Heartland Genealogy

Following Samuel M. Crawford’s Ford County Homestead Sometimes a Friday Find isn't a newly discovered record. Sometimes one record leads to another—and then another—until a much fuller picture begins to emerge. That is what happened as I continued investigating Samuel M. Crawford , a man who lived in the Dodge City area and who may—or may not—connect to my Crawford family. My earlier research into Samuel centered largely on newspaper articles. Those records told me about the death of his daughter Nellie in 1901, Samuel's work as a railroad engineer, and his own tragic death in Torreon, Mexico, in 1902. More recently, a cemetery record led me to theorize about Samuel's family. Now land records are adding another layer to his story. A Ford County Homestead The Bureau of Land Management records contain a federal land patent issued to Samuel M. Crawford on June 10, 1891. The patent describes his property as: Lots 1 and 2 and the East half of the Northwest quarter of Section 18...

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.