All images are copyright protected by law.

The images numbered 1 through 45 are from the Johnston Family Album discovered in December of 2004. The originals are rather small and in various stages of deterioration. There are 39 tintype images and 6 albumin on paper images (cdv's). One of the 39 tintypes is of a newspaper engraving. One should keep in mind that tintype photographs are reverse images so that what appears to be a person's right hand in the photo is really his left hand, etc.. The album had been kept by Robert R. Johnston Jr. (1848-1914) and his wife Mary O'Brien (1852-1928). As Robert & Mary had no children, upon their deaths their neighbors, Matt & Lieucinda "Emma" (b. Loper) Thompson, thoughtfully took possession of the album in case a Johnston relative should appear. None did, and the album remained in a closet for 80 years or more.

In January, 2005, the album owner, a descendant of Emma Loper Thompson, contacted me. She had inherited Emma Loper Thompson's estate and come across several albums. Shortly after discovering the album while looking at the photos she found a name, date and location on the back of one of the images. She did a search on the internet and came up with my name. Fortunately she contacted me, sent scanned images to me to determine family connections and on September 21, 2005, I received the album. I owe her a debt of gratitude. She prefers to remain anonymous.

Robert and his brother Archibald left the family farm near Pendleton, Prescott Co., Ontario, Canada, in 1869 and went to Flint, Michigan, where they stayed for awhile with their sister Isabella (1845-1918) and her family. Isabella had married John Graves who had served in the Union Army in the War Between the States (aka Civil War).

Identifying all of the people in the photographs may not be possible although we have been notably successful to date.

In doing this restoration/retouching work I have chosen to work on one blemish at a time often at the single pixel level in order to keep the images as sharp as possible. It is time consuming, but the end results are much better than using blurring tools.

If you are a Johnston/e and have hit the proverbial brickwall trying to find where your ancestors came from, welcome to the crowd. I had my Y-DNA tested in 2005 and was almost immediately connected with 4 "Y-DNA Cousins" - people who are genetically very closely related to me. This has helped us immeasurably.

One of my newfound Cousins has his grandfather's genealogy records taking them back to Poldean (a 2,000 acre farm), Scotland, and the Old Gang of Wamphray. What is even more interesting is that the genealogy goes back even further to Sigurd Hring, King of Denmark, Sweden and Northumberland who was the grandson of Radbard of Russia, King of Garderidge (Russia) ca. 650.


If you're interested in having your Y-DNA tested, view: http://www.familytreedna.com/ This is the testing service that we have used, prefer and recommend. Dr. Ken Nordtvedt has assisted me in determining my "genetic ancestry": I2b1-Continental 2a, or in plain english, Danish Norman via Northumbria to Scotland in our case.

In 2007 Y-DNA testing revealed an exact match for 67 markers between descendants of Robert "Red Robin" Johnston and Francis "Frank" Johnston, b. ca. 1805 in Ireland. Red Robin and Frank bought farms in Upper Canada close to each other near Pendleton in N. Plantagenet Twp., Prescott Co.. Welcome aboard!

5/23/08 - A descendant of Archibald Johnston/e, b. 1815 in Ireland, had his Y-DNA tested. He matches us 100% for all 67 markers! We now have established a solid link among Francis (b. 1805), Robert (b. 1808) and Archibald (b. 1815) Johnston/e. Oral family history was vague but indicated that they were brothers. Archibald owned the farm to the south and adjacent to Robert's farm. Francis owned a farm on the west side of and adjacent to Pendleton. This land was listed in the Assessment Roll of 1822 as belonging to a George Johnson [sic]. Francis shows up on the land in the 1827 Assessment Roll, and George disappears. Help us find George! Who exactly was he?

2/2/13: A cousin contacted me. Recently she inherited a box of old photos. While going through them she found a note stating that the Johnston brothers, Robert & Archibald, were born in Kilrea, Co. Derry, IRELAND. Finally, after all of these years we have located them in Ireland :-) [3-21-17: information found to be faulty].

1/11/14: A recent computer generated phylogenetic tree with 77 participants appears to support the origin of the Johnston surname with one John Johnstoun, son of the Viking Earl of Northumbria. John went north to Perth, then know as St. Johnstoune. He established himself by building a stone tower surrounded by a stone wall. The foundations of such a ruins, although unattributed, have been found in the Perth area. In Viking tradition he took a name from something notable in the area, personalizing it in the process. He took the name "Johnstoun". Later our first Johnstoun was to go to the Borders area of Scotland where Clan Johnston was to be established. The "u" was dropped from Johnstoun ca. the early 1600s. Ca. 1726 the final "e" was added to our Chief's surname in an effort to avoid confusion with those who had adopted the Johnston surname and were not of the Johnstoun bloodline. It was a futile attempt, at best, as non-family, Johnston-surnamed people quickly adopted the new surname too.

3/31/17: From the Death Certificate of Robert "Brave Bob" Johnston we now have the place of birth of his father, Robert "Red Robin" Johnston - Armagh, Ireland! It isn't very specific as there is an Armagh city and a County Armagh, but at least we are now on the right track!!!

12-26-17: We have made a breakthrough in discovering through the research of the late Margaret Cameron who was a descendant of William Johnstoun of Gretna and of Newbie, Scotland, more specifically his son, John Johnstoun of Newbie. Her family was charged by the kings of Scotland to provide and maintain 200 spearmen to be ready at all times to protect the border area of Annan-Gretna against English raiders and armies. UPDATE: 11-29-19 A Y-DNA test of a male Johnston from Margaret's family has thrown a proverbial monkey wrench into our Clan Johnston/e research as it does not match our expectations.

8-4-18: As we get more Cousins to test their Y-DNA, the results of our JOHNSTON Phylogenetic Tree get much more definitive. I have been bounced unceremoniously from the Johnston of Newbie branch into Never-Never-Land. I remain a descendant of an "other-than-a-first-son" of an ancient Clan Chief...I just don't know which one. Oh well, back to the drawing board...

If you would like to contact me I can be reached at: (281) 757-6955.

UPDATE: As our Y-DNA research continues, Cousin Wesley Johnston has posted an online group of Johnstons who came to Canada Pre-Confederation, 1865. Please check it out and have your Y-DNA tested with FTDNA: https://www.wwjohnston.net/famhist/canada-johnstons.htm