Our American Family
Our American Family
Compiled by John Henry Johnson
Introduction
Spring 2025
WELCOME COUSINS Over 15,000 relatives are here! Feel free to send a link to this page to relatives. Email me to be on my list, which I send out when I update this site.
This website is best viewed on a computer because of the thousands of photographs, maps, and illustrations, many of which are very large.
If you love puzzles, that’s genealogy, the most incredibly large and complex puzzle ever imagined!
You’re not only looking for WHO people were, but WHERE they were and even WHEN they were.
As a genealogist, you try to imagine an ancestor’s life. You try to get into their minds to discover how they lived and what their world was really like. You build their story one clue at a time.
My Great Grandparents James and Mary (Hurt) Johnson’s 55th wedding anniversary in 1940 at Pueblo, Colorado’s City Park. The headline on the back of this page reads “SPREAD OF WAR SEEMS MORE IMMINENT.” In this photograph are many Grandparents, Great Grandparents, 2nd Great Grandparents, and possibly even 3rd Great Grandparents. If you have this photograph please email me. Also, if you recognize the children in this photograph, tell me their names. I know the boy with blond hair on the left end is Doyle Johnson, but the other 12 are unknown. These children were all born in the late 1920s or 1930s
Toward the bottom of this page is a list of the many Grandfathers from the Johnson, Hurt, and the 2 distinct Ryan lines involved in many early American events from the French & Indian War up to the Civil War. They are listed along with their relationship to the Baby Boomer generation.
Our family has been involved with American history since the very beginning!
William Henry “Bill” and Roea “Roy” (Ryan) Johnson family c. 1950 in front of Grandpa’s store 306 W. Corona Ave. in Pueblo.
L to R: Gene Johnson, Madeline (Johnson) Barnett, Doyle Johnson, Grandmother Roea “Roy” (Ryan) Johnson, Buddy Johnson, Shirley (Johnson) Schrank, and Grandfather Bill Johnson.
Because of a major software update, at the very bottom of this page under “Contents” are clickable lists that make finding different ancestor groups easy to access. These groups are:
Home
Place Index
Births, Marriages & Deaths
Burial Places
Immigrants to America
1607 Jamestown Colony
1654-1763 French & Indian Wars Soldiers
1775-1783 Revolutionary War Soldiers
1774-1850 Early Indian Wars Soldiers
1812-1815 War of 1812 Soldiers
1846-1848 Mexican War Soldiers
1861-1865 Civil War - Confederate Soldiers
1861-1865 Civil War - Union Soldiers
1851-1900 Late Indian Wars Soldiers & Federal Marshalls
1872 Colorado Fuel & Iron Workers & Miners
1898-1902 Spanish American War Soldiers
1917-1918 World War I Soldiers
1941-1945 World War II Soldiers
1950-1953 Korean War Soldiers
Later conflicts have living individuals and are not listed.
These new clickable lists allow you to easily delve into the middle of our family's extremely rich history!
Also, click on a person’s name to read about their lives or click on the small cameras to see their images.
I collect living relatives too, though, on this website, only their initials and last names show. Only our deceased relatives are shown.
To see if you’re listed here, find a close deceased relative and if I know of you, you should be close by.
At left, the Giovanni Battista “John” and Antonia Maria “Mary” (Goettina) Trabucco family c. 1917 Cañon City, Colorado.
L to R: standing are Grandmother Mary (Goettina) Trabucco, Matilda Marie “Tillie” (Trabucco) Johnson, seated are Pete Trabucco, and Grandfather John Trabucco.
This site is for my relatives, your children, grandchildren, and your great grandchildren.
1st Cousins - We share Grandparents and have 25% of their DNA.
BARNETT: Alwina "Kay", Gloria Gayle, William Arthur "Billy"
JOHNSON: Felectia Ann, James Doyle "Jim", Linda Katherine, Madeline Carroll, Mark Andrew, Phillip Michael "Mike", William Eugene "Bill"
SCHRANK: Cynthia Ann “Cindy”, Pamela Grace "Pam"
TRABUCCO: Joann Marie, Nina Loren
2nd Cousins - We share Great Grandparents and 12.5% of their DNA.
Please email me if I missed you or a sibling on my list.
AKERS: Edward Leon "Butch", Geraldine Marie, Laura Pauline, Preston Clawvel
AVARA: Roger, Sharon
BALLESIO: Gianfranco, Rosanna, Silvia
BARTLETT: Hoy Richard Jr.
BATISTA: Gerald Michael “Jerry” Sr., James Albert, Janice Marie, John Allen
BEHNER: Neleta Ann, Raymond Kenneth, Roy Fred, Wanda LaRean “Wendy”
BESSO: Charles James Jr., James Kenneth, John J., Mary Kay, Pete
BIOLETTO: Giuseppe
CORNELLA: Madeline Antionette “Nibbs”
CORRELL: Alfred Allen, Linda Marie
CRAIN: Alvis Lowell Jr., Deborah Lucille
FRANCISETTI: Fernanda, Francesca
FRILEY: Lois Burlene
FRULLO: Jeanne Arlene, John LeRoy
GOGLIO: David Joseph, Donald Lewis, Frances Marie, Frank Virgil “Pups” Jr., Jacob "Jack", Joseph Robert, Katherine P. “Katsy”, Lois, Madeline, Mary Marguerite, Richard James, Thomas Anthony, Wilma Arlene
GRISWOLD: Derek Duran, Harold "Hays" Jr., Robin Gay, Sigrid Michelle
GRISWOULD: Deana Ilene, Dreama Rayln, Gregory Grant, Kristi Kay, Rhonda Ranae
HINDMAN: Barbara Joan, Diane Lavon, James Markel, Nancy Kathleen
HUGHES: Colleen Faye
JOHNSON: Amethyst Kay, Mary Ellen, Robert Dale, Vickie Leon
KEILMAN: Birtie Louella
KNIGHT: Betty Jo, Joseph George Jr.
LEONE: Alida, Franca
McINTOSH: Jacqueline Louise
McKEE: Elaine Marie, James Henry III, Joseph Roger
PIERCE: Christine Lee, Lora Lorraine
PISTONO: Annarita, Giovanni Jr.
POWERS: Clifford Eugene, Leesa Johnell, Rebecca Arlene “Becky”
ROOT: Aurelia Joann, Billi Jean, Charles Thomas "Chuck", Edith Lavillian, Elizabeth Jo, Emma Elmodene, Guelda Louise, Jimmy Wayne, Leona Marie "Onie", Loretta Kay, Lula May "Corky", Marvinia Margret, Muriel Renee, Robert Frank, Vivian Louise
ROSER: April Lee, Cynthia L., Denise Ann, Georgia Ellen, Kyle Micah, Renee Louise, Vernon Clee
SANDRETTO: Angelo, Aurelia
SCAVARDA: Angelo, Maria
SCHNEIDER: Gail Marie
SHAW: Charles Marvin, Christine Sue, Della Lula
STEWARD: Karen Juanita, Sandy Kay, Sharon Anita
STRONG: Charlie Henderson, Harold Dean, Royal Grant, Westly Floyd, William Roy
STUCKEY: John
TABOR: Frank
TORNIERO: Danilo, Walter
TRABUCCO: Dario, Mariella, Monica, Paolo
TURNER: Clarice Jean, Maureen J.
TYE: Jack Westley, Joshua Beacraft
VALENZANO: Anna, Emily Katherine, Madeline, Minnie, Viola
WARREN: Edith Marie “Edie”, Gloria Jean, Jacolyn Faye “Jacci”, Patricia Ann, Robert Duane Sr., Thomas Farrel
WATTS: Gina Kay, John Lee, Neal Gene, Roy Lynn, Scott Alan
WOODWORTH: Connie Marlene, Karla Irene
WYLIE: Richard Edward, Robert Joseph “Bob”
3rd Cousins - We share Great Great Grandparents and possibly 6.25% of their DNA.
3rd cousin is a very useful genetic distance for discovering new information about ancestors! I’d love to meet you! Email me, particularly if you can’t find your name here. Many of my most important discoveries have been made working with 3rd cousins.
ADCOCK: Charlene Kay
AIMONE: Alan Conrad, Bette Adele
BEACHAM: Connie, Tami L.
BERRY: Jerry Ruethel
BEVANS: Cran William II, Jack Joe, Karen Sue, Rebecca Lynn, Weston Lee
BODINE: Jill B.
BORGQUIST: “Oscarcastro77”, “721moe”
BROWN: Adella Marlyene, Doyle Dean, Dwight Darell, Kay Lynn, Arletta June
CALDWELL: John
CARL: Marlena
COMPTON: Margaret Ann
CORNELL: Shannon C.
DAVIS: Wanda Jo
DE MARCO: Bruno, Nora
DUFFIELD: Bobbie G., Mary Elizabeth
EMBICK: Edward Michael Jr., Joel Robert, Roberta M.
GRABER: “Amishterrorist”
GREGORY: David Allen, Evelyn Jane, Florence Ann, Hazel Bee, Janelle Louise, Lily Pearl, Roberta Faye
HAMNER: Anna Lorraine, Catherine Joanna
HARRISON: David Michael
HARTLE: Denise A., John Mark, William Allen
HILLYARD: Hermie
HUDSON: “Wright1575”
HUGHES: “Dahammer73”
HURT: Audery, Chester, John V. Jr., Johnnie Ann
JOHNSON: Beverly Mae, Brenda Louise, Cecil Bruce, Cheryl, Chris William, Donald Lee, Georgia Annie, Gerald Lee, Gwenda Lea, Harry Clark, Joel David, Kenneth Loyd, Kristi Lynette, Lyndon Clark, Michael Louis, Nancy Gayle, Patrice Diann, Peggy Nell, Phillis Ann, Retha Gale, Rusty Curtis, Sheila Janice, Steven Neil, Teresa, Teresa Jean, Vickie Lynn, Wally Noel, Wayne Howard
KIDD: Elizabeth Charlene
LAUGHLIN: Elba M., Neil Leon
LEWIS: Dustin, Dustin, Matthew Thomas
LUPINSKI: Charlean Elizebeth
MAUTINO: Maresa
MICHELA: Andrea Marie, Vanessa Catherine
MITCHELL: Royal G.
OLSON: Caroline J., Charles Jerry, Donna Maye, Everett, James Norman Sr., Robert O.
PERKINS: Daniel Luther, Kristine Helen, L. P.
PETERSON: Bruce, Gwendolyn D.
ROACH: Carlton Merle, Carolyn Louise, Lucy Faye, Margaret Ann, Patricia Mae, Robert Earl
RYAN: Danny Michael Sr., Eugene Royal, Jack E. III, Kathryn Lee
SMITH: Larry Lee
STEWARD: Howard Lee, Sharyn Kay
SURVILL: Yvonne
THOMPSON: Jaunita, Marjorie Pauline, W. S.
THURSTON: Linda Lou, Michael
TOMLIN: Barbara
TORNATORE: Jenelle M., Joyce A., Linda L., Nora S., Sue E.
TRABUCCO: Carla, Danilo, Paola
DNA testing and the Web:
Thanks to the science of genetic DNA, without which the extremely early information here would still be unknown. Genealogical DNA has given me many new cousins and friends that I would never have found otherwise.
This is the “golden age” of genealogy, with powerful computers on a fast internet, using marvelous genealogy software, and websites like Ancestry, Family Tree DNA, MyHeritage, and GEDmatch. Today, millions upon millions of people are searching AND sharing information. Considerable information has been discovered recently by more people more quickly than at any other time in history! In a few short years, genealogy has gone from dusty old library books to amazing, cutting-edge DNA technology.
