Heartland Genealogy

Marjorie Louise Machado Today's find from my CRAWFORD files is another obituary from a Dodge City newspaper, this one for Marjorie Louise Machado . Marjorie was the daughter of my great-aunt Helen Marjorie Crawford Horton, making Marjorie my first cousin once removed . Like much of my early genealogy research, my file contains a handwritten transcription rather than a copy of the actual newspaper article. The notation "KHS Newspapers" on the page tells me that I viewed the Dodge City Daily Globe on microfilm at the Kansas Historical Society. Marjorie H. Machade—Rites Here Monday A.M. Graveside services for Mrs. Marjorie Horton Machade, formerly of Dodge City, who died last week in Phoenix, Ariz., will be conducted by Rev. Arlon G. Ebright at 10 a.m. Monday in Maple Grove Cemetery. The body will lie in state at the Hulpieu-Swain Funeral Home until 9:45 Mon. Besides her parents and her 2 children, Mrs. Machade is survived by a brother and a sister. Mrs. Josie Crawford of ...

Digging Through the Paper Trail Do you remember the days of “paper genealogy,” when every record, note, and photocopy had to be filed somewhere? That is how my genealogy journey began. Like many researchers, I accumulated file drawers full of paper. At some point, I learned about the Dollarhide Method for organizing genealogical research. William Dollarhide is probably better known today for his maps, but he also proposed a system for numbering and filing research materials. My version followed this pattern: Surname.State Abbreviation.### By adding that number to a citation, I could trace the source back to the appropriate paper note, photocopy, or document in my files. Then scanners changed everything. Instead of relying on paper files, I could scan documents and attach the resulting image directly to the citation in my genealogy software. In theory, that eliminated the need for all of those old filing numbers. There was just one problem. I had to actually scan everything, identify i...

 A Short Life Remembered: Oren Wesley Lighter Have you ever discovered additional information about an ancestor simply because a newspaper you previously searched became available online? Years ago, I spent hours scrolling through microfilm of Dodge City newspapers, looking for mentions of my Crawford family and their relatives. During that research, I discovered two newspaper articles about the birth and death of an infant in the Lighter family. Now that these newspapers have been digitized and made available on Newspapers.com, I can search for a surname instead of scrolling through page after page of microfilm. A recent search for the surname Lighter led me back to those original articles—and helped me discover a second death notice that I had missed! A Birth Announcement The January 25, 1900, issue of The Dodge City Globe included this brief announcement on page 5: BORN—To Mr. and Mrs. A. H. Lighter, yesterday, at noon, a boy. This announcement establishes that a son was born to...

  One of the challenges of researching the Crawford surname in the Dodge City area is determining whether every Crawford who appears in the records belongs to my family—or is simply another Crawford living in the same place at the same time. Samuel M. Crawford is one of those people. Samuel lived in the Dodge City area and worked for the railroad. In 1900, he married Carrie Tuttle, apparently a second marriage. His daughter Nellie Crawford, likely from an earlier marriage, died in Dodge City on March 6, 1901, at only 18 years of age. Just over a year later, tragedy struck the family again when Samuel himself was killed in a railroad accident in Mexico. While I don't yet know whether Samuel connects to my Crawford family, four newspaper accounts of his death provide an unusually detailed picture of his final days. From Dodge City to Mexico Samuel was an experienced railroad man. According to the Journal-Democrat , he had worked for the Santa Fe until the railroad strike of 1894, whe...

Do you have old newspaper photocopies tucked away in your genealogy files? As I continue looking through my Crawford-Kansas files, I am finding newspaper clippings and photocopies collected years ago—records that deserve another look and, more importantly, a place in my digital research. Today's Friday Find is the obituary of Nelson Garfield Crawford , brother of my great-grandfather Judson Foster Crawford . Nelson was a son of Washington Marion Crawford and Mary Foster . Like Judson, he grew up in the Dodge City, Kansas, area after the Crawford family moved west. His obituary provides more than the basic facts of his death. It gives us a glimpse into a long career with the Dodge City post office, his involvement in the Methodist Church and Masonic organizations, and his place in the community. One detail that particularly caught my attention was his 47 years of service with the post office . According to the obituary, Nelson served as Dodge City postmaster from March 1928 until A...

Do you have photocopies of newspaper articles tucked away in your genealogy files—clippings you copied years ago and perhaps haven't looked at since? Today's Friday Find is one of those items from my Kansas CRAWFORD files: an obituary for Cora Adams Crawford published in the Dodge City Daily Globe on December 6, 1947. Cora Adams married Nelson G. Crawford , a brother of my great-grandfather, Judson Foster Crawford . Although Cora isn't a direct ancestor, her obituary adds details to the story of the extended Crawford family in Dodge City. Beyond documenting her death, the obituary provides a glimpse into Cora's life and community connections. It identifies her parents, tells when the family came to Kansas and later moved to Dodge City, gives her marriage date, names her surviving siblings, and describes her involvement with the Methodist Church, Eastern Star, and P.E.O. It's a good reminder of why those old photocopies are worth revisiting. A single obituary ...

Three Family Notes from the Dodge City Daily Globe (1929) Long before newspapers were digitized and searchable online, genealogy research often meant spending hours at the library with microfilm readers, photocopiers, and a notebook. One of my research trips to the Kansas State Historical Society in Topeka—years before the World Wide Web—produced a page of handwritten notes from the Dodge City Daily Globe . At the time, I simply recorded the items that mentioned members of my family, knowing they might prove useful someday. Today, those notes have become another Friday Find . The items appeared in the Dodge City Daily Globe on Monday, January 28, 1929 , page 3, column 5. Miss Esther Crawford , daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J. F. Crawford of 504 Avenue G, a graduate nurse of Baylor University at Dallas, Tex., has accepted a position as operating nurse at Cooks Memorial Hospital at Fort Worth, Texas. J. F. Crawford left Saturday evening for Topeka to spend a few days on business. Mrs. P. ...

