Can Samuel Johnston’s 1850 Mississippi Neighborhood Help Locate His Alabama & South Carolina Roots?

Once the research expands back into the census with tick marks and only the head of household listed, it becomes more difficult. I have a family who were living in Yalobusha County, Mississippi, in 1850. The head of household and his wife were born in South Carolina. The children were born in Alabama, with the youngest at 1 years listed as born in Alabama, suggesting they came recently to Mississippi.

Common Surname
Their name is common: Johnston, which often is rendered as Johnson. I must look at people with both spellings. His first name was Sam or Samuel. I have found 14 men with the first name of Sam, Samuel, or S Johnson/Johnston in the 1840 Alabama census. Three households have a man in the right age group:

• Samuel Johnston, Talladega Co.
• Samuel Johnston, Benton Co.
• S. Johnson, Lauderdale Co.

Of course, it is also possible that they moved to Alabama after the 1840 census enumeration was conducted and were still in South Carolina, or were in the act of traveling to Alabama and were completely missed.

Mississippi Neighbors
Another strategy is to look at the 1850 Yalobusha County neighbors and see who might also have migrated from Alabama. People often traveled to places where they knew someone was there already or traveled together to the new place.

The household in 1850 consists of the following:

Johnson, Samuel, 34, male, planter, SC
Elizabeth, 34, female, SC
Isabella, 10, female, AL
Reuben, 8, male, AL
Luana, 7, female, AL
George M, 5, male, AL
Madison, 4, male, AL
David N, 1, male, AL[1]

Checking those enumerated before Samuel were Chas Philips, Carter Wheeler, Winefred Higgs, D.L. Young, and William Hill. Those enumerated after Samuel were L.M. Lew, Henry Person, I.O. Pearson, Madison Carr, and Anderson Herrold.

• Chas Philips was born in South Carolina. His wife, Mary, and all the children, from Nancy age 19 to Louisa, ten months, were born in Alabama.
• Carter Wheelers, 48, and Andrew Wheeler, 22, were born in South Carolina.
• D.L. Young, 25 was born in Tennessee, but his wife, Lucy, age 21, was born in Alabama. Their twin boys were 2, born in Mississippi.
• William Hill has an interesting household with multiple named people. He was 48, born in Virginia. Richard Brown, 27, was born in Tennessee. Elizabeth Brown, 21, was born in Alabama, William Morrow, age 6, was born in Alabama, and Edward Brown, 1, was born in Mississippi.

Looking at the other direction on the census, those listed after Samuel, were:

• L. M. Dew, 228, born in North Carolina, with all of his children born there, too.
• Henry Person, 58, was born in North Carolina, his wife, Elizabeth, 56, born in South Carolina, their son, Presley, 21, born in Alabama, and the rest of the children born in Mississippi.
• I. O. Person, 41, born in North Carolina, his wife and two children also, and the rest of the children starting with Isaac O, 11, born in Mississippi.
• Madison Carr, 22, born in Georgia
• Anderson Herrold, 62, born in Virginia, Eliabeth, 24, Martha, 21, and Margaret, 20, all born in Alabama.
• J.G. Coleman, 45, born in South Carolina, wife, Elizabeth, 25, born in Alabama, children, from Abner, 4, were born in Mississippi.

Those marked in blue text might be worth researching to see if there is any connection to the Johnstons/Johnsons in Alabama. I have an expanded list in the blog post I wrote in 2019, when preparing for an Advanced Southern Research course at the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy. I don’t think I have investigated the highlighted people and should do that next.

I could also expand this list further. Samuel had no real estate at this time. He was listed with land in 1854.[2] This tax record listed men by land location instead of by surname. So this shows neighbors to Samuel.

Samuel owned land in the Southwest Quarter of Section 12. His neighbors were Henry Person, David Hill, CC Horton, R. H. Johnson, and Samuel Gunn. Taking the information from this tax record for 1854, these were the neighboring landowners to Samuel.

This coming week, I’ll start a course on South Carolina research with the Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research (IGHR) and I hope I’ll get some clues to early South Carolina research.

#52Ancestors: Week 32 – Neighbors and Community

This is my ninth year working on this year-long prompt, hosted by Amy Johnson Crow (https://www.amyjohnsoncrow.com/) at Generations Cafe. I write each week in one of my two blogs, either Mam-ma’s Southern Family or My Trails into the Past. I have enjoyed writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways.

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[1] 1850 U.S. census, Yalobusha Co, Mississippi, north of the Yalobusha River, p. 287b, dwelling 161, Samuel Johnson.

[2] Yalobusha Co, Mississippi, land tax roll, 1854, p. 57, line 22, Saml Johnson; imaged, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-95QT-ZWV : accessed 5 Aug 2026), IGN 004857891, image 59 of 544; citing County Tax Rolls-Box 3964 Yalobusha Co.-1854 - 1889, Mississippi Department of Archives and History, Jackson.

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