Jason Crow, U.S. Congress

Official Congressional biography:

Jason Crow, a Representative from Colorado; born in Madison, Dane County, Wisc., March 15, 1979; B.A., University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisc., 2002; J.D., University of Denver, Denver, Colo., 2009; United States Army, 2002-2006; adjunct professor; lawyer; elected as a Democrat to the One Hundred Sixteenth Congress (January 3, 2019-present).

Ancestry

Biologically, Crow is likely not a Crow -- his great-grandfather Frank Earl Crow was actually born Frank Earl Van Valkenburg. Frank's mother, Elizabeth Van Valkenburg, was unmarried at the time of his birth and did not list a father on his birth record. When Frank was almost four, an again-pregnant Elizabeth married Leroy "Dod" Crow; she gave birth to Frank's half-sister Millie a few months later. Frank was using Dod's surname by the time of the 1900 U.S. Federal Census, and he named Dod as his father on his own marriage record.

Congressman Crow's known ancestry includes immigrants from:

• Ireland, including great-great-grandparents Patrick McDermott and Catharine Fay, both from Ulster; great-great-grandfather Patrick McCluskey; and great-great-grandmother Hannah Murphy
• The Netherlands, including Frisian great-grandfather Michiel Heidanus / Michael Sierds Hydanus
• England, including Cornish great-great-grandmother Elizabeth Jane Lane and great-great-great-grandparents Robert C. Eyers and Elizabeth Wye from Wiltshire
• Canada, including great-great-great-grandmother Amanda E. Morgan from Nova Scotia

He has probable German ancestry through his Bobholz and Schwartz ancestors.

Through his paternal great-great-grandmother's aforementioned Van Valkenburg line, Crow's ancestry traces back to the 17th C. New Netherland colony in present-day Upstate New York, with additional Frisian ancestors as well as an array of Amsterdam emigrants. His maternal Frisian ancestry is more recent, extensive, and well-documented, with most of his ancestors on those lines using Frisian names instead of Dutch, indicating an identity that was likely strongly Frisian until arrival in the United States, where a more generalized Dutch identity predominated in the Midwest.

Crow, a Colorado resident and representative, describes himself as a "Westerner" in many communications, even though his recent ancestry is strongly Midwestern (especially from Wisconsin). However, he does have historical ties to the Western U.S., including through the aforementioned Frank (Van Valkenburg) Crow, who lived and worked as a farmer for a time in Dawson County, Montana, and his great-great-grandmother Helen Olivia "Ella" McDougal, who lived and died in Butte, Montana.

Fellow veterans in Crow's family tree include his grandfather Max Crow (U.S. Navy, World War II); his grandfather Ward Hydanus (U.S. Coast Guard, World War II); and great-great-great-grandfather Robert C. Eyers (47th Wisconsin Volunteers, American Civil War).

External links

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Crow
• http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=C001121