Fourth Child

Have you come across a court or land record that mentions a child not mentioned in any other records? That’s my situation as I’m researching the family of Jones A. Crawford, grandson of Alexander Crawford and Margaret McElwee.

The FamilySearch tree identifies three children of Jones Crawford and his first wife Mary Fish.

• John Crawford (1854-?)
• Jones A. Crawford (1856-1925)
• Mary Mollie Crawford (1861-1901)

The 1860 census has a Johnes Crawford, age 26, living in Lincoln County, Kentucky. Also in the household is a 25 year old Mary F Crawford. The household contains 2 children:

• John Crawford, age 6
• Mary Crawford, age 2

There is a four year old ‘James Crawford’ living in the household of John Fish and his wife Mary Fish in Lincoln County, Kentucky.

The 1870 census has a Jones Crawford, age 26, with a wife named Amanda living in Laclede county, Missouri. This census record has a John Crawford, aged 15 and two younger children who are likely Amanda’s children: Josiah,a ge 2 and Emma, age 4/12.

As in 1860, the 1870 Mary Fish household contains a 14 year old James Crawford and an 11 year Mary Crawford.

While the children are split up and not living with their parents, I believe that John, Jones and Mary are children of Jones and Mary (Fish) Crawford.

However, a deed for the partition of Mary Fish’s dower identifies heirs of her husband, John Fish. That list of heirs identifies FOUR Crawford children.

• John Crawford
• Mary Crawford
• Jones Crawford
• Alex Crawford

So, if Alex Crawford is alive in 1869 when the deed was written, where is he? A search of the 1870 census finds a nine year old Alex Crawford living in the household of Josiah Joplin.

While I don’t know who all of these people are in this household, the name Rebecca Adams caught my attention. If this Alex Crawford is the son of Jones and Mary (Fish) Crawford, then his grandmother was Rebecca, wife of William “Devil Bill” Adams. According to her Find a Grave record, Rebecca Adams was born in 1785 in Kentucky.

Since Rebecca Adams’ husband died in 1844, she would have been a widow in 1870. Thus, she could be the Rebecca Adams in the census records with her grandson Alex Crawford.

Since this family structure is unfamiliar to me, I turned to Facebook to see if I could connect with a local researcher and/or family member. And I hit paydirt!

So, this census record likely shows

• Alex Crawford – children and heir at law of Mary (Fish) Crawford
• Elizabeth Adams – wife of John A. Crawford (son of Alexander Crawford and Margaret McElwee) and second wife of Josiah Joplin making her the grandmother of Alex Crawford
• Rebecca Adams – widow of William “Devil Bill” Adams – making her the great grandmother of Alex Crawford

I would like to THANK the Rockcastle County KY History and Genealogy group on Facebook for the help with this mystery!