Twice Connected

The Lighter Family and My Crawford and Ralston Ancestors

Have you ever found a family history that connects to more than one branch of your family tree? That's exactly what happened when I looked at Genealogy and Family Histories of the Lighter and Wilhelm Families.

I was interested in the Lighter family because of their connection to my Crawford ancestors. However, as I examined the pages listing the children and grandchildren of Jacob Henry Lighter, I realized that this family was connected to two different sides of my ancestral tree!

One connection was through my Crawford family, while the other was through my Ralston ancestors.

The Lighter Family Genealogy

The book, Genealogy and Family Histories of the Lighter and Wilhelm Families, contains information about the descendants of Jacob Henry Lighter and his wife, Sarah Ann Strickler.

Pages 66–68 provide information about their children, including birth dates, marriages, residences, occupations, and the names of their children.

While much of the information concerns families living in Iowa, several members eventually settled in Dodge City, Kansas. That is where my Crawford family enters the picture.

What makes these pages particularly interesting is that two sons of Jacob Henry Lighter married women who were related to me through different ancestral lines.

Connection One: Alvin Hamilton Lighter and Lida Crawford

My first connection to the Lighter family is through Alvin Hamilton Lighter, who was born May 16, 1864, at Mount Carroll, Illinois.

According to the genealogy, Alvin married Lida A. Crawford on August 11, 1897, in Dodge City, Kansas.

Lida was born December 22, 1871, in Indiana. She was the daughter of my second-great-grandparents, Washington Marion Crawford and Mary Foster.

That makes Lida my great-grandaunt!

Lida's brother, Judson Crawford, was my great-grandfather.

The Lighter genealogy indicates that Alvin was a retired farmer living at 911 Second Avenue in Dodge City when the family history was compiled.

The book identifies six children of Alvin and Lida:

• Ethel A. Lighter, born July 1, 1898, in Dodge City, Kansas

• Kenneth Arden Lighter, born January 25, 1901, in Dodge City

• Marie Lighter, born June 25, 1904, in Dodge City

• Dorothy Alice Lighter, born August 27, 1906, in Cottonwood Falls, Kansas

• Chester Ellis Lighter, born June 28, 1908, in Dodge City

• Vera Elma Lighter, born July 15, 1911, in Dodge City

These names were familiar to me because of my research into the Crawford family and their descendants in Dodge City.

In fact, I recently worked with an obituary for Chester Ellis Lighter. Finding his name in this published genealogy provides another source documenting his place within the extended Crawford family.

Connection Two: William Emery Lighter and Alice Melinda Ralston

The second connection was through Alvin's older brother, William Emery Lighter.

William was born October 8, 1855, in Carroll County, Illinois. According to the genealogy, he married Alice Melinda Ralston on November 18, 1880, in Grundy County, Iowa.

Alice was born December 23, 1857, in Knox County, Illinois.

The genealogy identifies William as a retired farmer living at 1210 Fourth Street in Dodge City, Kansas.

But it was the name Ralston that caught my attention!

Alice Melinda Ralston was the daughter of my third-great-grandparents, James Barr Ralston and Nancy Jane McCormick.

That makes Alice my second-great-grandaunt.

Her older sister, Sarah Ellen Ralston, married Richmond Fisk Hammond.

Sarah and Richmond were the parents of Josie Hammond, who married my great-grandfather, Judson Crawford.

Thus, Alice Melinda Ralston was the aunt of my great-grandmother, Josie Hammond Crawford.

The genealogy identifies ten children of William and Alice:

• Roy Bertram Lighter, born August 19, 1881, in Grundy County, Iowa

• Philip J. Lighter, born September 18, 1883, in Clay Township, Grundy County, Iowa

• William Earle Lighter, born January 22, 1886, in Felix Township, Grundy County, Iowa

• Sarah (Sadie) Jane Lighter, born August 25, 1887, in Ford County, Kansas

• Curt Nelson Lighter, born March 10, 1890, in Ford County, Kansas

• Ray Kenneth Lighter, born January 14, 1892, in Ford County, Kansas

• Ruth Elva Lighter, born January 4, 1894, in Ford County, Kansas

• John Ralston Lighter, born August 5, 1897, in Ford County, Kansas

• Frederick Ellis Lighter, born April 25, 1889, in Ford County, Kansas

• Grace Alice Lighter, born January 8, 1901, in Ford County, Kansas

Note: Frederick Ellis appears out of chronological order in the published genealogy. I have retained the birth date as printed.

The birthplaces of these children also provide an interesting clue about the family's migration.

The first three children were born in Grundy County, Iowa, while the remaining children were reportedly born in Ford County, Kansas.

This suggests that William and Alice moved from Iowa to Kansas sometime between January 1886 and August 1887.

That migration is another detail worth investigating!

Two Lighter Brothers, Two Branches of My Family Tree

So how do these two marriages connect?

The first connection is through my Crawford ancestors:

Washington Marion Crawford and Mary Foster

• Judson Crawford married Josie Hammond.

• Lida Crawford married Alvin Hamilton Lighter.

The second connection is through my Ralston ancestors:

James Barr Ralston and Nancy Jane McCormick

• Sarah Ellen Ralston married Richmond Fisk Hammond.

  • Their daughter, Josie Hammond, married Judson Crawford.

• Alice Melinda Ralston married William Emery Lighter.

And the Lighter connection?

Jacob Henry Lighter and Sarah Ann Strickler

• William Emery Lighter married Alice Melinda Ralston.

• Alvin Hamilton Lighter married Lida Crawford.

Thus, two brothers from the Lighter family married women who were related to my great-grandparents through two different ancestral lines.

Alvin married the sister of my great-grandfather, Judson Crawford.

William married the aunt of my great-grandmother, Josie Hammond Crawford.

I find it fascinating that these two branches of my family tree intersect through the marriages of two Lighter brothers!

More Than Names and Dates

While the family connections are what initially caught my attention, these pages contain much more information.

For example, the genealogy provides street addresses for both Alvin and William Lighter in Dodge City. Those addresses could be used to locate the families in city directories, census records, or property records.

The book also documents the movement of the Lighter family from Illinois to Iowa and eventually to Kansas.

In addition, the genealogy identifies occupations and residences for many members of the extended family.

Several Lighter descendants were involved in newspaper publishing, including Joseph Henry Lighter and some of his sons. Others were farmers or business owners.

These details help place the family within the communities where they lived.

Of course, as with any published genealogy, the information needs to be evaluated and compared with other records. Birth dates, marriage dates, and family relationships should be verified whenever possible.

However, the book provides an excellent starting point for that research.

A Reminder to Look Beyond Direct Ancestors

One of the lessons I've learned from years of genealogy research is that valuable information about our ancestors is often found in records created for other families.

If I had limited my research to books about the Crawford, Hammond, or Ralston families, I might have overlooked this Lighter genealogy.

Yet these three pages provide information about relatives from both my paternal Crawford line and my Ralston-Hammond line.

They also document the families of two women who might receive little attention in a genealogy focused only on direct ancestors.

For me, this is another example of why researching siblings, spouses, and extended family members is so important.

Those collateral relatives often provide connections that help us better understand our ancestors' lives.

And sometimes, as in this case, they reveal that two seemingly separate branches of our family tree were connected all along!

Source

Genealogy and Family Histories of the Lighter and Wilhelm Families, pages 66–68.

Ancestry.com. U.S., Family History Books [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2025.

The images accompanying this post are from the above family history and document the descendants of Jacob Henry Lighter and Sarah Ann Strickler.