My FamilyTreeDNA Project Website Title

Project Background

More than 80 percent of the Crago’s and Craigo’s in America have had a difficult time finding their immigrant namesake ancestors. DNA testing has already proven itself to be a valuable aid in doing Crago genealogy research.

It's helping us to identify the various distinct Crago and Craigo lines in this country, and has enabled us to focus on specific localities where conventional records-based research should prove helpful. Right now, that seems to be in Northern Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and western North Carolina from 1671 to about 1770.

Our earliest apparent reference to a Crago in North America is in 1671, but our first credible Crago family record (i.e., where a parent and child, or even a husband and wife, have been proven) dates from much later, not starting until 1770, when we learn of Thomas Crago and his two sons in SW Pennsylvania, in the present-day Greene Co., PA area. Every credible reference prior to this date found so far is to a single Crago individual.

Different Family Lines

But first, let me share some of the Crago, Craigo and Craig family information we've collected from all sources. I currently have information on about 3,239 individually-identifiable persons who were raised as Crago or Craigo children (including a few who changed their name to Craig), and are reported to have lived in the USA at some time in their lives. This is certainly not every Crago and Craigo, since there are many living persons who are not easy to place in an appropriate family tree with available online Internet records. Their data is often protected. But, I believe this database is reasonably complete for any Crago/Craigo born before 1900.

In this group of 3,239 people, there are eight distinct family lines that trace their roots to a Crago or Craigo male born before 1798, and whose name-sake ancestor appears to have immigrated to America before 1751. Collectively, those eight family lines include about 81% of the known American Crago's and Craigo's in my data file.

I should acknowledge, up front, that these eight lines may, in fact, represent just one or two different immigrant lines. But, that is jumping ahead. Please read what we do know, here in this section, and in the following Results section.

No other Crago/Craigo family lines, apart from these eight, appear to have immigrated to America until after 1830. Except as noted in the material which follows, every individual identified as a Crago or Craigo born before 1798 has been placed into one of these eight family lines. The eight family lines are:

1) Thomas (or Archibald?) Crago, b. abt 1734, of Greene Co., PA, with 1,216 Crago/Craigo-surnamed descendants,
2) Thomas Crago b. abt 1763, of Ross/Jackson/Vinton Co., OH, with 813 Crago-surnamed descendants,
3) Thomas Crago b. 1811 of Wood Co., OH with 93 Crago-surnamed descendants,
4) Robert Craigo b. abt 1757 of Preble Co., OH, with 137 Craigo or Craig-surnamed descendants,
5) Nathan Crago b. 1783 of Fayette Co., IN, with 259 Crago-surnamed descendants,
6) Eli Craigo b. abt 1807 of Edgar Co., IL with 72 Craig and Craigo-surnamed descendants,
7) John Crago b. abt 1765 of Lincoln Co., NC and Callaway Co., MO, with 141 Crago or Craigo-surnamed descendants, and
8) Thomas Craigo b. abt 1789 of Lincoln Co., NC and Gilmer Co., GA, with 76 Craigo-surnamed descendants.

As a side note, a few significant, but more recent, Crago/Craigo family lines in my database (representing some of the immigrants since 1831) are the following:

9) Thomas Crago b. 1798 of Wayne Co., PA, (immigrating about 1831), with 38 Crago-surnamed descendants,
10) John Crago b. about 1809-10 of Lamar Co., TX (immigrating about 1881) with 25 Crago-surnamed descendants,
11) Godfrey Crago b. 1821 of WI (his family immigrating about 1882) with 25 Crago-surnamed descendants,
12) Francis Crago b. 1828 of Houtzville, PA (immigrating about 1882) with 135 Crago-surnamed descendants,
13) John Henry Crago b. 1831 of SD and WY, (whose five sons immigrated from 1871 to 1903), with 92 Crago-surnamed descendants,
14) William J Crago b. 1852 of NE and FL (immigrating about 1881) with 23 Crago-surnamed descendants, and
15) Alfred Crago b. 1880 of OR and CA (immigrating about 1916) with 24 Crago-surnamed descendants.

