Hi Cliff Goodness, no wondre it's difficult to pinpoint your Johnston family pre 1832. Not only is the surname Johnston extremely numerous across the Northern Counties, so are the given names of Francis, Robert, Archibald and Thomas!! The tithe applotment books list those who had land and paid a tithe to the church. Yours may have been too young for that. However going on the premise that possibly one of them was named after the father or grandfather I ran a check anyway. This showed all four given names appearing regulary in most counties so it wasnt useful in pinpointing the correct family. Similarly with 1796 Spinning Wheel list where I thought I might find a previous generation. I can give you the results from both but I dont think it would help as they are really numerous!! I did a quick check of parish record indexes and can find plenty of records in Co Antrim and Down, I wanted to check first if you have any idea of their father's name or do you want me to check through to see if I can find 4 that look like having a father with the same name who were born around the dates you gave? Cheers Teri

Teri, Yes, you latched onto my problem very quickly. It's a real muddle to sort through. It's been almost as bad in Canada as the census records for where they settled and lived are missing for 1841, 1851 and some for 1861. There were 4 families - Anderson, Derby, Johnston & Wylie - that settled close to each other in Upper Canada, intermarried some, and at least 3 of the families have been confirmed to have come from the same area of Co. Derry surrounding Magherafelt. I've found one Wylie cousin who claims that our Johnston/e family came from the same area too, but I've not been able to confirm this. The C.of I. records and others in the area are "tied up" in litigation now with no one being able to transcribe them and make them available publicly. Someone is doing it privately though, and I'm hoping that my ancestors will show up there. There is a Johnston Hill just a wee bit north of Magherafelt, but someone told me that the last Johnston there died about 2 years ago. This is the only clue that I can give you. Thank you for your help. I appreciate it very much. I do have a photograph of Robert "Red Robin" Johnston, b. 1808 in Ireland, but that doesn't help much when searching for the paper trail. You can see his photograph and his wife and some of their family here: http://www.pbase.com/cjmax/johnston_family_album&page=all Good hunting, Cliff. "May the best you've ever seen, Be the worst you'll ever see;" from A Scots Toast by Allan Ramsay ----- Original Message ----- From: "Theresa Forsyth" <tforsyth@tiscali.co.uk> To: <nir-tyrone@rootsweb.com> Sent: Wednesday, January 21, 2009 10:17 AM Subject: Re: [NIR-TYRONE] Johnston pre 1832 > Hi Cliff > Goodness, no wondre it's difficult to pinpoint your Johnston family pre > 1832. Not only is the surname Johnston extremely numerous across the > Northern Counties, so are the given names of Francis, Robert, Archibald > and > Thomas!! > > The tithe applotment books list those who had land and paid a tithe to the > church. Yours may have been too young for that. However going on the > premise that possibly one of them was named after the father or > grandfather > I ran a check anyway. This showed all four given names appearing regulary > in most counties so it wasnt useful in pinpointing the correct family. > Similarly with 1796 Spinning Wheel list where I thought I might find a > previous generation. I can give you the results from both but I dont > think > it would help as they are really numerous!! > > I did a quick check of parish record indexes and can find plenty of > records in Co Antrim and Down, I wanted to check first if you have any > idea > of their father's name or do you want me to check through to see if I can > find 4 that look like having a father with the same name who were born > around the dates you gave? > > Cheers > Teri > > > Please post messages in plain text only > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > NIR-TYRONE-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message