If you’re on Ancestry, please 1. do a DNA test and 2. tie it to your tree
otherwise, you won’t be getting your money’s worth. Ancestry will link you with verified DNA relatives, proving your shared ancestry! Ancestry DNA information can then be easily transferred to other companies like Family Tree DNA if you want to connect with other relatives who might not be on Ancestry.
Any individual on this site with the DNA icon is a proven John H. Johnson direct line ancestor and for whom I have no other image at this time.
The Autosomal DNA test (for men and women) gives you cousins on both sides of your family back 5 generations. I currently have over 43,000 cousins on Ancestry and gain about 100 “new” cousins per day. However, of these 43,000, only about 200 have significant new genealogy information. Only with your DNA tied to your tree (even a tiny one) can you get any value from these companies. Right now I have almost 5,000 Autosomal cousins.
If you’re a JOHNSON male on Family Tree DNA, please test your Y-DNA at the highest level possible. The more men that test their Y-DNA, the more our Johnson line is proven and possibly the earlier we can go back in time. Right now, we’re stuck in 1779 Kentucky.
Y-DNA testing (for men only) can give your direct male line back to the beginning. The more markers you test for, the more information you’ll possibly receive. They range from Y12, Y25, Y37 (useless), Y67, and Y111 (much better) to the best, the ultimate, the Big Y-700, which places your line on the world’s male population tree.
The larger the sampling, the more expensive and the more valuable and useful it is. Right now I have only 72 Big Y-700 male line cousins close to me on the tree, of which only 7 are very closely related in time, and I formed a Johnson research group.
DNA is changing the world; in the not-too-distant future, the drugs you take will be tailor-made for your DNA and its genetic variations!
Buddy & Tillie (Trabucco) Johnson family Summer 1957.
Taken just outside the entrance to Carlsbad Caverns Carlsbad National Park, New Mexico. L to R: Kitty (Johnson) Therwhanger, Tillie (Trabucco) Johnson, Pat (Johnson) Ponikvar, Buddy Johnson, and in front is me, John Johnson.
Major Contributors:
I thank my best friend, the late Michael Martinez, who taught me genealogy, a hobby that has greatly enriched my life.
Many relatives have contributed information you can find here, and I credit everyone for their contributions.
First, I thank 2nd cousin (or 2C) Della (Shaw) Bailey and her mother 1st cousin 1 generation removed (or 1C1R) Vivian (Root) Reeves 
of Missouri, they provided me with the core of our RYAN history. They knew about BOTH our unrelated Ryan lines! Both our Great Great Grandfathers late in life were Sunday preachers, William G. “Billy” Ryan (1826-1903) (left) and Wiley Jay Ryan (1840-1907) (right). Though their children married, they didn’t like each other, possibly because of the Civil War. My Grandmother Roea (Ryan) Johnson said she would go one Sunday to her Grandpa Billy’s church, and the next Sunday she’d go to Grandpa Wiley’s church!
WANTED: Does anyone have a document that proves William G. “Billy” Ryan was a Confederate? He signed a “Loath of Allegiance” to the Union in September 1862, but at that time in Missouri, they shot you on the spot IF you didn’t sign!
WANTED: Does anyone have an image of Charles Henry Hurt? Or have information about his time during the Civil War as a “bushwhacker”? Some information suggests he was in the Union Army, while an oral history has him as a bushwhacker who guarded his family and farm from all the rogue irregulars and renegades who roamed during the war years exploiting and terrorizing farms which had no men at home from the war.
Other pivotal cousins without which I could not have found what is here:
For Dad’s Johnson and related families, I thank 3C Gerald Johnson’s wife Karen (Hay) Johnson of Texas. She found me through DNA on GEDmatch and showed me our actual Johnson lineage. Her husband Gerald and I share 2G Grandparents Clark Lawrence Johnson (1833-1901) and Sarah Ann Stockdell (1837-1863). I’m forever indebted to Karen because, for decades, I looked in the wrong places for the wrong names. NOTE: Oral histories can be wrong!
To 3C1R Alice (Stockdell) Nash of Illinois, who firmly established that 2G Grandfather Clark Lawrence Johnson’s first wife was Sarah Ann Stockdell who was our 2G Grandmother.
WANTED: Does anyone have an image of Sarah Ann Stockdell?
To half 2C1R Rhomer Johnson of Nevada, he guided me to our shared 2G Grandfather Clark Lawrence Johnson’s second family with his wife Vienna “Vina” McClure. Rhomer and I share Clark’s parents, our 3G Grandparents Matthew Johnson (1812-1864) and Mary J. “Polly” Cox (1812-1885).
For Mom’s Trabucco and related families, I thank 3C Bruno De Marco from Moncalieri, Italy. He found this site on the internet and emailed me. Amazing how the internet has made the world a much smaller place. Bruno and I are rediscovering our Trabucco ancestors. We share 2G Grandparents Giovanni Battista Trabucco (1832-1895) and Maria Domenica Berttotti (1838-1910).
In the map at right, for centuries, Alpette was Grandma (Goettina) Trabucco’s family village and Agliè was Grandpa Trabucco’s, both north of Torino, Italy, and not far from the Alps or France and Switzerland.
With 7C1R Bonnie Vaccaro of Utah, we share 7G Grandparents Pietro Giuseppe Trabucco (1724-1753) and Barbara Gioanne Furno (1727-1807). Bonnie searches Agliè’s Catholic church records revealing many centuries of generations. Bonnie does it right, by finding an ancestor’s birth/baptism, wedding, and death records, many of which I’ve attached to several individuals here.
Helping with my Grandmother Mary Goettina’s lines, I thank 6C1R Professor Scott Swanson of Indiana, who researched extensive church records in the mountain town of Alpette, Italy. By the way, Scott is a professor of Medieval history. For many centuries our ancestors lived in the same tiny alpine village, and his research has been invaluable.
And finally, to our JOHNSON research group: Karen (Hay) Johnson, Rhomer Johnson, Jackie (Cothern) Boatman, Vivs Laliberte, Donald Johnson, David Johnson, and Bruce Wells, cousins who hail from all parts of America and Canada, thanks everyone for helping to find our way through the much too common “Johnson” surname back centuries. We’re still searching to discover the very first Johnson who came to America. Currently, we’re stuck shortly after the Revolutionary War!
All these relatives and friends are excellent family historians, and I’m happy and lucky to have found them thanks to DNA.
Many, many other relatives have provided information, and their names are listed in Sources or credited in an ancestor’s Notes. To read more about an ancestor, click on their name to see detailed information and my sources.
To all who have helped with what is here, Thank You!
The “Old World”
Recently, my son Thomas and I visited Ellis Island, and our appreciation for our immigrant ancestors’ courage and grit for coming to America greatly increased!
The Atlantic passage was so terrible that some immigrants prayed their ship would sink to end the seemingly endless journey on board the appallingly overcrowded and often sick ships.
Once in America, many suffered discrimination and lived hard lives as farmers, laborers, miners, mill workers, or blacksmiths, often with the added burden of learning English.
Among the 10,245 families I have gathered on this site, you will find ancestors who came to America from: Austria, Canada, Czechoslovakia, England, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Poland, Prussia, Russia, Scotland, Serbia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Ukraine, Wales, and Yugoslavia.
America is truly the melting pot of the world!
A foreign flag means this is an immigrant ancestor to America or a relative who remained in Europe, and I don’t have other images.
Great Grandparents Pietro and Caterina (Michela) Trabucco’s 1925 family reunion in Agliè, Italy. Grandfather John and Grandmother Mary (Goettina) Trabucco returned to Italy with 13-year-old Matilda (Trabucco) Johnson, who stands at left behind her parents who are seated with 10-year-old son Pete Trabucco sitting in front. Grandpa Trabucco sits next to his mother, Great Grandmother Caterina Matilde (Michela) Trabucco, and John’s father, Great Grandfather Pietro Trabucco.
Standing behind and to the right of Grandpa Trabucco stand his sister Caterina, brother Giovanni, and sister Margherita. Seated below Caterina is their brother Zio, and to the right, seated with her family, is Grandpa’s sister Maria. Grandpa’s siblings’ children make up the rest of the group. To my Italian cousins, if you know the children’s names in this photograph, please email me. They were born in the late teens or 1920s.
Mom was in Paris on her 13th birthday, and they bought her a black parasol. This was a significant visit, for this was the last time Grandpa and Grandma saw his parents and their siblings and the single time in their lives that Matilda and Pete would ever meet their grandparents and cousins.
An “American Genealogy”
My initial goal was to create an “American Genealogy” tracing ALL my lines back to the person who first came to these shores. A goal that still eludes me and will probably never be completed. I’m back in the 1700s and 1600s with many families, and there is still no ship in sight!
For the immigrants themselves, I created an Immigrant sailing ship image, which is attached to our ancestors who came from Europe for a new life in America.
To see our Immigrants to America ancestors, click in the Contents section below.
Also on this site are included my wife Nadine (Milosavich) Johnson, brother-in-laws Wiley Therwhanger and Joe Ponikvar, and son-in-law Colin Stark’s genealogies. I have done some work on your American genealogies, but check for mistakes or omissions if this is important to you.
Hopefully, there’s enough information on all the many related families to help you in your quest to learn about your roots.
Nick & Esther (Gomey) Milosavich family 1969 Pueblo.
L to R standing: Mike Milosavich, Kenny Milosavich, Garry Milosavich, Dennis Milosavich, Nadine (Milosavich) Johnson, seated Esther (Gomey) Milosavich and Nick Milosavich. I took this shortly after I met my wife-to-be and her family.
Ancestors at War
Our Johnson, Hurt, and 2 Ryan ancestors were in many of America's conflicts.
During the Revolutionary War, we have 91 relatives or their spouses who fought or supported the Revolution. Most are not direct-line ancestors, and I’m sure that the total number will undoubtedly grow as I discover more men of this period.
5G Grandfather Peter Brakebill (1760-1844) was with George Washington crossing the Delaware (shown in the masthead painting above by Emanuel Leutze) before the Battle of Trenton (New Jersey). 6G Grandfathers Christopher Moyers, Jr. (1748-1815), William Stanley (1710-1784), and Bennett Munford Tuck (1710-1781) were with Washington at Valley Forge (Pennsylvania). Their government paystubs list this and can be found here.
5G Grandfather Captain David Shely (1750-1823), his father, 6G Grandfather John Shock Shely (1723-1821), and his father-in-law, also a 6G Grandfather Henry Hurst (1729-1801), were all Virginia Revolutionary War volunteers. We have ancestors during this period from most of the eastern seaboard states.
Our Grandfathers were in the revolution’s Battle of Kings Mountain (South Carolina), such as 6G Grandfather John Blackburn (1740-1808), 5G Grandfathers Jacob Brown (1736-1785), and Anthony Patton (1760-1828). Others like 5G
Grandfather John Charles Cummings (1762-1826) and 5G Grandfather Benjamin Hurt (1746-1796) were in the fife and drum corps. They faced the mighty British army with a mere fife or drum instead of a musket.
Many of these conflicts and battles are probably ones you’ve never heard of. We have over 31 ancestors in the War of 1812, including 3G Grandfather Abner Ryan (1794-1865) and (unrelated) 4G Grandfather Henry Fuller Ryan (1795-1860), along with 4G Grandfather Andrew Wright (1791-1865). Henry Fuller Ryan’s son, 3G Grandfather Morgan Ryan (1817-1895), was in the Second Seminole Indian War (Florida), while 4G Grandfather John Shock (1771-1854) fought in The Old Northwest Indian Wars’ Battle of Fallen Timbers (Ohio).