There are, of course, other Crago/Craigo immigrants that I have not included in this write-up. But, these 15 family lines just listed make up about 92 percent of all identified Crago’s and Craigo’s now known in America.

Family Lines and DNA Testing

Since 2000, a DNA research project, hosted by FTDNA, has been ongoing to identify the various Crago and Craigo branches in the world. To date we have tested 16 different Crago and Craigo volunteers. Eight of these DNA volunteers have near-identical DNA patterns -- and they all trace their roots to 1) Thomas Crago, 2) Thomas Crago and 3) Thomas Crago listed above. DNA establishes that all of these lines share a recent common ancestor. We refer to this as the "Thomas Crago DNA Profile". At this point, we cannot be sure exactly how the three lines are related, but it's certain they all share a recent common ancestor (RCA).

Having said that, I hope the reader will allow me to speculate a bit. The 3) Thomas Crago of Wood Co., OH could plausibly be related to either of the first two Thomas Crago lines, number 1 or number 2. More specifically, 1) Thomas Crago of Greene Co., PA is believed to be the father of a James Crago, who is shown married, with an unnamed son, in the 1790 Census. This unnamed son I have arbitrarily named John Crago for lack of a better identifier. I believe this “John Crago” may have been the father of 3) Thomas Crago, who was born in Ohio in 1811. No census records exist for most of Ohio prior to 1820, and it has been difficult to verify all Crago’s in Ohio before that time. And, James Crago doesn’t show up anywhere else in 1800 and 1810.

But, we also have old family letters (the Nathanial Winks letters) which indicate that 2) Thomas Crago had four sons. We know what happened to three of them, but the fourth, another Thomas Crago, whom I will refer to as the "missing" Thomas Crago, appears to have died before 1820. He could have been old enough, however, to be the father of 3) Thomas (Wood Co.) Crago.

While it can be argued that 3) Thomas Crago of Wood Co. might be a grandson of 2) Thomas Crago of Ross Co., OH (and some researchers have argued that link), recent DNA testing seems to show that the descendants of 2) Thomas Crago of Ross Co., OH may all have a value of 8 on marker 450 -- which has not been found in the other "Thomas Crago DNA Profile" volunteers. It may serve as a "signature" for those descendants. Lacking this specific marker, the Wood Co. Thomas Crago would not seem to be a descendant of the Ross Co. Thomas Crago.

It is important to note that these three proven genetically-linked family lines, ALONE, account for about 62 percent of the Crago’s and Craigo's in America. As more of the Crago and Craigo family lines are tested, it seems reasonable to assume that this percentage may actually increase.

Some researchers have claimed that 5) Nathan Crago is a son of 4) Robert Crago, and most researchers believe Robert is another son of 1) Thomas (or Archibald?) Crago b. 1734. Unfortunately, DNA studies to date do not yet support these connections. In fact, two distantly related descendants of Nathan have been tested, and we can now conclude that Nathan and his descendants clearly do not match the base "Thomas Crago DNA profile" mentioned above. To date, no descendants of the conventionally paper-proven sons of 4) Robert (i.e., Isaac, Robert Jr., Jacob, and Lewis) have yet been DNA tested. And, we have no paper proof that Nathan Crago is a son of Robert Craigo. It appears that Nathan may have actually been a son of Daniel Craigo of Washington Co., PA. More DNA testing of 4) Robert Craigo’s descendants will be needed in order to complete the family tree for 4) Robert Craigo.

A descendant of 6) Eli Craigo (b. abt 1807) of Edgar Co., IL, (another widely assumed son of 4) Robert Craigo), also has a DNA profile which does not match our "Thomas Crago DNA Profile" -- or that of Eli's supposed brother 5) Nathan! This, too, is a puzzling result. There is some evidence, however, to support the idea that Eli may have been born to Robert Craigo's third wife, Elizabeth Hood, before her marriage to Robert.

