Genealogy Research

James Jackson Johns and Ellen Moore Parentage Research Report

I’ve been working on trying to answer the question about who are the parents of James Jackson Johns and Ellen Moore. I didn’t have a name for the parents of Ellen Moore, who is my third great grandmother, and reportedly one of the ancestors with Native American ancestry. James Jackson Johns, my third great grandfather, is often listed as the youngest son of Bartlett C. Johns, but I didn’t have anything to substantively prove that fact. So I set out to see what I could find in order to definitively prove who were their parents.

My research document is attached here, along with images of the records I used in this research.

James Jackson Johns – Ellen Moore Parentage Research Report

Pedigree Charts

Family Group Records

James Jackson Johns Confederate Service Records

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John Wylie Johns Death Certificate
John Wylie Johns Death Certificate

John Wylie Johns Death Certificate

I talked previously about how I found the death certificate for John Wylie Johns. He is my 2nd Great Grand Uncle and is the younger brother, by one year, of my 2nd Great Grandfather, William Jackson Johns. John was born in 1868 and died in 1927.

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Using FamilySearch to Find Georgia Death Certificates

While trying to find information on my 3rd great grandparents (James Jackson and Ellen Moore Johns), I came across the death certificate of their son, John Wylie Johns. I located this death certificate on FamilySearch.org. From their main page, I selected Search. Instead of entering in search terms, I scrolled to the bottom of the page and elected to search by browsing the records.

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Finding Ellen Moore

I started with Ellen Moore.  I knew she was born in Coweta County in 1838.  I had no information about her parents or siblings. I found her in the 1870, 1880, 1900 and 1910 Federal Censuses under her married name, but I had nothing from her childhood.

I first started looking for her in earlier census records, in the hopes that I could find her living in a household with her parents and obtain their names.

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In 1860 I found an Ellen Johns living in George married to a Joseph M. Johns, listed as age 20 and 23 respectively.  It is unlikely that this is the right family as the husband’s name is not an exact match, the ages are off and the location is not right.  Ellen Moore was married in 1859 in Paulding County, GA, so by 1860 she would have been in her husband’s household, but I am unable to find any other reference that might be her in the 1860 census.

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Indexing for FamilySearch.org
Indexing Project from FamilySearch.org

A sample indexing project from FamilySearch.org is the Wisconsin – County Marriages, 1838-1907

I’ve started to volunteer to help with the Indexing project at FamilySearch.org.  In order to volunteer you have to download their free software program. The program is an easy to use tool that coordinates the indexing projects and lets you download batches of documents to your computer for indexing.

I have to admit, the process is a little addictive.  I think in my first week, I’ve spent more than 4 hours indexing, adding 249 names and earning 349 points.  FamilySearch uses points earned to figure out your proficiency at indexing and make more complicated projects available to you.  When you are starting out as a newbie, you are shown easier projects for your preferred batches.  As you gain points, more complicated batches will become available to you.

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