A more complete and clickable list of Our Grandfathers in war and events can be found at the bottom of this page. It is amazing how many of our Johnson, Hurt, and 2 Ryan ancestors were involved!
Individuals’ military records, can be seen by clicking on the camera near their name to see the actual documents.
During the Civil War, we had participants on both sides, though no direct line Confederate Johnson or Ryan ancestors have yet been found. Currently, we have a total of 77 Union and 39 Confederate relatives which I discovered.
3G Grandfather Sandifer H. Hurt (1823-1861) who also had previously fought in the Second Seminole Indian War (Florida) was killed in the First Battle of Springfield (Missouri).
3G Grandfather Hiram Tuck (1807-1866) fought for the Union, as did Union Private 2G Grandfather Wiley Jay Ryan (1840-1907). Wiley is seen on the masthead of this page and on the right above. Wiley fought in the Battle of Spring Hill (Tennessee) and was wounded during the Battle of Franklin (Tennessee), where 6 Confederate generals were killed. His 1904 photograph came from 2C2R Olen Ross Gowens through 4C Esther Lebeck.
An ancestor with a soldier’s image is a military ancestor I have no photograph of. If you have any early soldiers’ images in uniform, I’d love to see them. If there’s information about a battle or an event that a person was in, I’ve found historical paintings of the event, so there's LOTS of American history here.
Ancestors at Peace
Most of our male ancestors followed more peaceful pursuits as farmers, shopkeepers, doctors, judges, or teachers. Great Grandfather Hiram Monroe Ryan (1868-1904) built the first (and probably the only) steam-powered merry-go-round! In colonial America, our relatives were government officials, a governor or two, state supreme court justices, and even a spy in the war.
We have relatives who were musicians and writers. Grandfather William Henry Johnson (1896-1980) was a shopkeeper and salesman who loved writing short stories and poems his entire life or his son Buddy Johnson (1919-1986) who was on television and radio for decades, had a band “The Colorado Rangers” for 40 years and knew all the Western stars of the 1950s. My book about Dad can be found at https://buddyjohnson.net.
Our Grandmothers
Our Grandmothers were women of grit and courage, often having numerous children, many of whom died as infants or very young. One woman, who is not a direct ancestor had 22 children while another had 17. Ten or more children was not unusual among our female ancestors. Often, women died in childbirth or shortly thereafter, as did 2G Grandmother Sarah Ann Stockdell (1837-1863) shortly after having Great Grandfather James Albert Johnson (1863-1948) during the Civil War.
Many grandmothers remarried after their husbands died in war or were killed by Indians. They were spirited women like 2G Grandmother Margaret Ann Burke (1840-1930) (shown at the left. She argued with renegades who tore off her porch to roast her cattle, which they butchered in her yard. Her husband, 2G Grandfather Charles Henry Hurt (1840-1880), was possibly a bushwhacker or Union soldier, though this is yet to be proven. His father Abner Ryan Sr. (1794-1865), a War of 1812 veteran, was killed at the end of the Civil War by Confederate irregulars. History is messy!
At 16, Great Grandmother Nancy “Nicie” Ann Ryan (1871-1938) eloped with Great Grandfather Hiram Monroe Ryan (1868-1904). Her father, Union Civil War veteran 2G Grandfather Wiley Jay Ryan (1840-1907), followed them and found them stuck in a buggy in the middle of a river at night. He forced them to marry at first light. Monroe died young at 36, leaving his widow Nicie with 7 children to raise. Over the years, Nicie took on 4 additional husbands. Some were older, and she took care of them, and they helped her and her children survive. Her third husband Isaac Willett (1837-1914) served with New York’s 9th cavalry in the Civil War in many battles and was at Appomattox for the conclusion of the Civil War, I have his G.A.R. (Grand Army of the Republic) medal and his Union Army discharge paper seen in the masthead above. When Nicie died decades later as an old woman, she was buried next to Hiram, her first love.
The Tale of 4 Italian sisters circa 1900
And at 16, my Grandmother Antonia Maria “Mary” (Goettina) Trabucco (1892-1957) (left) 
came to America through Ellis Island by herself after her mother died, leaving one sister Govanna “Joanna” (Goiettina) Sandretto (1876-1976) (right) in Italy, who married Giuseppe Sandretto. Many of our current Italian relatives are her descendants.
Mary traveled to join her two older sisters, Madelina and Caterina, who were already in Colorado, where their husbands worked in the coal mines for Rockefeller’s Colorado Fuel and Iron Corporation (CF&I). Little did Mary know that her future husband Grandfather Giovanni Battista “John” Trabucco (1886-1971) had previously sailed to America on the very same ship, the “La Savoie,” which she subsequently took. Though they were from villages only 16 miles apart in Northern Italy, it was only after they each traveled halfway around the world that they met and married in Cañon City, Colorado, in 1911.
NOTE: The American immigrants spelled their name Goettina, while relatives who remained in Italy spell it with an “i” as in Goiettina.
Grandmother Mary and her two older Goettina sisters Madelina “Madeline” (Goettina) Goglio
(1871-1927) (left) who married Giuseppe “Joseph” Goglio in Italy before 1893 and Caterina “Katie” (Goettina) Frullo (1879-1948) (right) who married Giovanni “John” Frullo in Cañon City, Colorado in 1901 had many children whose descendants today are scattered throughout the Western United States.
If you have a Goglio, Frullo, or Sandretto ancestor, you can thank them.
Today, we have numerous relatives of all ages in northern Italy in the Trabucco, Sandretto, and associated families!
The 1968 Johnson reunion, which was organized by Pat Johnson, I photographed at Kitty & Wiley’s house on Chicago Creek south of Idaho Springs, Colorado. What a great time that was!
L to R: sanding: 1. Dewey Barron 2. Madeline (Johnson) Barron 3. young woman in back? 4. Dena Richardson 5. Lucy (Schneider) Barnett 6. Kay (Barnett) Garner 7. Kitty (Johnson) Therwhanger 8. Joe Barnett 9. Tillie (Trabucco) Johnson 10. Madeline (Johnson) Barnett 11. Grandpa Bill Johnson 12. Grandma Roea (Ryan) Johnson 13. Doyle Johnson 14. Katherine (Simons) Johnson 15. Linda (Pitts) Johnson 16. Wiley Therwhanger 17. Phyllis (Wissel) Griswould 17a. Rhonda Griswould 18. Floyd Griswould 19. Sigrid (Fischer) Griswold 20. Harry Griswold 21. Billie (Margurite) Johnson 22. Marty Barnett 23. Billy Gene Johnson (back of his head) 24. Pat (Johnson) Ponikvar 25. Gene Johnson 26. Maria (Ortega) Johnson 27. Jeffery Johnson, in front: 28. Michelle Garner 29. Suzette Barnett 30. Von Therwhanger 31. child’s top of head? 32. Felectia Johnson 33. Wade Therwhanger 34. Greg Griswould 35. Neil Richardson 36. Michael Garner 37. John Johnson 38. Duane Koski. If you know 3 and 31 in this photograph, please email me their names.
We have over 55 men, on both sides of the family, who worked for the influential, behemoth Colorado, Fuel & Iron Corporation, either at the main Pueblo steel mill, on its Colorado & Wyoming railroad, or in the numerous mines scattered across Colorado and the surrounding states. In 1906, the Scientific American Journal estimated that 10 percent of Colorado’s population depended on wages earned from the CF&I or its subsidiaries.
Pueblo the "Steel City of the West,” is where the “Robber Barons,” like the Rockefellers, Goulds, Guggenheims, and Osgoods, sent their kids to train them in the family businesses. After the Civil War, it was located here because of the abundance of water and to help process the mineral wealth of the nearby mountains. It was the only steel mill west of the Mississippi before World War II and its steel was used in major buildings, bridges, and other large structures throughout the Central and Western United States.
The CF&I attracted workers from all over the world as they advertised widely in Europe! At one point, Pueblo had over two dozen foreign language newspapers for all the new arrivals.
To see CF&I ancestors, click the list in Contents below.
Where Our Ancestors Were During the Twentieth Century
The story of our ancestors during the last century is told in the map of Southern Colorado.
The Arkansas River ties many of these sites together as it has always been a natural migration route into Colorado. Many explorers, including Pike, Long, and Fremont (twice), followed the river west. The Arkansas was the only natural route through the Rocky Mountains.
Pueblo is at a point between where the Johnson families settled on the eastern plains at Arlington (east 79 miles) and the western foothills where the Trabucco families settled around Lincoln Park, Brookside, and Rockvale, (west 40 miles). East from Pueblo are the Great Plains back to the Mississippi River, while to the west are the foothills of the Rockies, culminating with the top of the Continental Divide west of Salida, Colorado.
Colorado can roughly be divided up vertically into thirds as to climate and terrain. People think Colorado is only high mountains, but that is only about the middle third. The largest, eastern third is an endless wide-open prairie, while the smallest western third is a country of rock mesas and fertile valleys.
The Johnson, Hurt, and two Ryan families lived for a generation or two in Missouri, primarily in and around the small southeast town of El Dorado Springs, Missouri, having come from Tennessee and Kentucky. The history of our family is that with each generation or two, some moved west.
In 1904, three families, some Johnsons and I think some Hurts, chartered a freight train car that took them to the northwest. Around 1910, they were in Seattle, but by 1915, my Great Grandparents James and Mary (Hurt) Johnson, and some of the others, had moved back to western Kansas. That’s where my Grandparents William “Bill” and Roea “Roy” (Ryan) Johnson were married, and their three oldest children were born.
Around 1921, most of them relocated again to homestead in southeastern Colorado at Arlington, Colorado on Colorado Highway 96. I have copies of their homestead documents attached to each individual. Arlington, during this period, was a booming cattle railhead town of 6,000, which had 6 hotels. Today, only 1 house and the old two-story school are all that remain. The Arlington cemetery, which is on a slight rise northwest a mile or so from the townsite, is a significant cemetery for our family and where James and Mary (Hurt) Johnson and many other relatives are buried and continue to be buried today. It was established there in the 1870s when a posse caught up with a horse thief, shot, and buried him there. It’s well worth a visit to understand the Johnson/Ryan and related families' histories! I have a map attached to many of the relatives who are buried there.
The land near Arlington is so vast that you can see 50 miles, and there’s little there; it’s cattle country, and there’s nothing but prairie for as far as you can see. You will find families such as the Barnetts, Griswoulds, Hindmans, Rosers, Watts, and Woodworths in the lower Arkansas valley. In 1935, my grandparents’ family moved to Pueblo, drawn by the bustling economic activity created by the CF&I.
In general, most of the Johnson/Ryan/Hurt families stayed in El Dorado Springs or in southeastern Missouri, part remained in Seattle and the Pacific Northwest region from that adventure, some remained in northwestern Kansas in the Ellis County area, while most of my line ended up in many of the small towns of southeastern Colorado such as Ordway, Rocky Ford, and Eads, etc. During the twentieth century, most of these relatives were married, raised their families, and were buried here. Most were ranchers or farmers, railroaders, and shopkeepers.
Because Grandma Roea Johnson knew I loved history, she and Aunt Madeline gave me most of the Johnson and earlier generations original photographs, letters, postcards, and other items, many of which are to be found here and attached to various individuals.