Finally, there are some researchers who believe that 8) Thomas Craigo of NC/GA may be a son of 7) John Crago of NC/MO, whom still others believe may be a son of 1) Thomas Crago of Greene Co., PA. However, only one well-documented Craigo male, a descendant of 8) Thomas Craigo, has been DNA tested -- and that result would tend to refute at least one of these hypothesized links. The other NC/SC/MO Craigo’s tested so far have rather apparent non-paternal events (i.e., an adoption, infidelity, and out-of-wedlock motherhood) in their family lines which we believe clearly account for their divergent DNA profiles.

Clues to Early American Crago’s

We know from ship passenger records that two Thomas Crago's apparently arrived in North America from England, one in June of 1749 and one in 1750. Theoretically, one could be the Greene Co., PA, Thomas Crago, and the other could be the Jackson Co., OH, Thomas Crago. The reader might be inclined to jump to the conclusion that every Crago in these first eight family lines could be traced back to these two early immigrants. But, while that may ultimately turn out to be the case, it remains to be proven.

What would argue against the conclusion that there were only two early Crago immigrants to North America, both arriving in 1749-1750? There are, in fact, several bits of information that argue against the simple conclusion. Some of those facts are as follows:

1. From A book of Land Patent Records of Eastern VA, we find a Terlock Crago or Crage (sp?) arrived in VA Colony 1671. Inspection of the original document leaves some doubt that this was actually a Crago, but it remains a possible Crago reference as early as 1671.

2. We also know from VA land patent records that a James Cragoe or Cragan (spelling is again in doubt, based on an examination of the original hand-written document) arrived in Virginia about 1674. Both of these early immigrants, Terlock and James, may have died, -- like so many other early indentured servants who came to Virginia. Up to 90 percent are reported to have perished before establishing families of their own. But, we don't actually know what happened to them. Either of them may have left descendants somewhere in the Virginia Colony area, but no records of Crago marriages or families have been found in this time period. A preliminary search of many old records at the Library of Virginia in April of 2008, did not turn up any Crago's or Craigo's or Cragoe's or Cragow's in VA during the following 100 years, from 1671 to 1770.

My thoughts are that we have identified two possible (but not proven) Crago males who immigrated to the Virginia colony in the 1671-1674 timeframe. But, neither appears to have established a family in Virginia. We don't know how long they lived there, if they stayed, if they ever married, or if they produced any offspring. And, we don’t know for sure they were actually a Crago or Craigo.

3. In 1683, in Portsmouth, Rhode Island Colony, a John Crago (the original document has not been seen, so spelling needs to be checked further) is reported to have committed suicide by hanging himself in a tree. We have no other information about this person, or where he came from. So far, we have found no other Crago references anywhere in Rhode Island prior to 1900.

4. The genealogy of “Sir James Crago,” prepared by the International Genealogical Society (IGS) of London in 1918 (a questionable society no longer in existance) places a Sir James Crago family immigrating to King & Queen County, Virginia in September of 1718. It goes on to place his son, Col. John Crago, in the southwestern corner of Pennsylvania (present-day Greene County), as early as 1767. This John Crago is reported to have had 4 sons, with three named at the time of his death in 1797. None of the identified sons was named Thomas. One was named Daniel. It is possible, but unproven, that Thomas Crago of Greene Co., PA could be the unidentified fourth son who, since he was killed in 1770, would not have been living in 1797 at the time of Col. Crago’s death.

But, since this John was not reported to have been married until 25 Dec 1742, it seems quite unlikely that 1) Thomas (or Archibald?) Crago, Sr. (I believe he was born about 1734 - ed.) was his son. We know from other sources that this Thomas Sr. was killed by Indians in 1770, when he had a son reported to have been 11 years old. This sequence pushes the limits of plausibility (i.e., Thomas, Sr would have likely been born about 1743, the year after John married, and a son, believed to be Thomas, Jr, was born in 1759 when Thomas, Sr would have been just 16, implying marriage at the age of 15 (unlikely ??). Of course, the marriage in 1742 may have been a second wife for John Crago -- but that is pure speculation.

