Heartland Genealogy

Following the Crawfords from Kentucky to Ohio One of my longstanding genealogy questions concerns my ancestor James Crawford , born 17 April 1772 in Virginia. He married the widow Sarah "Sally" Smith Duggins in Garrard County, Kentucky, in 1799 and later settled in Preble County, Ohio. Who were his parents? I still don't know. However, marriage records, land records, tax lists, migration patterns, associates, and Y-DNA are beginning to reveal a network of Crawford and Sellers families that may eventually help answer that question. Instead of looking at my James Crawford in isolation, I'm now asking a broader question: How was my James Crawford related to the other Crawford families living in the same part of Kentucky? The Crawford-Sellers Connection One of the first clues comes from marriage records. In 1791, James Sellers married Mary Crawford in Lincoln County, Kentucky. Rebekah Crawford gave permission for Mary to marry. Five years later, in 1796, William Sellers...

Last week, I watched the " Watch Geoff Live: DNA " webinar on Legacy Family TreeWebinars. While watching, I followed along by looking at my autosomal DNA results on Ancestry. I had my DNA tested last summer and had studied some of the results but hadn't found the help with 'brick walls' that I had hoped for. One of the brick walls I've been working on is my James Crawford line. My James Crawford died in Preble County Ohio in 1854. He married Sally Duggins in Garrard County Kentucky in 1799. Sally had previously been married to Alexander Duggins by whom she had two sons: William and Henry. Henry Duggins was married to Jane Sellers, daughter of Nathan Sellers. Nathan A. Sellers was a neighbor of my James Crawford and died in Preble County Ohio in 1824. In early Preble County Ohio, there was a second James Crawford who owned land adjoining my James Crawford. This James Crawford married Martha Knight in 1793 in Lincoln County Kentucky. It is believed that two of...