Winter 2012 Kentucky Ancestors --- John & Jane Craig

I was so pleased to get the message from Don Rightmyer, editor of Kentucky Ancestors, that my story about John CRAIG and Jane BROWN would be the lead story in the Winter 2012 Edition of the magazine. Yesterday I received my complimentary copies of the magazine and it looks very nice. The children on the cover are not Craig children, but aren't they beautiful? They are Flora and Ora Austin Rodgers. The date and place is unknown but they are in the limelight for awhile on the magazine cover.

The story is of my ancestors, John CRAIG and his wife Jane BROWN. I found enough information during my trip to Kentucky in August to write the story. It was important to me since my maiden name is CRAIG. The second reason it was important was that when I began genealogy in 1990, all I knew of my CRAIGs was my grandfather, Claude Leolis CRAIG. Now I know back as far as the American Revolution. John CRAIG served three years in the Virginia Continental Line. He grew to adulthood in Bedford County, Virginia. By 1794 he and Jane were in Madison County, Kentucky with the first four of their children.

Next, John CRAIG is on the tax list for Wayne County,Kentucky in 1804. This is where he and Jane lived until his death in 1830. Jane eventually moved to Clinton County, Kentucky where she lived until about 1844.

What a tough generation the "Revolutionaries" were. They faced war, Indians, violence, disease, accidents and all of the other hazards of frontier life. Tough just doesn't seem to say it properly. Am I proud of my fourth great grandparents? Maybe just a little bit. You can see why genealogy is so addictive, learning what kind of people our ancestors were. The good, the bad, the strong and not so strong, whatever they are, they are ours.

Here is wishing you the good luck I have had in finding ancestors. Keep searching and learning. Until later, Patj