It should be noted that this genealogy of Sir James Crago was prepared by the IGS in London in 1918, a period in US history when fanciful genealogies were reportedly quite common. And, IGS apparently no longer exists. Much of this particular IGS report has also failed more recent substantiation efforts by professional researchers in England and in Virginia. If some parts are true, however, the report could point to several possible Crago immigrants in 1718. To date, researchers have failed to verify independently ANY of the many Crago “Facts” contained in this report.

5. The Horn Papers (another questionable source) report that a John Crago was born in 1732 in Berkeley Co., VA to Thomas Crago and Margaret Seaton. It is not stated where this Thomas Crago came from. A brother to this John is reported to have been James Crago. Louis Cragow (immigrating in 1746, according to the Horn Papers) was possibly a half-brother. Other Crago’s are reported in the Horn Papers to be tied to the Conococheague Valley (in MD, and present-day Franklin County, PA), where the Greene Co., PA Thomas Crago seems to have originated prior to traveling to present-day Greene County, Pennsylvania. On the face of it, this would seem to be a promising link.

Unfortunately, the names and dates (implied or actual) in the Horn Papers don't match up with anything we know about either the Greene Co., PA Thomas Crago line, or the Jackson Co., PA Thomas Crago line.

To date, the only possible independent Crago link to the Horn Papers may be the 4 Nov 1777 marriage record of a William Crago and Mary Parker in the records of St. Paul's Protestant Episcopal Church, Philadelphia Co., PA. The Horn Papers report that Louis Cragow (the supposed 1746 immigrant) had a son by the name of William born apparently in the 1750’s. We find no evidence that this marriage produced any children. This is hardly conclusive evidence.

We have also found a William Cragio in the 1790 Census of Rowan Co., NC. Then, after finding nothing in the 1800 or 1810 census records about a William Crago (or variant spellings), a Wm Craigo shows up in Savannah, Chatham Co., GA in 1820. Finally, after finding nothing in the 1830 census records, a William Crago shows up in Cumberland Twp., Greene Co., PA in the 1840 Census.

Unanswered is whether any of these four references relate to the same person, -- and if the name has been spelled correctly – Cragow, Cragio, Craigo, Crago, or Craig (which might also explain the missing 1800, 1810 and 1830 references). There are a great many Craig’s in America, and (unlike Crago, Craigo, Cragow, Cragoe, and Cragio), no systematic attempt to trace all Craig’s in America has ever been attempted to my knowledge.

The reader should be warned that the Horn Papers have been determined by respected independent historical researchers to be largely fabricated -- and fictional. One must decide if any facts may be true or whether the entire document is a work of fiction. Look on the Internet for more commentary about the ”Horn Papers.” One site is

http://www.umass.edu/wsp/methodology/errors/horn.html

Based upon the fact that I don’t think we should trust the Horn Papers, the fact that four widely dispersed references (albeit each with merit) show no continuity in terms of location or spelling of the surname, and the fact that we find no subsequent evidence of any Crago-surnamed descendants which might tie into this William Crago line, I’m inclined to believe these may have been simply four references to four different individuals. I tend to believe these are most likely references to Craig’s which have been transcribed and/or indexed incorrectly. But, others may disagree.

6. A handwritten scrap of paper found in the family Bible of a descendant of Eli Craigo (b. 1807) says that a Thomas Bennett Crago immigrated to Virginia Colony in 1742. No source, credible or otherwise, is given for this information, however, and we have not found one.

