McJohns All Over the Country

Well, yes, this is all one family. There was an outfit doing fake genealogy once, who offered for sale books listing one's whole family -- and what the unknowing buyer got was entries from the phone book. Jim McJohn decided this was funny, and actually bought one. He did find one lady in the South with the name, never managed to get in touch with her; and a family in Seattle. After his polite letter, they corresponded. Seems a couple had attempted to settle on a hyphenated name when they wanted to marry, and no hyphenation really suited their extended family; so they made up a name -- McJohn. They thanked him for the brief genealogical listing he had mailed, and said they would save it for their children.

I've talked to those children by phone when I was in Seattle; the original couple divorced, and while they left plenty of records (land, chancery) in the McJohn name, it does appear that they took back their original names. Their kids, however, do use the McJohn name.

A few years back, one of the McJohns found my name online, and I talked by phone to members of that branch of the family. They knew that their father had been a feisty short Irishman called Littlejohn when he was a submariner for the US in WWII. He'd been born to a young couple just after his dad died of the flu in Coney Island, and had been raised knowing nothing of the McJohns. Comparing careers and tendencies, we could conclude on the phone that we were certainly related, but it has taken a number of years to trace out where on the East Coast the family branched off.

The McJohn we know the most about arrived and was eventually naturalized in New York at the Mariner's Court. He was godfather to his sister's children -- she married a McGowan. He had brothers; one of them had children who were living with an uncle in Brooklyn when they were in their teens. Their father had moved to Connecticut and served in the Civil War through two enlistments. From Brooklyn to Coney Island, we don't know much about Littlejohn's father.
Google generally finds the most about Steve and Bill, but I found a really nice citation of some of Jim's genealogical work in the Germanna files this month. John Blankenbaker published for some years a fine newsletter about the Germanna families, and Jim highly respected John's work. He would be so glad to find himself and his work so clearly and well represented in the writing of a man whose work he so much enjoyed.

Opening this blog, I didn't realize that people who aren't members of the blogspot community can't add comments. The email tab has proved handy.