Trek 2016

This year's spring break was all about TREK! (yes, this is really late)  Ryan and Melanie both went on trek this year.  They each had to find an ancestor that they would like to be or rather share at a given moment (which I don't think that moment ever really came).  

Ryan chose to be his 3rd great grandfather, Snellon Marion Johnson Sr.  

Snellon Marion Johnson was born October 27, 1827 in Hillsboro, 

Jasper, Georgia, USA and died June 10, 1900 in Lonetree, Unita, 

Wyoming.  He was buried in Robertson, Unita, Wyoming.

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Melanie was her 3rd great grandmother, Mary Ann Ford.  She was born in 1827 in Cuckfield, Sussex, England  and died in 1920 in Morgan, Utah

We knew we had ancestors from Texas and how cool would it be to learn about them, right?  Snellon Marion Johnson moved here when he was 9 but they moved back and forth from Texas and Georgia/Alabama.  In Texas his family didn't always go to the same place, they moved around a bit there too.  But for the birth of 2 of his siblings they were in San Augustine, TX.  I didn't read this till after Ryan left for Trek, but a fascinating coincidence is that San Augustine is really close to Sabine National Forest, where Ryan and Melanie were for Trek! How cool is that?  But unfortunately Ryan didn't know that when he left.  I found that out through his mother's life history, not Snellon's.

This is a side note from Snellon, but he had a sister that married James Allison York, son of John York of Querro (now spelled Cuero) , TX, who was a rich land owner.  So I Googled Querro, Tx and looked at all the streets in it looking for a Johnson anywhere. I didn't find a street named Johnson but if you look southwest of Cuero, you'll find a Yorktown, I'm sure named after the York family.  I have lived in Texas for 23 years and never knew we had a connection to Texas until my mom brought it up at our family reunion a few years ago and I decided to study it for Trek.  I, of course, looked up the streets in Yorktown, looking for a Johnson family named street but I didn't find any.  It does say that they bought a piece of land near Corpus Christi and San Antonio Rd, wherever that is.  There is no intersection of that now.  But anyway, we have a connection to Texas!  Now I have to visit Yorktown, which does have a history museum.  Jaren has been there, and Cuero, for business.  It's so cool!

The Johnson's met the missionaries in Milan, TX and made the trek to Missouri to cross the plains to SLC.

Melanie's ancestor, Mary Ann Ford, was taught the Gospel in England and came to America to cross the plains and settled in Utah.  I love and treasure her story.  There is way more to her story than that but for this post that is the gist of it,

Here is a picture of Ryan and Melanie at the beginning of Trek: