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Bryan, thank you for responding. I'd be very interested in any names, dates, places that you have and maybe we could figure out if there is a connection. Of the four brothers I mentioned, we know only this: Thomas was "killed in the war." What war, I don't know - Ireland or America? Robert left Ireland in 1837, went to PA at some point, and in 1851 married in NY state and had 10 children in PA and IA. (Long sad story there) James was in Philadelphia in 1877 and that's all I know about him. George, my great-grandfather, left Ireland about 1837 also and married in Iowa in 1862 and had 8 children. The information about Thomas and James came from a letter written in 1877 by Robert, which mostly had to do with a dispute about will(s) left by Thomas Crawford, Mary Ann's father.
It's possible that Thomas or James or both were married in Ireland and had children there, but so far, we've been unable to determine that, because so many records were destroyed in the Dublin fire of 1920, I think it was. From all the information I've put together about Robert and George, there's been no indication of marriages prior to the ones I mentioned above. The letter written by Robert in 1877 details only his marriage to Sarah Selena Crowther and the births of their 10 children, no mention of a prior marriage. George spent his first years in America traveling from one coast to another and five Pacific and Atlantic crossings, so having nothing to indicate otherwise, we all agree he was single while roaming around.
Recently, I commissioned a researcher in Ireland to try to learn more about the Johnston/Crawford family and what we ended up with was a lot of "could have been" or "maybe" and so on. The surnames Johnston and Crawford were so common in that area at that time. One piece of information she did find was a copy of the baptismal certificate for Thomas, son of James Johnston and Mary Ann Crawford, born in Stranolar in 1806, not 1814 as we thought. That would also change the date of the marriage of James and Mary Ann from 1813 to ??. The only birthdates I'm positive of are Robert's and George's. The rest came somewhere from other people researching the same Johnstons, and so far no one has been able to quote a source to me!
Any idea where the name Church came into your family?
That's it very briefly, Bryan. Does anything click for you here? I'll be looking forward to hearing from you.
E-mail me if you like; I think my e-mail address will show up here. Yours didn't.
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