It has been quite some time since I posted, but since we're having a roll call, I'll try again. It seems unbelievable to me that there are so few people researching the name, Johnson, in the State of Mississippi, when I know there were millions of them there or so it always seemed to me when I actually lived there. I live in the cold Northeast now and believe me, it's not easy trying to research Southern ancestors from up here! I am trying to get back beyond my great grandfather, JOSEPH ABNER JOHNSON, born around 1837, married a Mary Undine BROWN (and I can't find out anything about her family, either). The only record I have of them as a couple is the 1860 Neshoba Co., MS census. It listed him as being born in Alabama, being 23 years of age, and being a wagon maker. They had one child at that time - my grandfather, John Randal Johnson, born in 1859. I'm assuming that they probably married around 1857 or 1858. Of couse, to make things more difficult, the Neshoba Co. marriage records for that time period were destroyed by fire - probably in the Civil War, I don't know. So I don't know where they married. It could have been there, but it also could have been another county in Mississippi or even in Alabama. Mary was also born in Alabama in 1842 (according to her tombstone). I believe that Joseph Abner Johnson was killed in the Civil War, but I also have no proof of that. Mary and Joseph had one more son in 1861 - James H. Johnson - and then apparently, Joseph either died or was killed in about 1862 or 1863. Mary remarried in 1865 to a Judge Samuel McNeil who was a neighbor of theirs, I believe. They had a couple of children together, and then Judge McNeil died in about 1868. He was much, much older than Mary - about 40 years older. Much later, she married a third time to a Pinckney Webb, but they had no children. He also was a widower, like Judge McNeil. No one in my family knows where they came from and no one knows where JOSEPH ABNER JOHNSON was buried - I think probably at wherever he was killed in battle. Any help from anyone out there? Thanks in advance for any and all help. Wish you all a very Happy New Year! Sue (Johnson) Howard SueHoward@prodigy.net