Project Goals
To assist Crago, Craigo, Crego, and variant surname researchers find previously unknown closely related persons and to open new avenues of family research for all who participate.
Be sure to see the Project Background and Project Results sections for more on this topic.
The big picture is that several of us who are researching the early Crago's in America suspect that there were four brothers -- Robert, Thomas, James and John -- who were all sons of a Thomas Crago, Sr. who was killed by Indians in 1770 in present-day Greene Co., PA. Some of us have been trying to research these lines for as long as 40 - 50 years. However, these four men were all apparently born between 1757 and 1765, before the first US Census and the Revolutionary War -- and finding good documentation of their relationship to each other has been difficult.
We know that John Crago was in NC as a young man, but later moved to Missouri. We have at least one record which says he was born in PA, as (apparently) were Robert, Thomas and James. We believe all four were originally located (and born) in the Conococheague Valley of PA and MD, in or near present-day Peters Twp., Franklin Co., PA.
The newest tool we have been bringing to this research effort is to do DNA testing of Male Crago/Craigo descendants of these four men. We have already tested about fifteen volunteers. What we are finding is that there is a common Crago DNA profile which seems to define the majority of these descendants.
You see, a man can only receive his Y chromosome from his biological father. Therefore, my Y chromosome is essentially the same as my father's, his father's, etc., etc., etc. We would expect, therefore that almost every living Crago/Craigo male descended from these four men would have identical, or nearly identical Y chromosomes. Exceptions occur if a child is adopted, or the biological father was not actually a Craigo. (Note: Crago and Craigo are both used, often in the same family lines. They are essentially interchangeable.)
So far, however, we have not found a well-documented male Craigo descendant of John Crago of Missouri or Robert Craigo of Preble Co., OH to test. We believe we have found descendants of Thomas and possibly James (which do have identical DNA!) but we do not have well-documented descendants of Robert and John. Our hope is that we can find descendants of these two men who match the DNA of Thomas and James, and we can thereby add evidence to the hypothesis that they are, in fact, four brothers.
There are, of course, a variety of other relationships which can be addressed by DNA testing. Read the Project Results Section for several other questions we have been addressing.