This is Bill Johnston. He's 85 years old and he's my newly found first cousin (once removed) from Charlotte, North Carolina. It's interesting how I found Bill.
I've been doing genealogy research since July 2008, when I came across Ancestry.com on my cousin, Phil's, computer. It's an interesting, yet addictive, hobby and I've spent many hours online, in libraries and traveling to California, the Columbia-Jeff City, Missouri area and North Carolina in search of morsels of family history knowledge. I've also met many new family members that I had either never met or lost contact with years ago: Don, my cousin from KC; Janet, his sister from Omaha; Wanda, my aunt here in St. Louis; Joni, my cousin and Wanda's daughter here in St. Louis. I even reconnected with my brother, Jeff, in Chester, Illinois, whom I hadn't seen or talked to since my dad died in 1999. Now I'm rounding up more family.
Back in September, I visited North Carolina, specifically Fayetteville and Hope Mills. Hope Mills is basically "ground zero" for the Johnson family, my mom's side. I met the Mayor, unknown cousins who took me to my first monster truck show, searched for graves and visited libraries. I was specifically looking for the grave of my grand uncle, Henry Elmer Johnson. My Aunt Mary has about 60 letters from HEJ to my grandfather dating from 1911-1926, which are a gold mine of information. HEJ even shares my birthday, September 8, (although there is an 82 year age difference!)
In a letter dated May 6, 1924, HEJ informed my grandfather about his nearly eight month-old daughter, Mildred Frances born September 27, 1923. I now knew her name, but that didn't help much since Ancestry.com likes married names. When I visited the library in Fayetteville, I found HEJ's obituary from 1962 and it listed his surviving kids, William and Donald, as well as Mildred Morse. Woo hoo! I had her married name and the names of her siblings.
On a whim, I looked up "Mildred Morse in NC" on whitepages.com and it pulled up one record. I called her and it sounded like she could be 70 or so, but I didn't think 86, not like I know what an 86 year-old is supposed to sound like. The call didn't last long because A) she was on the other line and B) she thought I was a telemarketer. So I told her I'd call back the next day, which I did. It was, indeed, Mildred Frances Johnson Morse - the very same one from the letter in 1924. She was very happy to "meet" me, but said repeatedly that I needed to talk to her brother, Bill. He would remember more than she.
So I called Bill and we spoke for almost two hours and he was the nicest man and very open to sharing his memories. He was also very happy to "meet" me because he didn't know anything about the Johnson side of the family other than what little he knew about his dad, like the fact that his grandfather was murdered by his brother over a land dispute.
And the reason I couldn't find anything Mildred, Bill or Don? In the 1930s, HEJ and his wife separated, she moved away and added a "t" to their last name, thus making it "Johnston." And it stuck.
So that's the story of how I found Bill.
On Thursday night, I fly to Charlotte to meet Bill and his family. On Friday, a bunch of us are caravaning to Hope Mills so that Bill can see his ancestral lands and hear everything I know about our family. The Mayor has graciously agreed to meet us and show us around. On Saturday, there's a party at Bill's where I will present him with a PowerPoint presentation that connects he and I to Hope Mills. It should make for a great weekend with the new found fam.
Back in September, I visited North Carolina, specifically Fayetteville and Hope Mills. Hope Mills is basically "ground zero" for the Johnson family, my mom's side. I met the Mayor, unknown cousins who took me to my first monster truck show, searched for graves and visited libraries. I was specifically looking for the grave of my grand uncle, Henry Elmer Johnson. My Aunt Mary has about 60 letters from HEJ to my grandfather dating from 1911-1926, which are a gold mine of information. HEJ even shares my birthday, September 8, (although there is an 82 year age difference!)
In a letter dated May 6, 1924, HEJ informed my grandfather about his nearly eight month-old daughter, Mildred Frances born September 27, 1923. I now knew her name, but that didn't help much since Ancestry.com likes married names. When I visited the library in Fayetteville, I found HEJ's obituary from 1962 and it listed his surviving kids, William and Donald, as well as Mildred Morse. Woo hoo! I had her married name and the names of her siblings.
On a whim, I looked up "Mildred Morse in NC" on whitepages.com and it pulled up one record. I called her and it sounded like she could be 70 or so, but I didn't think 86, not like I know what an 86 year-old is supposed to sound like. The call didn't last long because A) she was on the other line and B) she thought I was a telemarketer. So I told her I'd call back the next day, which I did. It was, indeed, Mildred Frances Johnson Morse - the very same one from the letter in 1924. She was very happy to "meet" me, but said repeatedly that I needed to talk to her brother, Bill. He would remember more than she.
So I called Bill and we spoke for almost two hours and he was the nicest man and very open to sharing his memories. He was also very happy to "meet" me because he didn't know anything about the Johnson side of the family other than what little he knew about his dad, like the fact that his grandfather was murdered by his brother over a land dispute.
And the reason I couldn't find anything Mildred, Bill or Don? In the 1930s, HEJ and his wife separated, she moved away and added a "t" to their last name, thus making it "Johnston." And it stuck.
So that's the story of how I found Bill.
On Thursday night, I fly to Charlotte to meet Bill and his family. On Friday, a bunch of us are caravaning to Hope Mills so that Bill can see his ancestral lands and hear everything I know about our family. The Mayor has graciously agreed to meet us and show us around. On Saturday, there's a party at Bill's where I will present him with a PowerPoint presentation that connects he and I to Hope Mills. It should make for a great weekend with the new found fam.
1 comment:
Really, really cool! That sounds pretty exciting. Can't wait to hear about Bill's reaction to the powerpoint.
Jeremy K.
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