7. Steade Craigo has a copy of a hand-written original tenant list which shows that a John Craigo is listed in 1767 as a tenant on the manor of Lord Baltimore in Washington Co., MD, (across the river from Berkeley Co., VA). This would imply a birth date for John Craigo before 1746. This document appears to be a good reference. But, where would he have come from? We have no record of a John Craigo immigrating during this time period, (except possibly the John Crago mentioned in the IGS genealogy). And, did he leave any descendants? We cannot be sure at this point.

Steade Craigo further reports that a John Craigo is also listed as a chain-bearer for surveyor John Queen, Sr. in 1786 in present-day Cleveland Co., NC. The Col. John Crago of the IGS Genealogy is reported to have been a surveyor in that document. I can’t help but wonder if it is a coincidence that a number of the early 19th century Crago settlers in the Ross Co., OH area are buried in a cemetery known by some as the Hiram Queen or Lane-Queen Cemetery. But we have no known link between NC and OH Crago’s in this time period.

8. We know that a Sarah Crago (or Crage?) is reported to have married Henry Fordyce in 1772 in Essex Co., New Jersey. It is not likely that she produced any children with a Crago surname, and she would therefore not be relevant to tracing those persons with a Crago surname, but “Who were her parents?” and “Where did she come from?” This marriage reference and the date, which implies she would have been born about 1746-1752, point to the possible existence of a Crago or Crage household in or near Essex Co., NJ that we have not yet properly identified, or adequately researched.

9. A Francis Crago is reported to have immigrated to America in 1776. We find no evidence, however, that he stayed here, or survived, until the first U.S. census in 1790.

10. A Moses Crago is reported by Leckey (in his book The Ten-Mile Country) to have been in Washington Co., PA about 1784, where his name (as transcribed), appears in the Tax rolls. We don't know where he may have come from, whether he had any children, and where he may have gone. A Moses Craig/Craige shows up in NC in later years, but we have no proof that this is the same Moses Crago of Washington Co., PA. I believe that only DNA testing of this NC man’s descendants (if any exist) could resolve this point.

11. A Daniel Craigo, aged 45+ (and therefore born prior to 1765), appears in the 1810 Census of East Bethlehem Twp., Washington Co., PA, with a wife and several unnamed children listed. We don't know who this may be, where he came from, and where he and his family may have gone in later years. Washington Co., of course, was the predecessor of Greene Co., and the family may be related to the Greene Co. Thomas Crago b. 1732 line. And, the surname may have simply been transcribed incorrectly. A Daniel Kerrigo shows up in 1800, for instance. But, which name is correct? Most census names at this time seem to have been spelled phonetically.

It's worth observing that 4) Nathan Crago named one of his sons Daniel, and that seven other known descendants of Nathan were named Daniel. It seems quite possible that Nathan Crago may tie into this reference to this early Daniel Craigo family.

All of these bits of information -- some obviously more suspect than others -- point to at least the possibility that there may have been one or more Crago immigrants to North America in addition to the two Thomas Crago's reported in 1749 and 1750.

Conclusion

Clearly, there is more work to do. But, DNA results are helping us to paste some of the pieces together, and they promise to do more of that in the future. On its face, all these bits of information begin to build a case for the conclusion, also postulated by the unreliable Sir James Crago Genealogy (from the International Genealogical Society) and the equally questionable Horn Papers, that there were one or more Crago households in VA, MD, NJ or PA between 1671 and 1756.

1756 is the year when we have the first "hard" record of a Crago in America. We have Tax records from present-day Peters Twp, Franklin Co, PA and the NY militia service of Thomas Crago. This information seems to tie well with what we know about the 1) Thomas (Archibald?) Crago of Greene Co., PA.

All of this information, however, points to a need for more research into the Colonial records of Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, New York and New Jersey during the 85 year period from 1671 until 1756. This represents about a three-generation gap in our available Crago records.

If any reader has Crago/Craigo information not referenced here that dates to, or implies, an event prior to 1798, we'd be very happy to add it to this report. Please feel free to contact us if you have information to add.

Tom Crago, Ph.D.
TomJanetTravelin@aol.com
18 November 2009