And for the Trabucco, Goglio, and Frullo families, the map is relevant too in the Cañon City/Florence area. This is Grandpa Trabucco’s farm with his house, barn, and buildings in Brookside which is a small area just east of Lincoln Park. You can see his white Ford pickup truck parked to the left of the house he built himself. At the center is the barn where in the 1950s he kept his large, white plow horse “Queeney”, and to its left is his chicken coop. On the other side of his house is Colorado Highway 115, and across the highway was the Frullo farm. I shot this photograph in the early 1960s when this area still had numerous Italian immigrant families throughout the area. Today a few can still be found in the area, but many have moved on. Above, I’ve covered how my grandmother and her sisters got here while my Grandfather John Trabucco, and the other men were drawn by work in the mines that supplied the CF&I steel mill with coal.
Many of the Italian immigrants were miners by day and farmers whenever they were free. They were self-sufficient, raising all types of fruits and vegetables with poultry, hogs, and horses, which they used to plow their land. And they made fine wine. It was Italy in America on land that looked very much like their home in the foothills of the Alps. Some men went back and forth to Italy, and one said to John Trabucco, “You moved halfway around the world to live in a place that looks much the same.”
Immigrants bought 5 acres each, on which they created their farms. Grandpa’s land was so rocky that he built an 8-foot wall 50 feet long with all the stones he removed from his land so he could plow it. The important towns for the Trabucco/Gogolio/Frullo families are Lincoln Park and nearby Brookside, where Mary and her sister Katie lived across the highway from one another, and Rockvale, which was very close to the mines and where the first immigrant couple Joseph and Madeline (Goettina) Goglio lived. They provided a landing spot after Ellis Island for the others who came after.
In early censuses for the Cañon City and Florence area, you will find families such as the Goglios, Frullos, Valenzanos, Batistas, Bessos, Silvas, Scavardas, Obertos, Vezzettis, also possibly the Cornellas, Wylies, and McKees. Many relatives are buried in cemeteries in this area, with most buried at Union Highland Cemetery, which is southwest of Florence on Colorado Highway 67 with a side road that goes to nearby Rockvale. At Union Highland, which is still active today and is operated by the city of Florence, you can find the main graves for the immigrant generation of Trabuccos, Goglios, and Frullos.
The census from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries shows the large Italian population who staked out their American dream near the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. People with ancestors from Italy or other southern European countries who immigrated to Colorado often will be found in Pueblo, where the mill was located or where the CF&I had mines scattered around Colorado, generally west of Pueblo or south down to the New Mexico border 100 miles away. Other CF&I mines that attracted immigrants were also located in many surrounding states.
I inherited, through my mother, most of my Trabucco grandparents' original photographs, letters, and postcards, many of which are to be found here attached to various individuals.
The 1968 Thanksgiving Trabucco reunion, which I photographed at Grandfather John Trabucco’s house in Brookside, Colorado. Here we are crowded together in his front room with hot flood lights. It was a wonderful day, with great food and good company. I’m always making faces in these shots because I never knew if my air bulb 30’ remote would work and set off the shutter.
L to R: sanding: 1. Gerald Billinger 2. Nina (Trabucco) Billinger 3. Helen (McDowell) Trabucco 4. Pete Trabucco 5. Duane Koski 6. Grandpa John Trabucco 7. Pat Johnson 8. Buddy Johnson 9. Tillie (Trabucco) Johnson 10. Joann (Trabucco) Graham 11. Robert Graham 12. Kitty (Johnson) Therwhanger 13. Von Therwhanger 14. Wiley Therwhanger, in front: 15. Pamela King 16. Wade Therwhanger 17. Elizabeth Graham 18. Jeffrey Billinger 19. Deborah King 20. Kay Frullo 21. John Johnson.
Published Genealogies in which you may be included:
I have contributed to two large, printed genealogical volumes.
5C1R Clovis Brakebill’s The Descendants of Peter Brakebill 1760-1844 A soldier in the American Revolution from Pennsylvania and Maryland who settled in East Tennessee, Copyright 1999.
My contribution was about the descendants of 4G Grandparents Henry Fuller Ryan (1795-1860) and Nancy Brakebill (1800-1860).
I contributed to 5G Grandfather “EDWARD TUCK c. 1730-1781 of Halifax Co VA and some of his Descendants 1750-2004, Volume 1: Cary Tuck” by Kathleen Guest Wilson, Copyright 2004.
I contributed the supplement to Kathleen’s book entitled “Descendants of Hiram Monroe Ryan,” which contains Great Grandparents Hiram Monroe Ryan (1868-1904) and Nancy Ann “Nicie” Ryan (1871-1938) and their descendants.
Since 1989, I’ve gathered what is here. Please let me know of mistakes or omissions or to add information about your part of the family.
This site is a continually improving source of information. I’m always looking for pictures or information about our early ancestors.
A last word: When reviewing genealogy (or history in general), it’s best NOT to pass judgment on how our ancestors lived in light of today’s 21st-century values.
Presentism (prezenˌtizəm), which is popular today, is the tendency to interpret history in terms of current, modern values.
This is a “fool’s errand” that serves NO purpose.
All you can be sure of is that each ancestor in their time and situation did what they felt was best for their family, just as we do today.
Email me with any questions, comments, or suggestions you might have.
Enjoy!
John Henry Johnson
Ancestry: John Johnson tree: OUR FAMILY 2024
Family Tree DNA/MyHeritage: Kit No. 363388
Confirmed male Y-DNA Haplogroup R-FT23686
Confirmed female mtDNA Haplogroup U3a1
GEDmatch: T758555
Only now, with this software update, am I able to easily show some of the great images from our family’s history!
Following is a list of the Johnson, Hurt, and 2 Ryan lines of ancestor Grandfathers in Early American events.
Since I began documenting our family history, I’ve maintained a list of ancestors who were in conflicts or other notable events.
NOTE: This is a list containing ONLY Grandfathers and none of the many Granduncles, cousins, or their spouses, of which there is an amazing number!
At this point, we do NOT have a direct-line male Johnson ancestor who is known at the time of the Revolutionary War. Our earliest Johnson ancestor currently is William “Billy” Johnson, who was born in Kentucky in 1779 and proven through Y-DNA. We’ve been stuck in 1779 without knowing who his parents are for several years. Many men are possible, but no definitive proof for any of them has yet been found. I expect that eventually this will be resolved when a male cousin does the FTDNA Y-DNA test and our two trees match on William “Billy’s" dad!
If you are a Johnson male, please do a Family Tree DNA Y-DNA test at the highest level possible so we can take the Johnson line further back. The ideal test is the DNA Big Y-700 test, which places you on the tree of male ancestral lines.
The Contents sections below include these Grandfathers and many other relatives as clickable links.
Early Indian Wars
January 6, 1675 - Susquehannock, Piscataway, Dogue Indian border dispute leading to Baccon’s Rebellion. Two hundred settlers were killed.
8G Grandfather William Alexander Toney (1634-1675) killed New Kent, Virginia
8G Grandmother Ann Elizabeth Bishop (1638-1675) killed New Kent, Virginia
Worked with George Washington
July 1749 - November 1750 - Worked with George Washington, Surveyor Ancestor
6G Grandpa John Shock Shely (1727-1821) PA Revolutionary War Patriotic Service
1754-1763 French & Indian War (aka Seven Years War) & Dunmore’s War, Battle of Point Pleasant, Virginia
6G Grandpa Sergeant John Wood (1730-1780) VA at Battle of Point Pleasant
5G Grandfather James C. Tuttle Jr. (1738-1811) NY at Battle of Point Pleasant
We have 2 additional cousins’ spouses in the French & Indian War.
1775-1783 Revolutionary War
Revolutionary War Fife & Drum Corps.
5G Grandfather Drum Major John Charles Cummings Sr. (1762-1811) NC
5G Grandfather Benjamin Hurt (1746-1796) VA
Battle of Trenton, New Jersey - December 26, 1776
5G Grandfather Peter Brakebill (1760-1844) PA with Washington crossing the Delaware on their way to the Battle of Trenton. Peter served 4 times!
Battle of Princeton, New Jersey - January 3, 1777
6G Grandfather George Washington Cummings (1742-1808) NC wounded at the Battle of Princeton
Valley Forge Pennsylvania - December 19, 1777 - June 19, 1778
6G Grandfather Christopher Moyers Jr. (1740-1815) VA at Valley Forge
6G Grandfather William Moses Stanley (1710-1784) VA at Valley Forge, wagoner
6G Grandfather Bennett Munford Tuck (1710-1781) England then VA at Valley Forge
We have an additional 3 Granduncles, cousins, or their spouses at Valley Forge.
Battle of King’s Mountain, South Carolina - August 16, 1780
6G Grandfather John Blackburn (1741-1808) PA at Battle of King’s Mountain
5G Grandfather Col. Jacob Brown Sr. (1736-1785) SC at Battle of King’s Mountain
5G Grandfather Anthony Patton (1760-1828) PA at Battle of King’s Mountain
4G Grandfather Harris Ryan (1764-1843) VA at Battle of King’s Mountain
We have an additional 2 Granduncles at the Battle of King’s Mountain.
Battle of Boyd’s Creek, Tennessee - December 16, 1780
4G Grandfather Ensign Jacob Brown Jr. (1761-1838) SC at Battle of Boyd’s Creek
We have an additional 1 relation at the Battle of King’s Mountain.
Battle of Fallen Timbers, Old Northwest Territory (now Ohio) - August 20, 1794
5G Grandfather Capt. David Shely (1750-1823) VA French & Indian War and Revolutionary War at Battle of Fallen Timbers
4G Grandfather John J. Shock (1771-1854) VA at Battle of Fallen Timbers
These Grandfathers fought in the Revolutionary War with no specific battle yet discovered.
7G Grandfather John Cummings (1720-1803) Ireland to MD
7G Grandfather Alexander Mathews (1708-1788) Ireland to VA Civil & Patriotic Service
6G Grandfather Erasmus Holtzapfel Sr. (1720-1793) Germany to PA Patriotic Service
6G Grandfather Henry Hurst (1729-1801) VA Patriotic Service providing troop supplies
6G Grandfather Capt. Samuel Wade Magruder III (1708-1786) MD
6G Grandfather Benjamin Piggott Sr. (1732-1818) MD
6G Grandfather Sergeant Henry T. Turner Sr. (1735-1809) NC Patriotic Service
5G Grandfather Capt. Thomas Burke (1735-1822) VA
5G Grandfather John Cox Sr. (1756-1827) NC
5G Grandfather Haswell Magruder (1736-1811) VA Civil Service
5G Grandfather Capt. Joseph Perkins (1738-1805) MA
5G Grandfather Private Buckner Russell Sr. (1747-1834) VA yet to verify
5G Grandfather John Ryan (1731-1785) VA
5G Grandfather John Stanley (1748-1813) VA Patriotic Service
5G Grandfather HenryYoung (1743-1793) VA Quartermaster General
4G Grandfather William Adams (1764-1846) PA
We have an additional 57 Granduncles, cousins, or their spouses in the Revolutionary War.
1812-1815 The War of 1812
4G Grandfather Henry Fuller Ryan (1795-1860) TN
4G Grandfather Andrew Wright (1791-1865) VA at Battle of New Orleans
3G Grandfather Abner Ryan Sr. (1794-1860) TN was later killed in a Civil War raid by Confederates
We have an additional 28 Granduncles, cousins, or their spouses in the War of 1812.
