I’ve gotten so that I don’t regularly check the ‘We-re Related‘ app since it usually points to the same few New England lines in my tree. I’m currently, not working on those lines and thus haven’t spent any time to determine whether the hints provided will help.
So when I opened the app yesterday and saw that I may be related to Alec Baldwin, I thought OK, which New England line will it be this time. To may amazement, it was my CRAWFORD line. Having been able to locate sources to prove the next generation on a couple of other We’re Related hints, I was SO HOPING the same would be true with my CRAWFORD line. Below is the proposed line(s).
The image on the right is for my line and the image on the left is for Alec Baldwin’s line.
When I first looked at it, I only looked at my side and was disappointed.
- unnamed Crawford as the father of my James
- more James and John’s to sort out
Then, I looked at his line and started comparing the two. That’s when I realized that it was proposing that Janett Thomson had TWO sons named John Crawford — born three years apart. This wasn’t unusual if the first son died. But no, they both live long enough to get married and have offspring.
Since the app doesn’t provide any other information about the line — such as places or spouses names, it is hard to determine if anyone else has a tree that agrees with what the app is proposing. Since Ancestry trees weren’t much help, I turned to Family Search.
On Family Search, I found an Archibald Crawford (KLBT-3N1) that matched the Archibald Crawford in Alec Baldwin’s line. According to Family Search, this Archibald Crawford was the son of John Crawford (LC55-44P) and grandson of Janett Thomson and Robert Crawford (L5B1-L8Y). That’s where it gets messy! The family of Robert and Janett shows 10 children with 3 of them being named John, 2 named William and 2 named Robert. (See any issues here?)
So what about my side? Family Search shows a son of Robert & Janett named John who died in 1736. However, FS shows this John Crawford (LHZG-Y9W) being born in 1701. Based on the number of wives associated with John Crawford (LHZG-Y9W), it is likely that more than one John Crawford is involved. Thus, not much help. (:
Going back to Robert Crawford (L5B1-L8Y), FS also shows him married to Mary Shaw (L5B1-P2Z). According to FS, this couple had 4 children: James, Robert, Col. William and Col. John (L8WG-7DQ). Although I haven’t found the documentation to support it, other researchers have connected several Crawford families from Lincoln and Madison Counties, Kentucky prior to 1790 to Col. John Crawford (L8WG-7DQ) and believe he is the son of Robert and Mary (Shaw) Crawford.
At this point, I have not found anything to support or disprove the Crawford ancestors proposed by the We’re Related app. For now, my line is a dead-end with James Crawford in the 1790s in Kentucky.