This family has now been found. The story will unfold here.
This first part of the story is all I knew and the additional material will be
added in the updated part.
Robert Crawford, born on 2nd January 1873 at Langrigg, New Monkland
and died on the 16th July
1875, also at Langrigg.
Jeanie Crawford
was born on the 27th April 1875 at Roughrigg, New Monkland.
Helen Crawford
was born on the 21st April 1877 at Slamannan, Stirlingshire.
William Crawford
was born on the 6th December 1879 at Glengowan, New Monkland.
I have searched for deaths
for all of these people but cannot find any in Scotland. I searched using
Mary's own name and married name but still the search proved fruitless.
It is my belief that they left Scotland. It could be that they went on to
spell their name in another form.
And now the story unfolds!
I did have my suspicions that
William and his family might have gone to America after I found out that
their nephew, William McCracken, had gone there. I could not find a
single death in Scotland for any of them so I knew they were no longer here.
After meeting Joe Ritson and hearing from him that his grandfather had a
cousin in USA, called John Crawford, I concluded that the ONLY way this
could be a cousin was if William & Mary were also in USA.
I have had messages on various
sites for many years. the only way this would ever be solved was if somebody
else was looking and found these messages or this web site. One Sunday early
2007, I was feeling very miserable and I was trying to shake myself out of
it. I wondered if I'd cheer up if somebody from this particular family line
got in touch. On the Tuesday, just 2 days later, I had an e-mail from Carole
Rummell stating that she was from this family. Well if that was a prayer, it
was certainly answered!
I did want to make sure we were
both related as I didn't want either of us to end up with all the wrong
rellies! When she told me her mother was Ellen Yuill Crawford, that was all
the proof I needed. Of course other details have followed and we are both
still trying to solve little bits of the story. These will be added as they
unfold.
Carole sent me a picture of William
Crawford. She has the original drawing which is
broken with age but she has
had it made into a 'restored' picture.
Carole's Aunt Lois told me that
William and his family originally arrived in Mineral Ridge, Ohio. This would
have been after 30th March 1881 as they were on the Scottish
Census then. They had some children born soon after that in Pennsylvania and
I told Lois that if they had come to Mineral Ridge that they could not have
been there very long. She said that they did indeed NOT stay there long.
That seem to confirm that they were at Mineral Ridge at the beginning. By 1888 the coal
mining had ceased in Mineral Ridge so they would have had to move on.
Click
here for Mineral Ridge, Ohio web site.
From the marriage records for the
daughter Helen, it states that William was at a place called Eleanor or
Elinora, Jefferson County, PA.
Thanks to Joe I have now been able
to locate Eleanora Road just outside of Henderson, PA. He told me it was in
McCalmont Township. This one must be the place as we know they were at
Henderson. It comes up on a search on Google Maps but not Windows Live
Local.
From further digging in records, I
have found a couple of War Registration documents which gives the place of
birth of two sons as Falls Creek, Jefferson County, Pennsylvania. This is
not very far from Du Bois, Clearfield. Perhaps William McCracken moved there
with them, met and married Mary Vasbinder and moved on to settle in Du Bois
where he remained.
I have not been able to find
William and Mary and their kids on the 1900 census but I have now been
informed that if the page is too faint, that it might not be added to the
Ancestry site. Of course the 1890 census was destroyed by fire so that ends
that part....but not quite...I'll get there!
I managed to find the various
children by using the censuses and skinning cats every way possible! Here
are the children born in USA:-
John Brown Crawford was
born 22nd April 1884, Falls Creek, Jefferson, Pennsylvania.
James B Crawford, born
about 1887 Falls Creek, Jefferson, Pennsylvania.
Margaret Crawford, about
1892, Pennsylvania.
On the 1910 census it was stated
that William and Mary had 8 children, 6 of whom were still alive. I know
that the first child was Robert and he died in Scotland. I do not know who
the remaining child is, where it was born or died. It could have been
in Scotland or USA. I will probably only ever know if somebody finds this
page.
It looks as if the family had been
living at Henderson, Jefferson, PA for some time as both Jeanie and Helen
are there, but in 1910 William and Mary and all of the children except the
son William, were at Brady's Bend, Armstrong County, PA.
William is a pumper in a coal mine
at Brady's Bend in 1910. His wife died at there on the 7th May 1911.
Aunt Lois told me that William went off on his own to die as he didn't want
to be miserable around his family. Carole searched the records for his death
certificate and it would appear that he died in Henderson, Jefferson, it was
really difficult to read. He had obviously had people there whom he knew, but his
family had left. He died of stomach cancer. and we now wonder if this has
anything to do with him possibly working at St Rollox.
I am waiting on some other
information which has been gathered for me. William naturalised in 1890 in
Jefferson County. This is where the need for the 1890 census came in, but
that is not now a necessity as we know where he was at that time. This probably also
covered all of his children born in Scotland as well. Carole said that her
grandfather naturalised with his father so that sort of tidies that up.
From this we do get a good idea of
how the family moved about and from the children and their children we can
find out more.