1835 -1842 Second Seminole Indian War (aka Florida War)
3G Grandfather Sandifer Hurt (1823-1860) TN in Second Seminole War
3G Grandfather Morgan Ryan (1817-1895) TN in Second Seminole War
We have 1 additional cousin’s spouse in the Second Seminole Indian War.
1861-1865 Civil War Confederate soldiers
We have 40 Confederate cousins or their spouses, but no Grandfathers or Granduncles
1861-1865 Civil War Union soldiers
3G Grandfather Hiram Tuck (1807-1866) MO
2G Grandfather Wiley Jay Ryan (1840-1907) TN in Spring Hill Battle and wounded in Franklin Battle, TN. Nov 29-30, 1864
2G Step Grandfather Isaac B. Willett (1837-1914) NY in Battle of Appomattox Court House April 9, 1865, where peace was signed ending the war
We have an additional 77 Union Granduncles, cousins, or their spouses.
About everything a person or a family can experience or survive can be found here, somewhere among the many ancestors. Their many stories make you think how it must have been! The Granduncles and cousins' stories are rich in themselves.
We had a Union cousin in the Confederate Andersonville Prison in Georgia who survived and another who died in the Confederate Libby Prison in Richmond, Virginia and yet a 3rd cousin, a Confederate, who was captured and kept as a Union POW in the Rock Island Arsenal Prison, Illinois.
We had two Confederate cousins who were brothers and rode with Quantrill’s raiders on his Missouri and Kansas attacks, with one being killed.
And we had a Union cousin who was captured in the Battle of Athens (Alabama) toward the end of the war only to be freed, but then die in the worst maritime disaster in US history aboard the Mississippi steamboat Sultana, which exploded because of massive overloading with Union soldiers.
The Civil War was a particularly wrenching period. 1C5R Claiborne and Francis (Moore) Tuck married in 1827 in Wilkes County, Georgia. By the start of the Civil War, they had a family of 12 children, 5 girls and 7 boys. Claiborne and Frances had seven sons, all of whom, with their father, were soldiers in the Army of the Confederacy, but only two sons returned home, the remaining five having died in battle or by disease.
We had relatives killed or wounded at the Battle of Guilford Courthouse, the Battle of Princeton, the Battle of Kings Mountain, the First Battle of Springfield, the Second Battle of Manassas, the Battle of Shiloh, the Battle of Franklin, the Battle of Antietam, and the Battle of Peachtree Creek.
Finally, we have a small number of cousins who fought on BOTH sides for the Confederacy and the Union.
Like I said, History is messy!
These stories merely scratch the surface of the numerous tales of our Johnson/Ryan family since the founding of America.
We also have Granduncles, cousins, or their spouses at the following events:
Battle of Monmouth, New Jersey - June 28, 1778
Fall of Fort Sackville, (became Indiana) - February 24, 1779
Battle of Camden, South Carolina - August 16, 1780
Battle of Guilford Courthouse, N. Carolina - March 15, 1781
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Black Hawk War (became Illinois & Wisconsin) - 1832
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Mexican American War - 1846-48
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Battle of Antietam, Maryland - September 17, 1862
Battle of Shiloh, Virginia - April 6, 1862
Second Battle of Manassas, Virginia - August 28-30, 1862
Battle of Champions Hill, Mississippi - May 16, 1863
Battle of Helena, Arkansas - July 4, 1863
Battle of Chickamauga, Georgia - September 18-20, 1863
Battle of Athens, Alabama - September 23-25, 1864
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Late Indian Wars 1851-1891
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Spanish American War - April 21, 1898 to Dec. 10, 1898
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First World War - July 28, 1917 to November 11, 1918
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Second World War - September 1, 1939 to September 2, 1945
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Korean War - June 25, 1950 to July 27, 1953
In all these conflicts, my lists of individuals are undoubtedly undercounted, for not every relative’s information mentions a war or battle, and a document registering for the draft alone is not evidence of involvement in that conflict.
Also, numerous individuals are alive, so Vietnam and later conflicts are not posted.
To see their individual stories, you can CLICK on their group in Contents below.
WELCOME COUSINS Over 15,000 relatives are here! Feel free to send a link to this page to relatives. Email me to be on my list, which I send out when I update this site.
This website is best viewed on a computer because of the thousands of photographs, maps, and illustrations, many of which are very large.
If you love puzzles, that’s genealogy, the most incredibly large and complex puzzle ever imagined!
You’re not only looking for WHO people were, but WHERE they were and even WHEN they were.
As a genealogist, you try to imagine an ancestor’s life. You try to get into their minds to discover how they lived and what their world was really like. You build their story one clue at a time.
My Great Grandparents James and Mary (Hurt) Johnson’s 55th wedding anniversary in 1940 at Pueblo, Colorado’s City Park. The headline on the back of this page reads “SPREAD OF WAR SEEMS MORE IMMINENT.” In this photograph are many Grandparents, Great Grandparents, 2nd Great Grandparents, and possibly even 3rd Great Grandparents. If you have this photograph please email me. Also, if you recognize the children in this photograph, tell me their names. I know the boy with blond hair on the left end is Doyle Johnson, but the other 12 are unknown. These children were all born in the late 1920s or 1930s
Toward the bottom of this page is a list of the many Grandfathers from the Johnson, Hurt, and the 2 distinct Ryan lines involved in many early American events from the French & Indian War up to the Civil War. They are listed along with their relationship to the Baby Boomer generation.
Our family has been involved with American history since the very beginning!
William Henry “Bill” and Roea “Roy” (Ryan) Johnson family c. 1950 in front of Grandpa’s store 306 W. Corona Ave. in Pueblo.
L to R: Gene Johnson, Madeline (Johnson) Barnett, Doyle Johnson, Grandmother Roea “Roy” (Ryan) Johnson, Buddy Johnson, Shirley (Johnson) Schrank, and Grandfather Bill Johnson.
Because of a major software update, at the very bottom of this page under “Contents” are clickable lists that make finding different ancestor groups easy to access. These groups are:
Home
Place Index
Births, Marriages & Deaths
Burial Places
Immigrants to America
1607 Jamestown Colony
1654-1763 French & Indian Wars Soldiers
1775-1783 Revolutionary War Soldiers
1774-1850 Early Indian Wars Soldiers
1812-1815 War of 1812 Soldiers
1846-1848 Mexican War Soldiers
1861-1865 Civil War - Confederate Soldiers
1861-1865 Civil War - Union Soldiers
1851-1900 Late Indian Wars Soldiers & Federal Marshalls
1872 Colorado Fuel & Iron Workers & Miners
1898-1902 Spanish American War Soldiers
1917-1918 World War I Soldiers
1941-1945 World War II Soldiers
1950-1953 Korean War Soldiers
Later conflicts have living individuals and are not listed.
These new clickable lists allow you to easily delve into the middle of our family's extremely rich history!
Also, click on a person’s name to read about their lives or click on the small cameras to see their images.
I collect living relatives too, though, on this website, only their initials and last names show. Only our deceased relatives are shown.
To see if you’re listed here, find a close deceased relative and if I know of you, you should be close by.
At left, the Giovanni Battista “John” and Antonia Maria “Mary” (Goettina) Trabucco family c. 1917 Cañon City, Colorado.
L to R: standing are Grandmother Mary (Goettina) Trabucco, Matilda Marie “Tillie” (Trabucco) Johnson, seated are Pete Trabucco, and Grandfather John Trabucco.
This site is for my relatives, your children, grandchildren, and your great grandchildren.
1st Cousins - We share Grandparents and have 25% of their DNA.
BARNETT: Alwina "Kay", Gloria Gayle, William Arthur "Billy"
JOHNSON: Felectia Ann, James Doyle "Jim", Linda Katherine, Madeline Carroll, Mark Andrew, Phillip Michael "Mike", William Eugene "Bill"
SCHRANK: Cynthia Ann “Cindy”, Pamela Grace "Pam"
TRABUCCO: Joann Marie, Nina Loren
2nd Cousins - We share Great Grandparents and 12.5% of their DNA.
Please email me if I missed you or a sibling on my list.
AKERS: Edward Leon "Butch", Geraldine Marie, Laura Pauline, Preston Clawvel
AVARA: Roger, Sharon
BALLESIO: Gianfranco, Rosanna, Silvia
BARTLETT: Hoy Richard Jr.
BATISTA: Gerald Michael “Jerry” Sr., James Albert, Janice Marie, John Allen
BEHNER: Neleta Ann, Raymond Kenneth, Roy Fred, Wanda LaRean “Wendy”
BESSO: Charles James Jr., James Kenneth, John J., Mary Kay, Pete
BIOLETTO: Giuseppe
CORNELLA: Madeline Antionette “Nibbs”
CORRELL: Alfred Allen, Linda Marie
CRAIN: Alvis Lowell Jr., Deborah Lucille
FRANCISETTI: Fernanda, Francesca
FRILEY: Lois Burlene
FRULLO: Jeanne Arlene, John LeRoy
GOGLIO: David Joseph, Donald Lewis, Frances Marie, Frank Virgil “Pups” Jr., Jacob "Jack", Joseph Robert, Katherine P. “Katsy”, Lois, Madeline, Mary Marguerite, Richard James, Thomas Anthony, Wilma Arlene
GRISWOLD: Derek Duran, Harold "Hays" Jr., Robin Gay, Sigrid Michelle
GRISWOULD: Deana Ilene, Dreama Rayln, Gregory Grant, Kristi Kay, Rhonda Ranae
HINDMAN: Barbara Joan, Diane Lavon, James Markel, Nancy Kathleen
HUGHES: Colleen Faye
JOHNSON: Amethyst Kay, Mary Ellen, Robert Dale, Vickie Leon
KEILMAN: Birtie Louella
KNIGHT: Betty Jo, Joseph George Jr.
LEONE: Alida, Franca
McINTOSH: Jacqueline Louise
McKEE: Elaine Marie, James Henry III, Joseph Roger
PIERCE: Christine Lee, Lora Lorraine
PISTONO: Annarita, Giovanni Jr.
POWERS: Clifford Eugene, Leesa Johnell, Rebecca Arlene “Becky”
ROOT: Aurelia Joann, Billi Jean, Charles Thomas "Chuck", Edith Lavillian, Elizabeth Jo, Emma Elmodene, Guelda Louise, Jimmy Wayne, Leona Marie "Onie", Loretta Kay, Lula May "Corky", Marvinia Margret, Muriel Renee, Robert Frank, Vivian Louise
ROSER: April Lee, Cynthia L., Denise Ann, Georgia Ellen, Kyle Micah, Renee Louise, Vernon Clee
SANDRETTO: Angelo, Aurelia
SCAVARDA: Angelo, Maria
SCHNEIDER: Gail Marie
SHAW: Charles Marvin, Christine Sue, Della Lula
STEWARD: Karen Juanita, Sandy Kay, Sharon Anita
STRONG: Charlie Henderson, Harold Dean, Royal Grant, Westly Floyd, William Roy
STUCKEY: John
TABOR: Frank
TORNIERO: Danilo, Walter
TRABUCCO: Dario, Mariella, Monica, Paolo
TURNER: Clarice Jean, Maureen J.
TYE: Jack Westley, Joshua Beacraft
VALENZANO: Anna, Emily Katherine, Madeline, Minnie, Viola
WARREN: Edith Marie “Edie”, Gloria Jean, Jacolyn Faye “Jacci”, Patricia Ann, Robert Duane Sr., Thomas Farrel
WATTS: Gina Kay, John Lee, Neal Gene, Roy Lynn, Scott Alan
WOODWORTH: Connie Marlene, Karla Irene
WYLIE: Richard Edward, Robert Joseph “Bob”
3rd Cousins - We share Great Great Grandparents and possibly 6.25% of their DNA.
