Mam-ma's Southern Family

The last post in the saga of Johnstons in Texas, found Marion J. Johnston’s death certificate that named his parents Samuel Johnston and Elizabeth McCormick. [1] One note to make as the research travels further back in time. The name Johnston is more often rendered as Johnson in the records, and we’ll see that in this research session. Reuben’s connection with brothers, Marion and David, was in a venture called Johnston Brothers. The agricultural census listed the Johnston Brothers but no specific names. [2] The tax records for Comanche County listed Marion with land and Reuben and David with livestock and no land. [3] The regular census shows the same men in the same order as the agricultural census. [4]   Johnston households in Comanche Co, Texas 1880 Ag Schedule - Johnston Brothers Titus County, Texas The previous census found the Johnstons in Titus County in 1870. I discussed in Timeline for Reuben M. Johnston that Reuben lived with proposed wife, Catharine and son, Samu...

In May of this year, a friend and I took a trip to Dallas, Texas, to spend ten days doing family research. Besides governmental offices, historical societies, and libraries, our trip included trips to cemeteries. We visited six cemeteries in Comanche County, two in Jack County, one in Fannin County, one in Rockwall County, and two in Pontotoc County in Oklahoma. Some of these were for my friend and I don’t have family in Oklahoma or Jack and Fannin County. Even though the markers have images on  Find a Grave , I want my own photos so I can freely use them and not have to take the time to ask permission from the photographer of the image on  Find a Grave . Be sure to take a photo of the entrance with the name of the cemetery before you take photos within the cemetery. Visiting more than one cemetery on a trip will keep the photos separated between cemeteries. Here is a shot of my friend, Jacqueline, taking a photo of a stone of her family. The cemeteries I visited and took phot...

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans:  It's Saturday Night again - time for  some more Genealogy Fun !! Our mission from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing is to: 1)  One of our family stories for our descendants should be how we met our spouse.  Another one should be, if we know it, how did our parents meet each other? 2)  This week, let's tell our "parents meeting" story if we know it.  If you don't know that story, tell us another one about one of your relatives meeting their spouse or significant other. 3)  Tell us in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a Facebook post.  Please leave a comment on this blog post to lead us to your answers. Way back in October 2015, we wrote about this same subject. My post from then is here . Instead, I’ll write about how my grandparents met.  Pansy Louise Lancaster and Tom J Johnston were married on 15 December 1933 by the Comanche County, Texas, Justice of the Peace...

I am working on this year-long prompt, hosted by Amy Johnson Crow . I will write each week in one of my two blogs, either Mam-ma’s Southern Family or at My Trails Into the Past . I’m looking forward to writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways. When we first find our ancestors in a census record, we tend to just focus on that one family on the page. We carefully record the head of household, his wife, and children into our genealogy program or into a word processing document. There might be others in the household such as one of the parents or in-laws, or perhaps a sibling or servant. It is a good practice to at least look at the census entries before and after the targeted family. I try to look a page or two before and after the family and record the head of household’s first and last names. At first glance, we may not know whether any of these people are kin, especially if they are not of the same surname. I have a family on a page in Comanch...

I have a collection of papers that belonged to my great-aunt, Beryl Johnston. She was the sister of my grandfather, Tom J. Johnston. My grandfather didn't save his report cards, but my aunt saved hers. Below you'll see the card for 1917 when she was in Mrs. Odell's primary grade at Gustine School. 1917 Report Card (front) I found a Mary Odell as a nineteen-year-old teacher living as a boarder in the James A. Hubbard household in Comanche County, Texas. [1] Beryl was promoted to low second grade for the next term. 1917 Report Card (back) The other side shows her grades for reading, spelling, writing, and arithmetic. She earned grades of A or A-. One month she was absent eight days but basically she attended school regularly. Her father, Thomas N. Johnston, signed the card the six times. 1923 photo of Gustine School The Gustine School was built in 1907. [2] [1] 1910 U.S. census, Comanche Co, Texas, pop. sched., ED 10, sht 2b, dw...

   Fannie Bertha Johnston was the sister of my great grandfather, Thomas Newton Johnston.  She was born one hundred and sixteen years ago today in Gustine, Comanche county, Texas to Ruben Mack Johnston and Olivia Jane Jones.  Fannie was the tenth child of thirteen and the fifth daughter.  Here you can see her listed in the 1900 census in Gustine: Texas, Comanche Co, 1900 Federal Census, ED 30, Justice Precinct 3, Page: 1B, Ruben Johnson,  digital image,  Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 21 Jul 2012) I don't have a photo of Fannie B. and would love to see one. She did not live past her 14th birthday, dying February 22, 1912 of pneumonia. Texas Department of Health Bureau of Vital Statistics, Digital Images of Death Certificates,  FamilySearch (http://www.familysearch.org :n.d.), 3491, Comanche Co, Bertie Johnston, 1912. Tragedy had happened to the family earlier in 1903 when her younger brother, Loyce Smith die...

This assignment has me taking a grandfather and determining his age today, dividing by 4, then finding the ancestor in my family tree with the ahnentafel number, and writing 3 facts about that ancestor.  My ahnentafel number came up as 28 which would be Thomas Newton Johnston, my great grandfather.  Tom Johnston with granddaughters, Lea & Sandra Thomas Newton Johnston was born 25 Jul 1885 in Edna Hill, Comanche County, Texas to Ruben Mack Johnston and Olivia Jane Jones .  He died 20 Feb 1951 in Stephenville, Erath County, Texas. He married Nell L. Hutson on 6 Jun 1907 in Comanche County, Texas. Three facts I know: Listed as a farmer living on Gustine & Swan Hill Road in 1910 with his wife, Lea N. and daughter, Beryl M. Worked many years at the Higgenbotham's Lumber Yard in Stephenville, Texas, lastly as manager. Was called "Daddy Tom" by his grandchildren. Copyright © 2011 by Lisa Suzanne Gorrell, Mam-ma's Southern Family