An Introduction to The Crills and the Murdocks

In March 1837, my g-g-g-grandparents, John Crill and Sarah Murdock, were married. They are shown above in the only known photographs of them. I have used these photographs in other parts of this site where they are part of the family unit.

John and Sarah had eleven children, one of whom was Harriet Crill - my great-great-grandmother. The first records I have found of John and Sarah together were in Wayne County and Ashland County Ohio from the first record of them together in the 1840 census until the time of the Civil War - where they moved to Knox County, Ohio and lived out their lives. I only know of their marriage date from a listing in the pension information filed by Sarah after the civil war death of their son John Jr. I have not found another record of that marriage.

Researching the ancestry of John and Sarah has been a challenge. John Crill’s ancestry has been a genealogical “brick wall”. His tombstone shows his birth year as 1814, he is shown in later census records to have been born in Pennsylvania - and the one census entry that lists the birth states for his parents lists their birth states as Pennsylvania as well. In the early years of my research, I compiled every known record of a Crill (or Grill) in the United State prior to John’s time. All appeared to be of German ancestry, but I have been unable to match John to any of these families.

I had somewhat more success researching Sarah Murdock’s ancestry. Her 1897 obituary in a Knox County newspaper refers to her birth in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania. Her 1880 census record lists her parents birth locations as England for her father and Pennsylvania for her mother. After looking at every Murdock in that period in Pennsylvania, and being able to focus on Lebanon County, I was able to tie Sarah to John and Susannah Murdock of Lebanon County - who had six children. John died February 1, 1831, and Sarah is shown as one of his minor children in his probate. Susannah seems to have disappeared from records after his death except for a listing in the 1840 census.

Harriet Crill (Kinney) will be shown in the Kinney section of this site, with a page on her and her husband, and a separate section with photos and records of their five children. This section of the website presents whatever is known about these families, including a page on:

* The lives of John Crill and Sarah Murdock

I hope to have future pages posted, the first one will likely be:

* The Murdock ancestry in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania.

I may choose at some point to post my worksheet on the early Crills in America. I have not updated it in ten or fifteen years, but it contains much information that I was able to piece together from many records about other early Crills. It is available for me to email if anyone is interested. I also have researched the other ten children of John and Sarah, and would provide that to anyone interested as well. I hope that by posting this Crill and Murdock family information, we can help find additional information on their ancestry and family history.