3rd cousin is a very useful genetic distance for discovering new information about ancestors! I’d love to meet you! Email me, particularly if you can’t find your name here. Many of my most important discoveries have been made working with 3rd cousins.
ADCOCK: Charlene Kay
AIMONE: Alan Conrad, Bette Adele
BEACHAM: Connie, Tami L.
BERRY: Jerry Ruethel
BEVANS: Cran William II, Jack Joe, Karen Sue, Rebecca Lynn, Weston Lee
BODINE: Jill B.
BORGQUIST: “Oscarcastro77”, “721moe”
BROWN: Adella Marlyene, Doyle Dean, Dwight Darell, Kay Lynn, Arletta June
CALDWELL: John
CARL: Marlena
COMPTON: Margaret Ann
CORNELL: Shannon C.
DAVIS: Wanda Jo
DE MARCO: Bruno, Nora
DUFFIELD: Bobbie G., Mary Elizabeth
EMBICK: Edward Michael Jr., Joel Robert, Roberta M.
GRABER: “Amishterrorist”
GREGORY: David Allen, Evelyn Jane, Florence Ann, Hazel Bee, Janelle Louise, Lily Pearl, Roberta Faye
HAMNER: Anna Lorraine, Catherine Joanna
HARRISON: David Michael
HARTLE: Denise A., John Mark, William Allen
HILLYARD: Hermie
HUDSON: “Wright1575”
HUGHES: “Dahammer73”
HURT: Audery, Chester, John V. Jr., Johnnie Ann
JOHNSON: Beverly Mae, Brenda Louise, Cecil Bruce, Cheryl, Chris William, Donald Lee, Georgia Annie, Gerald Lee, Gwenda Lea, Harry Clark, Joel David, Kenneth Loyd, Kristi Lynette, Lyndon Clark, Michael Louis, Nancy Gayle, Patrice Diann, Peggy Nell, Phillis Ann, Retha Gale, Rusty Curtis, Sheila Janice, Steven Neil, Teresa, Teresa Jean, Vickie Lynn, Wally Noel, Wayne Howard
KIDD: Elizabeth Charlene
LAUGHLIN: Elba M., Neil Leon
LEWIS: Dustin, Dustin, Matthew Thomas
LUPINSKI: Charlean Elizebeth
MAUTINO: Maresa
MICHELA: Andrea Marie, Vanessa Catherine
MITCHELL: Royal G.
OLSON: Caroline J., Charles Jerry, Donna Maye, Everett, James Norman Sr., Robert O.
PERKINS: Daniel Luther, Kristine Helen, L. P.
PETERSON: Bruce, Gwendolyn D.
ROACH: Carlton Merle, Carolyn Louise, Lucy Faye, Margaret Ann, Patricia Mae, Robert Earl
RYAN: Danny Michael Sr., Eugene Royal, Jack E. III, Kathryn Lee
SMITH: Larry Lee
STEWARD: Howard Lee, Sharyn Kay
SURVILL: Yvonne
THOMPSON: Jaunita, Marjorie Pauline, W. S.
THURSTON: Linda Lou, Michael
TOMLIN: Barbara
TORNATORE: Jenelle M., Joyce A., Linda L., Nora S., Sue E.
TRABUCCO: Carla, Danilo, Paola
DNA testing and the Web:
Thanks to the science of genetic DNA, without which the extremely early information here would still be unknown. Genealogical DNA has given me many new cousins and friends that I would never have found otherwise.
This is the “golden age” of genealogy, with powerful computers on a fast internet, using marvelous genealogy software, and websites like Ancestry, Family Tree DNA, MyHeritage, and GEDmatch. Today, millions upon millions of people are searching AND sharing information. Considerable information has been discovered recently by more people more quickly than at any other time in history! In a few short years, genealogy has gone from dusty old library books to amazing, cutting-edge DNA technology.
If you’re on Ancestry, please 1. do a DNA test and 2. tie it to your tree
Any individual on this site with the DNA icon is a proven John H. Johnson direct line ancestor and for whom I have no other image at this time.
The Autosomal DNA test (for men and women) gives you cousins on both sides of your family back 5 generations. I currently have over 43,000 cousins on Ancestry and gain about 100 “new” cousins per day. However, of these 43,000, only about 200 have significant new genealogy information. Only with your DNA tied to your tree (even a tiny one) can you get any value from these companies. Right now I have almost 5,000 Autosomal cousins.
If you’re a JOHNSON male on Family Tree DNA, please test your Y-DNA at the highest level possible. The more men that test their Y-DNA, the more our Johnson line is proven and possibly the earlier we can go back in time. Right now, we’re stuck in 1779 Kentucky.
Y-DNA testing (for men only) can give your direct male line back to the beginning. The more markers you test for, the more information you’ll possibly receive. They range from Y12, Y25, Y37 (useless), Y67, and Y111 (much better) to the best, the ultimate, the Big Y-700, which places your line on the world’s male population tree.
The larger the sampling, the more expensive and the more valuable and useful it is. Right now I have only 72 Big Y-700 male line cousins close to me on the tree, of which only 7 are very closely related in time, and I formed a Johnson research group.
DNA is changing the world; in the not-too-distant future, the drugs you take will be tailor-made for your DNA and its genetic variations!
Buddy & Tillie (Trabucco) Johnson family Summer 1957.
Taken just outside the entrance to Carlsbad Caverns Carlsbad National Park, New Mexico. L to R: Kitty (Johnson) Therwhanger, Tillie (Trabucco) Johnson, Pat (Johnson) Ponikvar, Buddy Johnson, and in front is me, John Johnson.
Major Contributors:
I thank my best friend, the late Michael Martinez, who taught me genealogy, a hobby that has greatly enriched my life.
Many relatives have contributed information you can find here, and I credit everyone for their contributions.
WANTED: Does anyone have a document that proves William G. “Billy” Ryan was a Confederate? He signed a “Loath of Allegiance” to the Union in September 1862, but at that time in Missouri, they shot you on the spot IF you didn’t sign!
WANTED: Does anyone have an image of Charles Henry Hurt? Or have information about his time during the Civil War as a “bushwhacker”? Some information suggests he was in the Union Army, while an oral history has him as a bushwhacker who guarded his family and farm from all the rogue irregulars and renegades who roamed during the war years exploiting and terrorizing farms which had no men at home from the war.
Other pivotal cousins without which I could not have found what is here:
To 3C1R Alice (Stockdell) Nash of Illinois, who firmly established that 2G Grandfather Clark Lawrence Johnson’s first wife was Sarah Ann Stockdell who was our 2G Grandmother.
WANTED: Does anyone have an image of Sarah Ann Stockdell?
To half 2C1R Rhomer Johnson of Nevada, he guided me to our shared 2G Grandfather Clark Lawrence Johnson’s second family with his wife Vienna “Vina” McClure. Rhomer and I share Clark’s parents, our 3G Grandparents Matthew Johnson (1812-1864) and Mary J. “Polly” Cox (1812-1885).
For Mom’s Trabucco and related families, I thank 3C Bruno De Marco from Moncalieri, Italy. He found this site on the internet and emailed me. Amazing how the internet has made the world a much smaller place. Bruno and I are rediscovering our Trabucco ancestors. We share 2G Grandparents Giovanni Battista Trabucco (1832-1895) and Maria Domenica Berttotti (1838-1910).
In the map at right, for centuries, Alpette was Grandma (Goettina) Trabucco’s family village and Agliè was Grandpa Trabucco’s, both north of Torino, Italy, and not far from the Alps or France and Switzerland.
With 7C1R Bonnie Vaccaro of Utah, we share 7G Grandparents Pietro Giuseppe Trabucco (1724-1753) and Barbara Gioanne Furno (1727-1807). Bonnie searches Agliè’s Catholic church records revealing many centuries of generations. Bonnie does it right, by finding an ancestor’s birth/baptism, wedding, and death records, many of which I’ve attached to several individuals here.
Helping with my Grandmother Mary Goettina’s lines, I thank 6C1R Professor Scott Swanson of Indiana, who researched extensive church records in the mountain town of Alpette, Italy. By the way, Scott is a professor of Medieval history. For many centuries our ancestors lived in the same tiny alpine village, and his research has been invaluable.
All these relatives and friends are excellent family historians, and I’m happy and lucky to have found them thanks to DNA.
Many, many other relatives have provided information, and their names are listed in Sources or credited in an ancestor’s Notes. To read more about an ancestor, click on their name to see detailed information and my sources.
To all who have helped with what is here, Thank You!
The “Old World”
Recently, my son Thomas and I visited Ellis Island, and our appreciation for our immigrant ancestors’ courage and grit for coming to America greatly increased!
The Atlantic passage was so terrible that some immigrants prayed their ship would sink to end the seemingly endless journey on board the appallingly overcrowded and often sick ships.
Once in America, many suffered discrimination and lived hard lives as farmers, laborers, miners, mill workers, or blacksmiths, often with the added burden of learning English.
Among the 10,245 families I have gathered on this site, you will find ancestors who came to America from: Austria, Canada, Czechoslovakia, England, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Poland, Prussia, Russia, Scotland, Serbia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Ukraine, Wales, and Yugoslavia.
America is truly the melting pot of the world!
A foreign flag means this is an immigrant ancestor to America or a relative who remained in Europe, and I don’t have other images.
Standing behind and to the right of Grandpa Trabucco stand his sister Caterina, brother Giovanni, and sister Margherita. Seated below Caterina is their brother Zio, and to the right, seated with her family, is Grandpa’s sister Maria. Grandpa’s siblings’ children make up the rest of the group. To my Italian cousins, if you know the children’s names in this photograph, please email me. They were born in the late teens or 1920s.
Mom was in Paris on her 13th birthday, and they bought her a black parasol. This was a significant visit, for this was the last time Grandpa and Grandma saw his parents and their siblings and the single time in their lives that Matilda and Pete would ever meet their grandparents and cousins.
An “American Genealogy”
My initial goal was to create an “American Genealogy” tracing ALL my lines back to the person who first came to these shores. A goal that still eludes me and will probably never be completed. I’m back in the 1700s and 1600s with many families, and there is still no ship in sight!
For the immigrants themselves, I created an Immigrant sailing ship image, which is attached to our ancestors who came from Europe for a new life in America.
To see our Immigrants to America ancestors, click in the Contents section below.
Also on this site are included my wife Nadine (Milosavich) Johnson, brother-in-laws Wiley Therwhanger and Joe Ponikvar, and son-in-law Colin Stark’s genealogies. I have done some work on your American genealogies, but check for mistakes or omissions if this is important to you.
Hopefully, there’s enough information on all the many related families to help you in your quest to learn about your roots.
Nick & Esther (Gomey) Milosavich family 1969 Pueblo.
L to R standing: Mike Milosavich, Kenny Milosavich, Garry Milosavich, Dennis Milosavich, Nadine (Milosavich) Johnson, seated Esther (Gomey) Milosavich and Nick Milosavich. I took this shortly after I met my wife-to-be and her family.
Ancestors at War
Our Johnson, Hurt, and 2 Ryan ancestors were in many of America's conflicts.
5G Grandfather Peter Brakebill (1760-1844) was with George Washington crossing the Delaware (shown in the masthead painting above by Emanuel Leutze) before the Battle of Trenton (New Jersey). 6G Grandfathers Christopher Moyers, Jr. (1748-1815), William Stanley (1710-1784), and Bennett Munford Tuck (1710-1781) were with Washington at Valley Forge (Pennsylvania). Their government paystubs list this and can be found here.
