Never to be Heard From Again

 

The story of English immigrant Benjamin Johnson, who supposedly arrived in America as a young bachelor around 1891 and left his final earthly residence in 1928, brings up a point. It likely is a point which has been repeated often, if we choose to look at genealogy from the other side of a family's history.

Imagine what the story might be like, if we could know the names of those left behind at the family home when a young man or woman, eager to seek their fortune—or at least a better life—set out for a promising future in a New World. Many immigrants to New York, for instance, came as single young people. Some may have kept up ties with those whom they had left behind, sending letters or even "remittances" or support for aging parents or for siblings who hoped to follow the same path. But others may have been among those whom their relatives would sadly say were never to be heard from again.

Such seemed to be the case with Benjamin Johnson. Though he was said to be an 1891 immigrant from England—at least according to the 1910 census in Fredonia, Kansas, where we had found him settled—we were able to follow his trail to California after his marriage that year to widow Harriet Beeman Blain. That Harriet's divorce was finalized in San Joaquin County at year's end in 1920, we can estimate that the couple had made their move at least before 1919—or perhaps the trip westward from Kansas became the tipping point which destroyed their relationship.

Benjamin Johnson's obituary did materialize, following that 1928 barebones funeral announcement, but what additional information it provided only served to prompt more questions.

The news report did identify him as a former glassworks employee, reassuring me that we had found the right Benjamin Johnson, despite the article giving his name as "Benny." He was found dead in his home, a case which warranted investigation by the coroner's office, though they found no suggestion of violence.

I have often wondered how the relatives of immigrants—those family members left behind in the "old country"—could track the whereabouts of their family members, especially after news like that. That phrase, "never to be heard from again," may have been a reality for many such parents—while we, on the other side of this family history equation, struggle to identify where our immigrant ancestor came from.

Of course, since Benjamin Johnson and his wife of a brief ten years arrived in California before the century mark, they would have been eligible to be named in our local genealogical society's First Families Program. And if there were a way to share the names featured in such First Families programs across the country, such an index could provide researchers a way to trace their missing migrant family members. As far as I know, there currently is no such finding aid—though I think it might become a helpful resource. 

Fortunately, with the discovery of this bleak news report on Benjamin Johnson, a brief final paragraph provided the faintest glimmer of hope to build a family tree for him. The article concluded with news of his only known relative: "Johnson has no relatives in Stockton, but is believed to have kin in the East."

Sure enough, a previous notice back in Fredonia, that Kansas town where Benjamin had married Harriet, provided some guidance: the 1914 insertion remarked that "Ben Johnson of the glass factory" had just left town for Anderson, Indiana, "to visit a sick brother." Not that I'm about to seek out all the men named Johnson in Anderson, Indiana, to discover the name for this unnamed brother, but at least it is a way finder for those so inclined to do so.

No matter what became of immigrant Benjamin Johnson, he had not been alone among his family members who had left England. Perhaps between the two of them, someone had thought to contact relatives back home to notify them of their wellbeing. Not that I'll now be launching on a wild search to find not one, but two Johnson brothers' origin in England, but hopefully some family members back home across the ocean received news about those wandering relatives.