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...I am no expert
on the origins and migrations of our mutual
ancestors, but can say with some authority that
most of those ancestors landed in America many
years before Ellis Island (famed immigration
center at New York City's harbour - Editor's
remark) was even built...
...Your mother's mother, Pearl, had an English
father, Will Turner, who came into this country
via Canada in the late 1800's or early 1900's.
Pearl's mother was a German girl whose parents,
named Zimmerman, lived in Wisconsin, I believe,
in the early 1900's. They may have come
through Ellis Island...
...As for my own lineage, my father's people came
to America before the revolutionary war (1775-1783
- Editor's remark). My mother's people,
named Johnson, or Johnston, on her father's side,
and Massey on her mother's side were around in
the days of Daniel Boone. Her grandfather, Dr.
Massey, was the only doctor in S.E. Missouri
before the civil war.
My elderly uncle Al, who died in 1950 told me
bits about my mother's Massey and Johnson
kinfolks. A Massey uncle settled in Littleton,
Colorado, at the end of the Indian wars and
raised race horses. Two Johnson brothers (twins,
actually, by the names of Alfred and Albert -
Editor's remark) went to California in the
1849 gold rush. Struck it rich! Going home
through Texas, they bought 14000 acres of land
where Fort Worth now stands. As years passed the
holding became worth $5,000,000. Neither brother
could read or write, they hired a lawyer to guide
them. He cheated them out of every cent they had.
Impossible as it may seem, there were a couple of
black sheep among our sterling ancestry. A great
grand uncle, Bill Massey, killed a boy and a
fiddler friend during the civil war. A great
grand uncle, Jake Johnson, who was a riverboat
gambler, died of pneumonia after escaping the law
by swimming the Mississippi River... |
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