5G Grandfather Captain David Shely (1750-1823), his father, 6G Grandfather John Shock Shely (1723-1821), and his father-in-law, also a 6G Grandfather Henry Hurst (1729-1801), were all Virginia Revolutionary War volunteers. We have ancestors during this period from most of the eastern seaboard states.
Our Grandfathers were in the revolution’s Battle of Kings Mountain (South Carolina), such as 6G Grandfather John Blackburn (1740-1808), 5G Grandfathers Jacob Brown (1736-1785), and Anthony Patton (1760-1828). Others like 5G
Many of these conflicts and battles are probably ones you’ve never heard of. We have over 31 ancestors in the War of 1812, including 3G Grandfather Abner Ryan (1794-1865) and (unrelated) 4G Grandfather Henry Fuller Ryan (1795-1860), along with 4G Grandfather Andrew Wright (1791-1865). Henry Fuller Ryan’s son, 3G Grandfather Morgan Ryan (1817-1895), was in the Second Seminole Indian War (Florida), while 4G Grandfather John Shock (1771-1854) fought in The Old Northwest Indian Wars’ Battle of Fallen Timbers (Ohio).
A more complete and clickable list of Our Grandfathers in war and events can be found at the bottom of this page. It is amazing how many of our Johnson, Hurt, and 2 Ryan ancestors were involved!
Individuals’ military records, can be seen by clicking on the camera near their name to see the actual documents.
3G Grandfather Sandifer H. Hurt (1823-1861) who also had previously fought in the Second Seminole Indian War (Florida) was killed in the First Battle of Springfield (Missouri).
3G Grandfather Hiram Tuck (1807-1866) fought for the Union, as did Union Private 2G Grandfather Wiley Jay Ryan (1840-1907). Wiley is seen on the masthead of this page and on the right above. Wiley fought in the Battle of Spring Hill (Tennessee) and was wounded during the Battle of Franklin (Tennessee), where 6 Confederate generals were killed. His 1904 photograph came from 2C2R Olen Ross Gowens through 4C Esther Lebeck.
An ancestor with a soldier’s image is a military ancestor I have no photograph of. If you have any early soldiers’ images in uniform, I’d love to see them. If there’s information about a battle or an event that a person was in, I’ve found historical paintings of the event, so there's LOTS of American history here.
Ancestors at Peace
Most of our male ancestors followed more peaceful pursuits as farmers, shopkeepers, doctors, judges, or teachers. Great Grandfather Hiram Monroe Ryan (1868-1904) built the first (and probably the only) steam-powered merry-go-round! In colonial America, our relatives were government officials, a governor or two, state supreme court justices, and even a spy in the war.
We have relatives who were musicians and writers. Grandfather William Henry Johnson (1896-1980) was a shopkeeper and salesman who loved writing short stories and poems his entire life or his son Buddy Johnson (1919-1986) who was on television and radio for decades, had a band “The Colorado Rangers” for 40 years and knew all the Western stars of the 1950s. My book about Dad can be found at https://buddyjohnson.net.
Our Grandmothers
Our Grandmothers were women of grit and courage, often having numerous children, many of whom died as infants or very young. One woman, who is not a direct ancestor had 22 children while another had 17. Ten or more children was not unusual among our female ancestors. Often, women died in childbirth or shortly thereafter, as did 2G Grandmother Sarah Ann Stockdell (1837-1863) shortly after having Great Grandfather James Albert Johnson (1863-1948) during the Civil War.
Many grandmothers remarried after their husbands died in war or were killed by Indians. They were spirited women like 2G Grandmother Margaret Ann Burke (1840-1930) (shown at the left. She argued with renegades who tore off her porch to roast her cattle, which they butchered in her yard. Her husband, 2G Grandfather Charles Henry Hurt (1840-1880), was possibly a bushwhacker or Union soldier, though this is yet to be proven. His father Abner Ryan Sr. (1794-1865), a War of 1812 veteran, was killed at the end of the Civil War by Confederate irregulars. History is messy!
The Tale of 4 Italian sisters circa 1900
Mary traveled to join her two older sisters, Madelina and Caterina, who were already in Colorado, where their husbands worked in the coal mines for Rockefeller’s Colorado Fuel and Iron Corporation (CF&I). Little did Mary know that her future husband Grandfather Giovanni Battista “John” Trabucco (1886-1971) had previously sailed to America on the very same ship, the “La Savoie,” which she subsequently took. Though they were from villages only 16 miles apart in Northern Italy, it was only after they each traveled halfway around the world that they met and married in Cañon City, Colorado, in 1911.
NOTE: The American immigrants spelled their name Goettina, while relatives who remained in Italy spell it with an “i” as in Goiettina.
Grandmother Mary and her two older Goettina sisters Madelina “Madeline” (Goettina) Goglio
If you have a Goglio, Frullo, or Sandretto ancestor, you can thank them.
Today, we have numerous relatives of all ages in northern Italy in the Trabucco, Sandretto, and associated families!
The 1968 Johnson reunion, which was organized by Pat Johnson, I photographed at Kitty & Wiley’s house on Chicago Creek south of Idaho Springs, Colorado. What a great time that was!
L to R: sanding: 1. Dewey Barron 2. Madeline (Johnson) Barron 3. young woman in back? 4. Dena Richardson 5. Lucy (Schneider) Barnett 6. Kay (Barnett) Garner 7. Kitty (Johnson) Therwhanger 8. Joe Barnett 9. Tillie (Trabucco) Johnson 10. Madeline (Johnson) Barnett 11. Grandpa Bill Johnson 12. Grandma Roea (Ryan) Johnson 13. Doyle Johnson 14. Katherine (Simons) Johnson 15. Linda (Pitts) Johnson 16. Wiley Therwhanger 17. Phyllis (Wissel) Griswould 17a. Rhonda Griswould 18. Floyd Griswould 19. Sigrid (Fischer) Griswold 20. Harry Griswold 21. Billie (Margurite) Johnson 22. Marty Barnett 23. Billy Gene Johnson (back of his head) 24. Pat (Johnson) Ponikvar 25. Gene Johnson 26. Maria (Ortega) Johnson 27. Jeffery Johnson, in front: 28. Michelle Garner 29. Suzette Barnett 30. Von Therwhanger 31. child’s top of head? 32. Felectia Johnson 33. Wade Therwhanger 34. Greg Griswould 35. Neil Richardson 36. Michael Garner 37. John Johnson 38. Duane Koski. If you know 3 and 31 in this photograph, please email me their names.
Pueblo the "Steel City of the West,” is where the “Robber Barons,” like the Rockefellers, Goulds, Guggenheims, and Osgoods, sent their kids to train them in the family businesses. After the Civil War, it was located here because of the abundance of water and to help process the mineral wealth of the nearby mountains. It was the only steel mill west of the Mississippi before World War II and its steel was used in major buildings, bridges, and other large structures throughout the Central and Western United States.
The CF&I attracted workers from all over the world as they advertised widely in Europe! At one point, Pueblo had over two dozen foreign language newspapers for all the new arrivals.
To see CF&I ancestors, click the list in Contents below.
Where Our Ancestors Were During the Twentieth Century
The story of our ancestors during the last century is told in the map of Southern Colorado.
Pueblo is at a point between where the Johnson families settled on the eastern plains at Arlington (east 79 miles) and the western foothills where the Trabucco families settled around Lincoln Park, Brookside, and Rockvale, (west 40 miles). East from Pueblo are the Great Plains back to the Mississippi River, while to the west are the foothills of the Rockies, culminating with the top of the Continental Divide west of Salida, Colorado.
Colorado can roughly be divided up vertically into thirds as to climate and terrain. People think Colorado is only high mountains, but that is only about the middle third. The largest, eastern third is an endless wide-open prairie, while the smallest western third is a country of rock mesas and fertile valleys.
The Johnson, Hurt, and two Ryan families lived for a generation or two in Missouri, primarily in and around the small southeast town of El Dorado Springs, Missouri, having come from Tennessee and Kentucky. The history of our family is that with each generation or two, some moved west.
Around 1921, most of them relocated again to homestead in southeastern Colorado at Arlington, Colorado on Colorado Highway 96. I have copies of their homestead documents attached to each individual. Arlington, during this period, was a booming cattle railhead town of 6,000, which had 6 hotels. Today, only 1 house and the old two-story school are all that remain. The Arlington cemetery, which is on a slight rise northwest a mile or so from the townsite, is a significant cemetery for our family and where James and Mary (Hurt) Johnson and many other relatives are buried and continue to be buried today. It was established there in the 1870s when a posse caught up with a horse thief, shot, and buried him there. It’s well worth a visit to understand the Johnson/Ryan and related families' histories! I have a map attached to many of the relatives who are buried there.
The land near Arlington is so vast that you can see 50 miles, and there’s little there; it’s cattle country, and there’s nothing but prairie for as far as you can see. You will find families such as the Barnetts, Griswoulds, Hindmans, Rosers, Watts, and Woodworths in the lower Arkansas valley. In 1935, my grandparents’ family moved to Pueblo, drawn by the bustling economic activity created by the CF&I.
In general, most of the Johnson/Ryan/Hurt families stayed in El Dorado Springs or in southeastern Missouri, part remained in Seattle and the Pacific Northwest region from that adventure, some remained in northwestern Kansas in the Ellis County area, while most of my line ended up in many of the small towns of southeastern Colorado such as Ordway, Rocky Ford, and Eads, etc. During the twentieth century, most of these relatives were married, raised their families, and were buried here. Most were ranchers or farmers, railroaders, and shopkeepers.
Because Grandma Roea Johnson knew I loved history, she and Aunt Madeline gave me most of the Johnson and earlier generations original photographs, letters, postcards, and other items, many of which are to be found here and attached to various individuals.
Many of the Italian immigrants were miners by day and farmers whenever they were free. They were self-sufficient, raising all types of fruits and vegetables with poultry, hogs, and horses, which they used to plow their land. And they made fine wine. It was Italy in America on land that looked very much like their home in the foothills of the Alps. Some men went back and forth to Italy, and one said to John Trabucco, “You moved halfway around the world to live in a place that looks much the same.”
In early censuses for the Cañon City and Florence area, you will find families such as the Goglios, Frullos, Valenzanos, Batistas, Bessos, Silvas, Scavardas, Obertos, Vezzettis, also possibly the Cornellas, Wylies, and McKees. Many relatives are buried in cemeteries in this area, with most buried at Union Highland Cemetery, which is southwest of Florence on Colorado Highway 67 with a side road that goes to nearby Rockvale. At Union Highland, which is still active today and is operated by the city of Florence, you can find the main graves for the immigrant generation of Trabuccos, Goglios, and Frullos.
The census from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries shows the large Italian population who staked out their American dream near the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. People with ancestors from Italy or other southern European countries who immigrated to Colorado often will be found in Pueblo, where the mill was located or where the CF&I had mines scattered around Colorado, generally west of Pueblo or south down to the New Mexico border 100 miles away. Other CF&I mines that attracted immigrants were also located in many surrounding states.
I inherited, through my mother, most of my Trabucco grandparents' original photographs, letters, and postcards, many of which are to be found here attached to various individuals.
