Chapter 3: The Johnsons

My Johnson line, as far back as I can trace it, hails from Butler and Logan Counties of Kentucky. Their surname was most likely Johnston prior to being Johnson. Family history has my Johnson line as being Scotch-Irish. Adam Johnson is my oldest traceable ancestor and I found some records with him being named Adam Johnston. He was most likely born in 1770 in modern day Kentucky (possibly Virginia at the time). Other family traditions has our Johnsons as being Swedish. The Johns(t)on surname is much more likely to be English/Scottish (or Scotch-Irish in our case) than of a Swedish lineage, but that does not make a case for the Scotch-Irish connection. The verdict is still out.

Now there were multiple Johnson lines marring into each other. This could also account differing accounts of the family ethnic ancestry, i.e. Swedish/Scotch-Irish accounts. For example; Adam Johns(t)on married Rebecca Johnson, daughter of Henry Johnson (b. 1755 in NC).Whether one, both or neither of the families were of Scotch-Irish decent, is still unknown, but for certain, two families of the Johnson surname married. Then a few generations later, a Henry Manalcus Johnson (descendant of Adam) and a Susan Alice Johnson (possible decedent of Adam but could be a different line) married in Hickman Country, Kentucky in abt. 1878.That could actually be a third Johns(t)on family marring into the line.

Adam Johnson was my 3^rd great grandfather. As stated above, he was born around 1770 in KY or VA. He married Rebecca Johnson.  Adam and Rebecca had at least seven children. The were: William S. Johnson, b. 1809, Henry A. Johnson, b. 1811, Robert S. Johnson, b. 1815, Elizabeth Johnson, b. 1821, Drusilla Johnson, b. 1825 and Rebecca Johnson, b. unknown. Unfortunately, she passed away in 1845 so there are no census records to give me an approximate birth date. She married Amos Talley.