The Hunt for Thomas Crago

The Hunt for Thomas Crago

A number of researchers are attempting to discover the origins of Greene County Pioneer, Thomas Crago, Sr. This page is designed to help coordinate these efforts. Listed are sources that have been searched for references to Thomas, regardless of whether any new information was found. This helps prevent researchers from doing the same lookups over and over again. If you would like to contribute the results of your searches, email them to [email protected].


Birth Records
Locality Date Source Submitter
England
Pennsylvania
Maryland
Virginia
New Jersey

Baptism Records
Locality Date Source Submitter
England
Pennsylvania
Maryland
Virginia
New Jersey
Westfield, NJ Not Found Commemorative History of the Presbyterian Church in Westfield, NJ 1728-1928; McKinney et al., 1929 Brian Smith

Marriage Records
Locality Date Source Submitter
England
London Marriage License - July 15, 1687 - Cragoe, Tho. & Heck, Sarah A calendar of the marriage licence allegations in the Registry of the Bishop of London : 1597 to 1700l London: British Record Society, 1937-1940, Vol. 2, p. 51. Brian Smith
Pennsylvania
Greene Co. PA No info found Marriage records only go back to 1885. Becky Johnson
Washington Co., PA No info found Marriage records only go back to 1885. Becky Johnson
Westmoreland Co., PA No info found Marriage records only go back to 1893. Becky Johnson
Bedford Co., PA No info found Marriage records only go back to 1852-54 and from 1885. Becky Johnson
Cumberland Co., PA No info found Marriage records only go back to 1885. Becky Johnson
Maryland
Virginia
New Jersey
Westfield, NJ Not Found Commemorative History of the Presbyterian Church in Westfield, NJ 1728-1928; McKinney et al., 1929 Brian Smith

Immigration Records
Locality Date Source Submitter
Halifax, Nova Scotia
Thomas Crago, mariner came on board the "Baltimore" June 1749 Immigrant Ship Transcribers Guild Becky Johnson
Bates's comments on Thomas Crago, mariner, state "Disappeared from Halifax - likely slipped away to New England." Description by George T. Bates, The Great Exodus of 1749, in Collections of The Nova Scotia Historical Society - transcribed by Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild Brian Smith
England
Information found in the family bible of John Thomas Craig states that the family descends from a Thomas Bennett Crago who came from England to Virginia in 1742. 1742 Family History of Eli and Experience (Jones) Crago by Mike & Gert Sanderson; 1993 Paul Craig
Land Records
Locality Date Source Submitter
England
Pennsylvania
Near presnt Worleytown, PA Pioneer History of Greene County, L.K. Evans; p34, 138-139; Crago was an aquaintance of the Crawfords from Conocochegue, the nearest clue of a precise location is that William Crawford's father-in-law lived near the forks of that river. The primary forks of the Conocochegue are near Worleytown, PA. Brian Smith
Cumberland County, PA I requested land records from Cumberland Co., PA for Thomas Crago before 1770.

My logic to this is that Greene County was created in 1796. The previous county was Washington. Washington was created in 1781. Westmoreland was the previous county. Westmoreland was created in 1773. Bedford County was the previous county, where it was created in 1771. Cumberland was the previous county, which was created in 1750. I looked at a few old maps and it looks like the area in question was Cumberland County between 1750 and 1771. Since Thomas died in 1770, I assumed that some sort of land records would be there.

I just received an answer back from Cumberland Co., PA. There are no land records for Thomas Crago prior to 1770
Becky Johnson
Maryland
Washington County, MD "Doing research on "Conococheague Manor." One of Lord Baltimore's proprietary manors in Washington County, Maryland. On a rare tenant listing of 1767 there is one John Czaigo leaseor of 100 acres on the manor. The listing is a torn, smudged and suffers from the original writers anglicizing most of the names. I was checking all possible variations of the names. Any possibility your Thomas Crago might be a relative of John C(z)aigo?"

"I rechecked my copy of the original document , I retract my original thoughts that the spelling was Czaigo. I believe it actually does read Craigo. There is an "R" on the sentence directly below, at first glance, appears to be the tail end of a "z". But on closer examination, the second letter now seems more clearly to be an "r". The entire listing is as follows;

#53 Craigo, John 177 acres
Dwelling house 20 by 16 shaped? logs and cabbin roof, Weavers shop 14 by 12 hew'd logs clapboard roof, out house 16 by 14 round logs Cabbin roof, 20 acres marsh meadow, no orchard, good spring, 130 acres woods 1/6 stony"

Sandra Izer
Virginia
New Jersey

Tax Records
Locality Date Source Submitter
England
Pennsylvania
Maryland
Virginia
New Jersey

Military Records
Locality Date Source Submitter
England
Pennsylvania
Maryland
Virginia
New Jersey

Death Records
Locality Date Source Submitter
Pennsylvania
Killed by Indians near the mouth of Muddy Creek c1770 Draper Manuscripts, Series NN, Volume 6, pages 77-102 - handwritten letter signed by John Crawford dated 1831 to Lyman Draper. This appears to be the original source for the various subsequent accounts including Leckey, Evans and others. Brian Smith
Greene Co., PA (killed by Indians) 1771 Genealogical Society, Mrs. R.L. Hamilton, Sect. 54 Canangate London Eng., September 1918. Becky Johnson
Killed by indians - "The place of this murder is about one-eighth of a mile north of the homestead of James D. Flenniken, one and one-half miles east of Carmichaels. It is on top of the hill on the left of the road as you go from J.D. Flenniken's towards the brick house of William Crago." Local History of Greene County and Southern Pennsylvania" by Andrew J. Waychoff. Published about 1900, reprinted 1975 by Greene Co. Historical Society. Becky Johnson

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