 Weathering the Storms Calling all Genea-Musings Fans! It’s Saturday Night again — time for some more Genealogy Fun! Here is your assignment if you choose to play along (cue the Mission Impossible music, please!): 1. Did extreme weather or a natural disaster ever affect you or your ancestor(s)? In what way(s)? How did you find this out? Describe one or more extreme weather experiences in your own life or in the lives of your ancestors. I’m sure extreme weather affected not only my life but also the lives of many of my ancestors. After all, my father’s family lived through the Dust Bowl years in western Kansas, and I remember my grandmother sharing stories about those difficult times. However, for this week’s Saturday Night Genealogy Fun, I’m going to concentrate on some more recent weather events — events that affected my parents and eventually became part of my own memories. A Wedding Surrounded by Water Growing up, I often heard my mother tell stories about her wedding day and ho...

Telling a Railroad Story Through Song One of the most rewarding parts of genealogy is finding new ways to share our ancestors' stories. Census records, city directories, and newspaper articles tell us the facts of their lives, but music has a unique ability to capture the emotions behind those facts. Recently, I wrote a biography and a "Day in the Life" narrative about my great-grandfather, Judson Foster Crawford , who spent decades working for the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway in Dodge City, Kansas. As I researched his career, I found myself imagining the dedication, hard work, and perseverance required of a railroad switchman during the early twentieth century. That inspired me to try something different. Using ChatGPT, I created original lyrics celebrating Judson's life and long railroad career. I then used Suno to transform those lyrics into a folk-inspired song titled "The Strength of Judson Crawford." To accompany the mus...

My recent 'adventure' in Dodge City newspapers on Newspapers.com allowed me to discover information about another Crawford family. There are two distinct Crawford lines in Dodge City prior to 1890. My line descends from Washington Marion Crawford who followed his brother, James H. Crawford to Dodge City from Indiana around 1884. The other line, Harvey H. Crawford, descends from James Crawford (1770-1836) of Warren County, Indiana thru his son, William Alan Crawford. Harvey H. Crawford settled in Wheatland Township northeast of Dodge City about the same time that James H. Crawford settled just south of Dodge City. According to newspaper articles, Harvey H. Crawford moved to Oklahoma for a time before settling in Dodge City before 1900. In May 1889, H. H. Crawford journeyed to Oklahoma pursuing work as a carpenter. Steve Leavergood and H. H. Crawford started for Oklahoma on last Sunday morning. Mr. Crawford expects to get some work at his trade, carpentering. Mr. Leavergo...

I recently have been spending a lot of time with Ancestry's newly released database: Newspapers.com Obituary Index, 1800s - present . In the process, I discovered that a lot of the early newspapers from Dodge City, Kansas are now on Newspapers.com. Thus, I did a search for CRAWFORD between 1885 and 1890. Many of the results allowed me to get a digital copy of articles I had seen when I read the microfilm. One of those articles described the building of a boarding house by my 2nd great grandfather, Washington Marion Crawford. Marion Crawford has commenced the foundation for a boarding house, north of his present location, on 2d Avenue. The main building will be 16 x 26 feet, 18 feet high, with a wing 16 x 18 feet. The dining room and kitchen will be in the basement. A. O. Sherman hs the contract to do the work. Dodge City Times (Dodge City, Kansas) , 30 July 1885, page 4; Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : viewed online November 2019).

I like Ancestry's new ThruLines feature! Unfortunately, it is pointing out one of my frustrations with my DNA results. I have several verified second and third cousin DNA matches on my Crawford line but we never got a DNA circle for my 3rd great grandfather, Nelson G. Crawford. When Ancestry released ThruLines, I was hoping to locate some fourth cousins thru one of Nelson's other children. However, the ThruLines for Nelson G Crawford only includes DNA matches going thru my 2nd great grandfather, Washington Marion Crawford. It does not include any lines going thru the siblings of Washington Marion Crawford.

I recently watched a video that included a Golden Retriever puppy going down a slide. This brought back memories of our family dog, Peppy. Peppy joined the family while we were living on P street in Lincoln, Nebraska. When Peppy was a puppy, we would take him to Woods Park for him to go down a short children's slide. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of Peppy going down the slide.

Judson Foster Crawford was born in April 1866 in Warren County, Indiana. He was the second child born to Washington Marion and Mary (Foster) Crawford. Judson's father had only been home from the war for a year when Judson was born. At the age of 14, Judson was living with his parents in Warren County, Indiana. Family tradition says that as a young adult, Judson was a cook's helper on a cattle drive worked on a ranch worked in a grocery store Even though these stories are hard to prove, they could all be true. Judson's uncle, James H. Crawford migrated from Indiana to the Dodge City area where he owned both a ranch and a grocery store. Thus, Judson could have worked for his uncle on the ranch or in town at the store. The 1885 Kansas census indicates that Judson did work in a store since his occupation is listed as clerk.

Leon Russell Crawford was born in Newton Kansas on the 6 th of Feb 1894. According to Leon’s wife, Winnie Crawford, the family lived in Oklahoma when Leon and his sister Bernice were young. Winnie stated: Judson Crawford worked on a ranch in Oklahoma because Josie’s sister and husband were there. The family all almost died. Judson was extremely ill. The children, Bernice (over 2) and Leon (1) almost died because of poor diet. Documentation for this story has not been found. However, Josie’s sister and husband did live in Oklahoma. The family was living in Dodge City by his 6 th birthday. As a child, Leon attended the Third Ward School that was located on Boot Hill.