Hello I am looking for information on my gggp who were James Wilson Johnson Sr. and Sarah Reeder. He was not designated as Sr. I am so not to be confused by his son named the same. Johnson is also spelled Johnston but I believe it to be Johnson but you cant always tell. I don't have a marriage records for James and Sarah, I did find birth records for 4 of their children in Marshall CO KY. Both James and Sarah's parents were born in SC per the census: they were born in KY Generation No. 1 1. JAMES WILSON2 JOHNSON (UNKNOWN1) was born 1825 in KY.. He married SARAH Reeder. She was born 1830 in KY.. Children of JAMES JOHNSON and SARAH REEDER are: i. NANCY3 JOHNSON, b. 1848, KY.; m. David LEVERT. ii. WILLIAM JOHNSON, b. 1852, KY.; m. MINTA APINETTA; b. 1858, AR. 2. iii. HENRY JOHNSON, b. 1855, KY.. Frances DeVault 3. iv. ANDREW JOHNSON, b. 1857, KY.; d. 1925. married a Robbins v. ANGELINE JOHNSON, b. 1859, KY.. married a Rodgers 4. vi. BETSY L JOHNSON, b. September 14, 1862, KY.; d. August 19, 1934. married a Robinson 5. vii. JAMES WILSON JOHNSON JR., b. April 24, 1864, KY.; d. Abt. 1899, Ar..Married Marttha Robinson in AR viii. MARGARET JOHNSON, b. 1866, KY.. married a Canady 6. ix. ISABELLE JOHNSON, b. 1872, AR.; d. Abt. 1920, Probably Poplar Bluff, MO.Married a Lowery 1850 Decatur Co., TN #31 James W. Johnson 25 KY; Sarah 22 KY; Nancy 2 KY; William B. 6 months TN In 1860 They were back in Marshall KY where both James and Sarah Reeder were born.(b IN KY dont know the place) By 1870 They were in Randolph Co AR. Pat Mata [email protected] Found them in 1850 - 1850 United States Federal Census Name: Jas W Johnson Age: 25 Estimated birth year: abt 1825 Birth place: Kentucky Gender: Male Home in 1850(City,County,State): District 9, Decatur, Tennessee Page: 444 Roll: M432_876 Jas W Johnson District 9, Decatur, TN abt 1825 Kentucky Sarah Johnson District 9, Decatur, TN abt 1828 Kentucky Nancy J Johnson District 9, Decatur, TN abt 1848 Kentucky Wm B Johnson District 9, Decatur, TN abt 1850 Tennessee (8/12) Living next door 1850 United States Federal Census (Looks more like Reeder to me)reeder ? Name: James Ruder Age: 36 Estimated birth year: abt 1814 Birth place: North Carolina Gender: Male Home in 1850 (City,County,State): District 9, Decatur, Tennessee Page: 444 Roll: M432_876 James Ruder District 9, Decatur, TN abt 1814 North Carolina Sarah A Ruder District 9, Decatur, TN abt 1814 Tennessee Mary A Ruder District 9, Decatur, TN abt 1837 Kentucky John W Ruder District 9, Decatur, TN abt 1838 Kentucky Danl L Ruder District 9, Decatur, TN abt 1840 Kentucky Julia A Ruder District 9, Decatur, TN abt 1843 Kentucky Mira A Ruder District 9, Decatur, TN abt 1846 Tennessee Margaret Ruder District 9, Decatur, TN abt 1849 Tennessee Found them in 1860 - 1860 United States Federal Census Name: J W Johnson Age in 1860: 34 Birthplace: Kentucky Home in 1860: Not Stated, Marshall, Kentucky Gender: Male Post Office: Benton Roll: M653_385 Page: 0 Year: 1860 J W Johnson Not Stated, Marshall, KY 34 1825 Kentucky Male S Johnson Not Stated, Marshall, KY 32 1827 Kentucky Female N J Johnson Not Stated, Marshall, KY 10 1849 Kentucky Female NancyJane W B Johnson Not Stated, Marshall, KY 9 1850 Tennessee Male William B H Johnson Not Stated, Marshall, KY 7 1852 Tennessee Male Henry A Johnson Not Stated, Marshall, KY 4 1855 Kentucky Male Andrew O Johnson Not Stated, Marshall, KY 2 1857 Kentucky Female must have died before AR A Johnson Not Stated, Marshall, KY 8.12 Kentucky Female Angeline By 1870 They were in Randolph CO AR

On Tue, 2006-08-29 at 06:45 -0500, Patricia wrote: > Hello I am looking for information on my gggp who were James Wilson Johnson Sr. and Sarah Reeder. He was not designated as Sr. I am so not to be confused by his son named the same. > Johnson is also spelled Johnston but I believe it to be Johnson but you cant always tell. Ah, you've not seen my rant on spelling... Way back more than a century and then for centuries before that, spelling, reading, and writing were not universal skills. So clerks didn't ask "How do you spell that?" they wrote what they heard. And they wrote on expensive (rare) paper with expensive india ink that didn't erase well. So they didn't take corrections often. They heard according to their own heritage, so English clerks tended to put in the T, Scottish and Irish clerks to leave it out. Scandinavian clerks tended to spell Jonsson, Danish Johnsen or Jonssen. German clerks might thing Janssen, while Norman clerks thought Johnson. All for the same person. Spelling by hearing is just something we have to accept. Its not proof of a mislaid name or a change of family spelling when a clerk spelled it differently, its just proof that the clerk and we don't think the same spelling. Then if we are looking at a transcription of the original handwriting we depend on the transcriber's sense of spelling and vision. Its sure that handwriting never has had the consistent shapes of typed text and those transcriptions can be subject to interpretation. I've been doing an index for the Madison Count MO census of 1870 and there are lots of surnames where I have picked out half a dozen or more spellings. And I've seen one transcription of a church record done during WPA times where a very clear script David was transcribed as Daniel. One must remember that one of the principles of WPA employment was that lack of skill was not a hindrance to being hired. And so the WPA era transcriptions must be taken with a bucket of salt, a grain is far too little salt. I'm stuck chasing my Johnsons backwards in Kentucky. I find tax and census evidence in Christian Co KY (on the Little River) from about 1806 to 1810. They were definitely in Missouri in 1812 when David Johnson and wife Margaret joined the Bethel Baptist Church at Jackson by letter. They may have been in Logan Co from about 1798 to 1806 on the Red River if that David Johnson is the same. For sure with the many Johnsons about, just the name David Johnson isn't enough to separate them or to be sure they are the same family. When David died in 1823, in Cape Girardeau Co, MO, his estate listed offspring as Jonathan, Noble, Davis, William, Ransom, Constant, Sarah, and Willey Elmey (already deceased). In the 1830s and 40s Ransom and Constant were in Randolph Co, AR though Ransom's estate was probated in Madison Co, MO. Noble said he was born in SC (would have been in 1796) in the 1850 census and in NC in the 1860 census. He was missed or lost from the 1870 census, the reason I went through it so carefully. There are pages missing from that census and they apparently never made it to the census bureau because the township totals published in the 1873 census summary are exactly what is on the microfilm today. I'm planning to dig into church records in western Kentucky some of these days to see where that letter that they joined Bethel with came from. -- Dr. Gerald N. Johnson <[email protected]>