The following thoughts followed spending last month, probably averaging 6 hours a day, on Ancestry.com.
My family consists of three main branches that I was familiar with up until a couple of months ago when I learned about another one. The three branches I was familiar with were
The Alstroms - My fathers side of the family, which, since my parents were divorced when I was very young, I knew very little about. Also my father hated his parents, who had never kept it a secret from him that he had been an unwanted child, and never spoke about them during the times when he would come to visit me. The only item he ever mentioned about his father was that he owned a beach house in Rehobeth Beach, Deleware, which he told me I would inherit some day and that I should be prepared to accept that much responsibility. I presume he mean't after he inherited it. (This never happened). I learned from my mother that my paternal grandfather was a drunk and that my paternal grandmother's name was Mabel. My father and grandfather were also of Swedish descent. I learned on Ancestry.com that my Father's paternal grandfather, Andrew Gustavis Alstrom was born in Skaroberg, Sweden and came to America, at the age of 20, in 1868, settling in Frankfort Kantucky, After marrying, he soon moved to Baltimore, Md., which became their permanent home and the birthplace of my father. I figure he probably moved to Maryland because it has a large Swedish community.
My grandfather and grandmother, Mr. and Mrs. John Thomas Alstrom, Sr., visited me only once when I was about ten years old. I lived with my maternal grandmother in a small apartment in West Los Angeles, and they stopped by for a visit and to meet me. Right after they left, I said to my grandmother, "I'm glad they're gone, now I can go out and play." They overheard me as they were walking down the stairs from our apartment and wrote a letter to my grandmother about it. I learned on Ancestry.com that he died a year or two after that one meeting.
There's other stuff about this side of my family, I'm finding out on Ancestry.com, but I won't go into all that now, because I don't want this entry to be book.
The Mannings of Wichita, Kansas and the Johnsons of Sulphur Springs, TexasMy mother's (Frances Louise Alstrom, nee Johnson,) mother, my grandmother Johnson, was a Manning, from Wichita, Kansas, before marrying her husband Raleigh Homer Johnson, a railway postal clerk, from Sulphur Springs, Texas. I always got the feeling that, not only Grandmother, but also her family, thought she married below her. The Johnson family in Sulphur Springs, Texas were farmers and very poor, not that the Mannings of Wichita were particularly educated. Both family members never graduated high school. However, the Mannings did seem to make something of themselves in the world. My great uncle, Phillip Manning, at 16 dropped out of school to work in a grocery story. At 21 he bought the grocery store. The grocery story grew into a supermarket, and he became mayor of Wichita (1946-47). My grandmother Johnson, who also dropped out of high school, later went to a business college and then taught secretarial skills at the college. She and my mother and then myself were all very competent secretaries. That's how I learned my extensive computer skills, which seems to be rare for seniors like myself.
My grandmother and grandfather Johnson had a very unhappy marriage and later divorced. My mother and grandmother always called my grandfather Raleigh, and I only just learned that his family always called him Homer, which was actually his middle name. They obviously didn't think much of the name Homer. I know my mother thought farmers were the lowest people on earth. She always called people farmers whom she thought were the worst. My mother was also always ashamed about being from Wichita, Kansas. I think my father didn't help in that regard either. He considered his family from Maryland far superior, and Maryland a much better and more prestigious place to be from. I think he thought he married down, too. I don't think he ever met the Johnson's or ever wanted to, and hadn't much to do with the Mannings.
The Lawrences originally from Kentucky but moved to Sulphur Springs, Texas
I only recently learned that the Johnson family, our Texas branch, had their own branch, the Lawrences. My great-grandmother on my Johnson side had the maiden name of Lawrence, whom I got the impression the Johnson family thought superior to themselves. I don't know if these two families, other than Elizabeth Jane, my great-grandmother had much to do with one another.
I'm coming to the great irony. Keep patient.My mother once told me that she had never investigated the Johnson family heritage because she was scared that maybe there had been Negros in it, because so many "colored people" had the last name of Johnson. My mother was terrified that maybe she had Negro blood in her.
On Ancestry.com, I did extensive research on the Johnson family, which out of her racial prejudice my mother was too fearful to do. I learned that the Johnson's ancestors were the Plantagenet family of England and that my 18 great-grandfather was King Edward III of England. King Edward III was the king just before Richard the Second. Before this all the Johnson ancestory were English and French royalty. William the Conqueror was my 26th great-grandfather. I've relayed this information to my Johnson cousin who is now 86, but I don't think she could care less. How the future generations from English royalty ended up as Texas farmers must be some story.
Below is my family tree on my mother's father's side, from William the Conqueror, but it still goes back much further than that--to the Vikings.
(Information from Ancestry.com)
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William I
[aka William the Conqueror] |
William I Conqueror (1024 - 1087) is my 26th great grandfather
Henry I Beauclerc (1068 - 1135)
Son of William I
Empress Matilda Countess of Anjou England (1102 - 1167)
Daughter of Henry I
Henry II, Curtmantle, King of England, Plantagenet (1133 - 1189)
Son of Empress Matilda Countess of
John "Lackland" King of England Plantagenet (1166 - 1216)
Son of Henry II, Curtmantle, King of England,
HENRY III King of England PLANTAGENET (1207 - 1272)Son of John "Lackland" King of England
King Edward I of England Edward Plantagenet (1239 - 1307)Son of HENRY III King of England
 |
Empress Matilda
Countess of Anjou England |
King Edward II Plantagenet (1284 - 1327)Son of King Edward I of England Edward
Edward III "King of England" Plantagenet (1312 - 1377)Son of King Edward II
John Beauford of Gaunt, Duke of Aquitaine, "1st Duke of Lancaster" King of Castile Plantagenet (1340 - 1399)Son of Edward III "King of England"
Joan Plantagenet Lady Countess Westmoreland Beaufort (1375 - 1445)Daughter of John Beauford of Gaunt, Duke of Aquitaine, "1st Duke of Lancaster" King of Castile
Richard Knight of the Garter 5th Earl of Salisbury Neville (1400 - 1460)Son of Joan Plantagenet Lady Countess Westmoreland
George (Archbishop of York and Chancellor of England) Neville (1432 - 1476)Son of Richard Knight of the Garter 5th Earl of Salisbury
Alice Neville (1445 - 1498)Daughter of George (Archbishop of York and Chancellor of England)
Brian Tunstall (1480 - 1513)Son of Alice
Brian de Tunstall (1510 - 1539)Son of Brian
Richard Tunstall (1539 - 1586)Son of Brian de
Edmund Tunstall (1585 - 1635)Son of Richard
Edmund Tunstall or Turnstall (1628 - 1694)Son of Edmund
Marshall Tunstall (1673 - 1699)Son of Edmund
Jane Tunstall (1700 - 1751)Daughter of Marshall
Roger Quarles II (1720 - 1790)Son of Jane
 |
Harrison "Hal" Johnson
My great grandfather |
John Quarles (1746 - 1789)Son of Roger
Lucy Quarles (1786 - 1854)Daughter of John
Moses J. Johnson Jr. (1832 - 1900)Son of Lucy
Harrison "Hal" C. Johnson (1854 - 1922)Son of Moses J.
[my great grandfather]
Raleigh Homer Johnson (1885 - 1952)Son of Harrison "Hal" C.
[my grandfather]
Frances Louise Johnson (1919 - 1983)Daughter of Raleigh Homer
 |
Raleigh Homer Johnson
My maternal grandfather |
Gayle Manning AlstromThat's me.