L to R: sanding: 1. Gerald Billinger 2. Nina (Trabucco) Billinger 3. Helen (McDowell) Trabucco 4. Pete Trabucco 5. Duane Koski 6. Grandpa John Trabucco 7. Pat Johnson 8. Buddy Johnson 9. Tillie (Trabucco) Johnson 10. Joann (Trabucco) Graham 11. Robert Graham 12. Kitty (Johnson) Therwhanger 13. Von Therwhanger 14. Wiley Therwhanger, in front: 15. Pamela King 16. Wade Therwhanger 17. Elizabeth Graham 18. Jeffrey Billinger 19. Deborah King 20. Kay Frullo 21. John Johnson.
Published Genealogies in which you may be included:
I have contributed to two large, printed genealogical volumes.
5C1R Clovis Brakebill’s The Descendants of Peter Brakebill 1760-1844 A soldier in the American Revolution from Pennsylvania and Maryland who settled in East Tennessee, Copyright 1999.
My contribution was about the descendants of 4G Grandparents Henry Fuller Ryan (1795-1860) and Nancy Brakebill (1800-1860).
I contributed to 5G Grandfather “EDWARD TUCK c. 1730-1781 of Halifax Co VA and some of his Descendants 1750-2004, Volume 1: Cary Tuck” by Kathleen Guest Wilson, Copyright 2004.
Since 1989, I’ve gathered what is here. Please let me know of mistakes or omissions or to add information about your part of the family.
This site is a continually improving source of information. I’m always looking for pictures or information about our early ancestors.
A last word: When reviewing genealogy (or history in general), it’s best NOT to pass judgment on how our ancestors lived in light of today’s 21st-century values.
Presentism (prezenˌtizəm), which is popular today, is the tendency to interpret history in terms of current, modern values.
This is a “fool’s errand” that serves NO purpose.
All you can be sure of is that each ancestor in their time and situation did what they felt was best for their family, just as we do today.
Email me with any questions, comments, or suggestions you might have.
Enjoy!
John Henry Johnson
Ancestry: John Johnson tree: OUR FAMILY 2024
Family Tree DNA/MyHeritage: Kit No. 363388
Confirmed male Y-DNA Haplogroup R-FT23686
Confirmed female mtDNA Haplogroup U3a1
GEDmatch: T758555
Only now, with this software update, am I able to easily show some of the great images from our family’s history!
Following is a list of the Johnson, Hurt, and 2 Ryan lines of ancestor Grandfathers in Early American events.
Since I began documenting our family history, I’ve maintained a list of ancestors who were in conflicts or other notable events.
NOTE: This is a list containing ONLY Grandfathers and none of the many Granduncles, cousins, or their spouses, of which there is an amazing number!
At this point, we do NOT have a direct-line male Johnson ancestor who is known at the time of the Revolutionary War. Our earliest Johnson ancestor currently is William “Billy” Johnson, who was born in Kentucky in 1779 and proven through Y-DNA. We’ve been stuck in 1779 without knowing who his parents are for several years. Many men are possible, but no definitive proof for any of them has yet been found. I expect that eventually this will be resolved when a male cousin does the FTDNA Y-DNA test and our two trees match on William “Billy’s" dad!
If you are a Johnson male, please do a Family Tree DNA Y-DNA test at the highest level possible so we can take the Johnson line further back. The ideal test is the DNA Big Y-700 test, which places you on the tree of male ancestral lines.
The Contents sections below include these Grandfathers and many other relatives as clickable links.
Early Indian Wars
January 6, 1675 - Susquehannock, Piscataway, Dogue Indian border dispute leading to Baccon’s Rebellion. Two hundred settlers were killed.
8G Grandfather William Alexander Toney (1634-1675) killed New Kent, Virginia
8G Grandmother Ann Elizabeth Bishop (1638-1675) killed New Kent, Virginia
Worked with George Washington
July 1749 - November 1750 - Worked with George Washington, Surveyor Ancestor
6G Grandpa John Shock Shely (1727-1821) PA Revolutionary War Patriotic Service
6G Grandpa Sergeant John Wood (1730-1780) VA at Battle of Point Pleasant
5G Grandfather James C. Tuttle Jr. (1738-1811) NY at Battle of Point Pleasant
We have 2 additional cousins’ spouses in the French & Indian War.
1775-1783 Revolutionary War
Revolutionary War Fife & Drum Corps.
5G Grandfather Drum Major John Charles Cummings Sr. (1762-1811) NC
5G Grandfather Benjamin Hurt (1746-1796) VA
Battle of Trenton, New Jersey - December 26, 1776
5G Grandfather Peter Brakebill (1760-1844) PA with Washington crossing the Delaware on their way to the Battle of Trenton. Peter served 4 times!
Battle of Princeton, New Jersey - January 3, 1777
6G Grandfather George Washington Cummings (1742-1808) NC wounded at the Battle of Princeton
6G Grandfather Christopher Moyers Jr. (1740-1815) VA at Valley Forge
6G Grandfather William Moses Stanley (1710-1784) VA at Valley Forge, wagoner
6G Grandfather Bennett Munford Tuck (1710-1781) England then VA at Valley Forge
We have an additional 3 Granduncles, cousins, or their spouses at Valley Forge.
Battle of King’s Mountain, South Carolina - August 16, 1780
6G Grandfather John Blackburn (1741-1808) PA at Battle of King’s Mountain
5G Grandfather Col. Jacob Brown Sr. (1736-1785) SC at Battle of King’s Mountain
5G Grandfather Anthony Patton (1760-1828) PA at Battle of King’s Mountain
4G Grandfather Harris Ryan (1764-1843) VA at Battle of King’s Mountain
We have an additional 2 Granduncles at the Battle of King’s Mountain.
Battle of Boyd’s Creek, Tennessee - December 16, 1780
4G Grandfather Ensign Jacob Brown Jr. (1761-1838) SC at Battle of Boyd’s Creek
We have an additional 1 relation at the Battle of King’s Mountain.
Battle of Fallen Timbers, Old Northwest Territory (now Ohio) - August 20, 1794
5G Grandfather Capt. David Shely (1750-1823) VA French & Indian War and Revolutionary War at Battle of Fallen Timbers
4G Grandfather John J. Shock (1771-1854) VA at Battle of Fallen Timbers
These Grandfathers fought in the Revolutionary War with no specific battle yet discovered.
7G Grandfather John Cummings (1720-1803) Ireland to MD
7G Grandfather Alexander Mathews (1708-1788) Ireland to VA Civil & Patriotic Service
6G Grandfather Erasmus Holtzapfel Sr. (1720-1793) Germany to PA Patriotic Service
6G Grandfather Henry Hurst (1729-1801) VA Patriotic Service providing troop supplies
6G Grandfather Capt. Samuel Wade Magruder III (1708-1786) MD
6G Grandfather Benjamin Piggott Sr. (1732-1818) MD
6G Grandfather Sergeant Henry T. Turner Sr. (1735-1809) NC Patriotic Service
5G Grandfather Capt. Thomas Burke (1735-1822) VA
5G Grandfather John Cox Sr. (1756-1827) NC
5G Grandfather Haswell Magruder (1736-1811) VA Civil Service
5G Grandfather Capt. Joseph Perkins (1738-1805) MA
5G Grandfather Private Buckner Russell Sr. (1747-1834) VA yet to verify
5G Grandfather John Ryan (1731-1785) VA
5G Grandfather John Stanley (1748-1813) VA Patriotic Service
5G Grandfather HenryYoung (1743-1793) VA Quartermaster General
4G Grandfather William Adams (1764-1846) PA
We have an additional 57 Granduncles, cousins, or their spouses in the Revolutionary War.
1812-1815 The War of 1812
4G Grandfather Henry Fuller Ryan (1795-1860) TN
4G Grandfather Andrew Wright (1791-1865) VA at Battle of New Orleans
3G Grandfather Abner Ryan Sr. (1794-1860) TN was later killed in a Civil War raid by Confederates
We have an additional 28 Granduncles, cousins, or their spouses in the War of 1812.
1835 -1842 Second Seminole Indian War (aka Florida War)
3G Grandfather Sandifer Hurt (1823-1860) TN in Second Seminole War
3G Grandfather Morgan Ryan (1817-1895) TN in Second Seminole War
We have 1 additional cousin’s spouse in the Second Seminole Indian War.
1861-1865 Civil War Confederate soldiers
We have 40 Confederate cousins or their spouses, but no Grandfathers or Granduncles
1861-1865 Civil War Union soldiers
3G Grandfather Hiram Tuck (1807-1866) MO
2G Grandfather Wiley Jay Ryan (1840-1907) TN in Spring Hill Battle and wounded in Franklin Battle, TN. Nov 29-30, 1864
2G Step Grandfather Isaac B. Willett (1837-1914) NY in Battle of Appomattox Court House April 9, 1865, where peace was signed ending the war
We have an additional 77 Union Granduncles, cousins, or their spouses.
About everything a person or a family can experience or survive can be found here, somewhere among the many ancestors. Their many stories make you think how it must have been! The Granduncles and cousins' stories are rich in themselves.
We had two Confederate cousins who were brothers and rode with Quantrill’s raiders on his Missouri and Kansas attacks, with one being killed.
And we had a Union cousin who was captured in the Battle of Athens (Alabama) toward the end of the war only to be freed, but then die in the worst maritime disaster in US history aboard the Mississippi steamboat Sultana, which exploded because of massive overloading with Union soldiers.
The Civil War was a particularly wrenching period. 1C5R Claiborne and Francis (Moore) Tuck married in 1827 in Wilkes County, Georgia. By the start of the Civil War, they had a family of 12 children, 5 girls and 7 boys. Claiborne and Frances had seven sons, all of whom, with their father, were soldiers in the Army of the Confederacy, but only two sons returned home, the remaining five having died in battle or by disease.
We had relatives killed or wounded at the Battle of Guilford Courthouse, the Battle of Princeton, the Battle of Kings Mountain, the First Battle of Springfield, the Second Battle of Manassas, the Battle of Shiloh, the Battle of Franklin, the Battle of Antietam, and the Battle of Peachtree Creek.
Finally, we have a small number of cousins who fought on BOTH sides for the Confederacy and the Union.
Like I said, History is messy!
These stories merely scratch the surface of the numerous tales of our Johnson/Ryan family since the founding of America.
We also have Granduncles, cousins, or their spouses at the following events:
Battle of Monmouth, New Jersey - June 28, 1778
Fall of Fort Sackville, (became Indiana) - February 24, 1779
Battle of Camden, South Carolina - August 16, 1780
Battle of Guilford Courthouse, N. Carolina - March 15, 1781
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Black Hawk War (became Illinois & Wisconsin) - 1832
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Mexican American War - 1846-48
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Battle of Antietam, Maryland - September 17, 1862
Battle of Shiloh, Virginia - April 6, 1862
Second Battle of Manassas, Virginia - August 28-30, 1862
Battle of Champions Hill, Mississippi - May 16, 1863
Battle of Helena, Arkansas - July 4, 1863
Battle of Chickamauga, Georgia - September 18-20, 1863
Battle of Athens, Alabama - September 23-25, 1864
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Late Indian Wars 1851-1891
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Spanish American War - April 21, 1898 to Dec. 10, 1898
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First World War - July 28, 1917 to November 11, 1918
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Second World War - September 1, 1939 to September 2, 1945
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Korean War - June 25, 1950 to July 27, 1953
In all these conflicts, my lists of individuals are undoubtedly undercounted, for not every relative’s information mentions a war or battle, and a document registering for the draft alone is not evidence of involvement in that conflict.
Also, numerous individuals are alive, so Vietnam and later conflicts are not posted.
To see their individual stories, you can CLICK on their group in Contents below.
Contents
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