecca Sellers, was the daughter of James Sellers and Mary Crawford.

James Sellers was also a child of Nathaniel Sellers and Sarah Crawford.

Meanwhile, Mary Crawford was the daughter of John Crawford and Rebekah Douglas.

Thus, Theophilus descended from Nathaniel and Sarah (Crawford) Sellers through both his paternal and maternal lines.

That makes this family particularly interesting from a genealogical perspective!

Why This Family Interests Me

Anyone who has followed my Crawford research knows that I have spent considerable time investigating the Crawford, Sellers, and Douglas families in Kentucky.

These surnames appear repeatedly in marriage records, land transactions, and other documents associated with the Crawford families I am trying to untangle.

For example, the marriage records of Lincoln County, Kentucky, include several important Crawford-Sellers connections.

In 1791, James Sellers married Mary Crawford, with permission given by Rebekah Crawford.

In 1796, William Sellers married Sally Crawford, again with permission from Rebekah Crawford.

The Sellers family also appears in records associated with the marriage of James Crawford and Martha Knight in 1793.

And James Sellers was a witness to the 1799 marriage bond of my ancestor James Crawford and Sarah (Sally) Smith Duggins in Garrard County, Kentucky.

These repeated associations are part of the reason I continue to investigate the Sellers family as part of my Crawford FAN Club research.

While I have not established every relationship among these families, the connections suggest that they belonged to overlapping family and community networks.

Based on my current research, Theophilus Seller may have been my third cousin four times removed.

That relationship remains a possibility rather than a proven connection.

Another Crawford Research Puzzle

The Halloween marriage license also introduces another question.

How does English Crawford, Myra's grandfather, connect to the other Crawford families I have been researching?

At this point, I don't know.

My research has identified several Crawford families in Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, and Indiana. Although they share a surname and sometimes lived in the same areas, I have learned that geographic proximity and a common surname do not necessarily establish a family relationship.

English Crawford is another individual whose ancestry may deserve additional investigation.

Perhaps further research into his descendants, land records, or associates will eventually reveal a connection.

A Halloween Genealogy Discovery

Although my RootsMagic On This Date report did not identify a Halloween event involving one of my direct ancestors, it did lead me to an interesting marriage license.

On October 31, 1859, Myra Crawford and Theophilus Seller took an important step toward marriage in Hendricks County, Indiana.

Their marriage connects two families that have appeared repeatedly in my Crawford research.

And while I still have questions about how these individuals fit into my family tree, this discovery provides another piece of the Crawford-Sellers puzzle.

That's one of the things I enjoy about genealogy challenges like Saturday Night Genealogy Fun. Even when a search doesn't turn up exactly what we expect, it can lead us back to families, records, and research questions worth exploring.

Happy Halloween — and happy genealogy hunting!