Mam-ma's Southern Family

My grandfather, Tom J. Johnston Jr was born one hundred years ago on 7 October 1912 in Gustine, a town in Comanche County, Texas. [1]   His parents were Thomas Newton Johnston and Nell L. Hutson.  He was the third child of five, having two older sisters, Beryl and Mildred, and two younger brothers, Hal and Luther.  His mother, Nell died 14 Jul 1919 at the young age of 31.  Tom was only six and half years old and his youngest brother, Luther, was only eighteen months old.  It must have been very hard on his father to raise five children without a mother. He married my grandmother, Pansy Louise Lancaster, on 15 December 1933 by the Justice of the Peace in Gustine, Comanche County, Texas. [2]   They had one child, Lela Nell Johnston. He served a short time in the United States Navy, leaving after four months with a medical discharge due to an ulcer. [3]   The family was living in Idaho at the US Naval Training Center, Farragut, Idaho.  T...

Randy Seaver's "Saturday Night Genealogy Fun" is always a blast to read and do.  Today's post is about listing your Matrilineal Lines.  This is my mother, my mother's mother, her mother's mother, etc.  When one has their mtDNA tested, this is the line that is tested and whose genes are passed down to me. Me: Lisa Suzanne Hork My mother: Lea Nell Johnston (1934-1992) My grandmother: Pansy Louise Lancaster - Living My great-grandmother: Lela Ann Loveless (1896-1951) My gg-grandmother: Eliza A. Ro(d)gers (1854-1907) I had my grandmother tested and her halpogroup is U5. My mother's father's matrilineal line is: My grandfather: Tom Johnston Jr (1912-1973) His mother: Nell Hutson (1888-1919) His grandmother: Sarah Helena Selman (1858-1916) His great-grandmother: Amanda Deborah Oldham (1822-1880) I have not had this line tested.  My mother had no brothers, so I need to have one of her male cousins do the y-DNA test. My father's mother...

     I could title this post, “On These Days,” and try to post it halfway between the 26 th of September for the anniversary of her death and the 27 th of September for the anniversary of her birth.       Sarah Helena Selman was born on 27 Sep 1858 in Cherokee County, Texas [1] , probably somewhere near Rusk [2] .  Cherokee County is in eastern Texas, two counties away from the Louisiana border.  Her parents were Greenlee Bean Selman and Amanda Deborah Oldham.  She was the youngest of the three children of Greenlee and Amanda.  Both Amanda and Greenlee had previous marriages, resulting in Sarah having four half-siblings.      She married Peter Hayden Hutson in Hood County, Texas on 11 Sep 1879. [3]   They had 8 children, seven girls and one boy.  My great-grandmother, Nell Hutson, was number 4.  Three of her daughters, Lillie Violet, Myrtle, and Winnie Oda, died before reaching adulthood....

Mam-ma's Mercury Copyright © 2012 by Lisa Suzanne Gorrell, Mam-ma's Southern Family

Tom J Johnston at Johnston Bros Billiards in Walnut Creek, California mid 1940s Copyright © 2012 by Lisa Suzanne Gorrell, Mam-ma's Southern Family

I have been scanning like crazy this past week and found the photograph I took of my maternal grandfather's grave marker.  Since it is flat I find it hard to call it a "tombstone" but it still works for this blogging meme. Oakmont Memorial Park, Lafayette, California After finding the photo, I created a memorial at Find-a-Grave which you can see here .  Seeing the marker back when I took the photo gave me information that I did not know.  Tom-Tom (what us grandkids called him) was in the Navy during World War II.  I have since sent for his Naval Service Record. I also took a photo of my daughters next to the marker.  When I added that photo to their scrapbooks, I would draw a little tree showing the relationship from them to the ancestor. Tom J Johnston's great-granddaughters Copyright © 2012 by Lisa Suzanne Gorrell, Mam-ma's Southern Family

   One hundred and thirty-nine years ago, William Carl Lancaster was born on July 21, 1873 to parents George Wilson Lancaster and Martha Jane Polly.  He was the oldest child of six and was born in Rockwall, Rockwall county, Texas.  The first census he appears in is the 1880 Rockwall county, Texas. Texas, Rockwall, 1880 U.S. census, Ancestry.com , Digital images (http://www.ancestry.com: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), T9, Rockwall Village, enumeration district (ED) 30, George W. Lancaster, accessed 13 Jul 1995.    He was just seven years old.  He is living also with two of his siblings, Lonnie and Maggie, and his paternal grandmother, Elizabeth S. Lancaster.  His father is a farmer.  His mother is listed as housekeeper, but this is the term used back then for the census to denote that she took care of their home.  The census also listed that William Carl could not read or write, so it is likely he had not ye...