Granddad discovers his 5th great-grandfather Samuel Johnson served in the American Revolution and more…
(Featured Image: My 5th Great Grandmother Antje Anny Brower)
Yesterday, I decided to do a little work on my family tree.I realized that I had never put in the information that I had discovered about my 4th great-grandmother Eleanor Johnson Cliver. When I first researched Eleanor and found her death certificate it said that her father was Daniel Johnson of Monmouth County. I searched and searched for a Daniel who could be Eleanor’s father but never could find anyone. Then one day on Ancestry, I came across an abstract from a will that listed Eleanor Johnson, wife of Samuel Cliver! Eleanor is one of eight children of Samuel Johnson and Antje Anney Brower. Now what I hadn’t done until yesterday was enter all that information i.e. her parents and siblings.
When I did enter the information those ubiquitous green hint leaves.One of those hints lead me to Fold3.com where I discovered that Samuel Johnson had received a pension for his service in the American Revolution! My wife and I have preliminarily read through the pension file and it appears that Samuel was a private and served in several units. When I get all of the information digested I will post the information. Now this may not by exciting for everyone but for me it’s the first of my ancestors I know of, who fought in the Revolution!
This morning my wife informed me that because I put in the information yesterday a 5th to 8th cousin match came in for me. The match was with a descendant of Eleanor’s sister Phoebe Johnson! This is one of the first matches that I have with someone whom I don’t know how I am related to them. My two closest matches are with cousins who we know.
Yesterday, I also added Samuel Johnson’s father Hendrick Johnson (Jansen?) who was born in New Utrecht, Kings,NJ? NY in on April 1, 1732 (my son Andrew’s birthday is April 1st!!). At Family Search, there are baptismal records and a family tree for Hendrick that I will have to check out! It seems that Samuel also has several siblings, whose information I will need to put into my tree and who knows, what green hint leaves my come up!! Thank you Ancestry!!
Featured Image: My 5th Great Grandmother Antje Anny Brower
Karn-Ashton Family Tree @ Ancestry.com