I'm back . . . another Crawford/Strahan matter:
my surname immigrant to USA is found in 1820 Fed Census and 1825 Illinois census with a William B. Crawford living next door born ca 1772 Scotland. His son Blair Strahan is still living next door to a William B. Crawford, the grandson, in 1870. This is in Randolph Co., Illinois, and a family file for this Crawford family is to be found at familysearch.com.
Now my immigrant and his siblings and possibly his parents immigranted from Co. Antrim and we have reason to believe that his father was a cousin to Sam of Rathkenny married to (thought to be) Jean Martin. AND all kinds of people from Co. Antrim reunited with folks from Co Antrim in that community in Illinois—and they came to Illinois via Virginia, Tennessee, South Carolina, Pennsylvania...
Now we have this Crawford family stuck side by side with us for the good part of a century—and it is supposed to be from Dreghorn and Irvine in Ayrshire. The first William B.'s father is supposed to have been William Crawford b. 1772 married Helen Beveradge [sic] m. 21 May 1796 in Dreghorn and buried in the Old Cemetery Irvine. She is buried in the Caledonia Cemetery, Sparta, Illinois They had fourteen children, the oldest of which is a Andrew b. 1797 then a David b. 1799. . . Most of them died in Scotland. The third son John died in Havana. The younger children died in the USA in Illinois or Kansas and include a Bryce Crawford.
Now I know from Bryson research that some Brysons who came to this country from Co. Antrim and Co. Down had actually been born in Scotland around the same time.
So my question is do you know if any of your Crawfords had family members in Dreghorn or Irvine, Ayershire? Do you have an idea of when your Crawfords came to Co. Antrim?
I'm inclinded to think that these families in Randolph County had known each other in either Ireland or Scotland.