Results: 21% DNA - Ireland/Scotland/Wales

My DNA reveals that I have 21% Irish/Scottish/Welsh ancestry. I have ruled out any significant amount of Irish blood in my family, which is too bad considering that my son is traveling to Ireland next Spring... I was hoping to find some places of origin for him to explore. The Scotland and Wales connections are easier to identify.

Scotland
The Croffords are most certainly from Scotland. The original Horace Crawford (Crawfurd, Craufurd) came from Scotland to New York and settled in the Genessee Valley. He was a millwright. Horace is my 3X great grandfather. My primary source is a document written by my great grandmother Ada Crofford. Granted, she sometimes has errors in her family histories, but Horace would have been a close relative - her father-in-law - so the likelihood of error in information about him is less. The Crofford DNA is probably enough to account for most of the 21% Scottish blood in me.

The Crawford clan originates in the Southern part of Scotland

Crawford Castle was in existence in 1175

Wales

John Dillingham, my 3rd great grandfather whose daughter Anna married Calvin Crawford, is said to have come to America from Wales. This particular piece of family lore is in question, but is mentioned in several fairly reliable sources.

Then there is my 14th great grandfather, Sir Ieuan Deulwyn Bushe. born in 1427 at Rodes Court in Carmarthenshire, Wales. He was a famous poet whose work (50 poems) has survived to the present day. Whitfield Barrie Abbott is descended from the Bushe line through the Sabin family.

19th Century Immigrants to America

Most of my ancestors were among the earliest settlers in America, in either New England or Virginia. There are just a few who came to America the most recently. Not much is currently known about their roots in the homeland:

Germany: John Adam Zaun and Elizabeth Louise Wellner, 2X great grandparents
John Adam Zaun was born in Germany in 1837 in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. He migrated to America in 1867 (1900 U.S. Census). On Oct. 25, 1868, he married Elizabeth Louise Wellner, a fellow passenger on the ship from Germany, and they made their home in Dumbarton, Virginia. They had four children, Louisa, b. 1876, Adam, b. 1879, Charles, b. 1886, and Henry, b. 1888.

England: John C. Abbott - 3X great grandfather
Born in England in 1815, John came to America and had a piano-making business in New York City. He married Sarah Godfrey Whitfield, from an old family in New York. He settled in Fort Lee, New Jersey, later opening a hotel/boarding house in Hackensack, where many of his employees lived. He hired workers, including his family members, from New York, Germany, Ireland, and South America to build action parts for pianos in his factory on Lemoine Ave. John and Sarah had three children, Clark Webster Abbott, b. 1842, Whitfield Barrie Abbott b. 1844, and James b. 1868.

Johannes Wandell

Scotland: Horace Crawford - 3X great grandfather
Born in Scotland around 1780, Horace came to America and settled in the Genessee Valley in New York. He married Lois Hopkins, and they had a son, Calvin, who was born in 1806. Horace was a well-known millwright.

Littleton, Schuyler County, Illinois 1872

The study of maps has definitely been helpful with genealogy research. Sometimes physical distance or proximity can make sense of a puzzling story. It can also offer new names and information to pursue.

Today I found an early map of Littleton, Illinois that brought together two different branches of my family tree.

Among the first settlers of Littleton were Orlando Marcus Bosworth, my 2X great grandfather, and Richard Pierce Applegate, my 3X great grandfather. Richard's daughter Eliza married Orlando. I also noticed that there are two Crawfords on this map. I don't know how they are connected to us, but I will certainly investigate! 

me < Virginia < Teresa Allen < Eva Bosworth < Eliza Applegate and Orlando Bosworth

Braveheart

According to Crofford family lore we are descended from the mother of Sir William Wallace, Braveheart. We may be related to Margaret Crawford Wallace somewhere in the very distant Scottish past, but I do not believe we are directly descended from her.  From what I have found online in just a brief search today, it appears that Margaret's brother Reginald was the ancestor of the Crawfords that settled in Virginia.  Our ancestor settled in New York.

Just for kicks, I am including the information I found on Margaret Wallace:
http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Crawford-517:

Margaret Wallace formerly Crawford aka BarclayBorn
about 1255 in ScotlandDaughter of Hugh (De Crawford) Crawford and [mother unknown]
Sister of Reginald CrawfordWife of Malcolm A. Wallace —
married about 1272 (to 1291) in Parish of KilmaursWife of Walter Barclay —
married about 1292 [location unknown]Mother of John Wallace, Malcolm Wallace 2nd, Unknown (Wallace) Bailie and William Wallace

William Wallace's father's name was either Malcolm or Alan, depending on the source.

From http://www.electricscotland.com/history/nation/William%20Wallace.pdf :

On his maternal side, William was the grandson of the Sheriff of Ayr, one of the very prominent landholders in Ayrshire. William’s mother was Margaret Crawford, a daughter of Hugh Crawford, head of the House of Crawford, the Third Sheriff of Ayrshire, and who was Lord of Loudoun and Crosbie.

Sir Reginald Crawford was William Wallace’s maternal uncle. William may have had a second maternal uncle whose name is not known, and who is considered by the historian George Crawfurd in his 1710 MS History of the Crawfurds as the progenitor of the Crawfurds of Baidland and subsequently of the Ardmillan cadet.  

Dunfermline Abbey, burial site of Margaret Crawfurd, mother of William Wallace.

From http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/CRAWFORD/1999-02/0919894887:

"Dominicus de Crawford is said to have been the fifth great-grandfather
of Margaret de Crawford, the mother of Sir William Wallace. Her brother,
Sir Reginald de Crawford, is claimed to have been the direct ancestor of the
Crawfords who settled in Virginia from 'Crawfordonia'." Margaret de
Crawford married Sir Malcolm Wallace, they were the parents of Sir William
Wallace (1272 - 1305).