Most Common Names in the United States

Dang, I'm a Lucky Girl!

According to Ancestry dot com, Smith is the most common name in the United States.  If one has a Smith in the family, they can expect to sort through 81 million records on ancestry. 

I do have a Smith in the family.  My Mother was Rosie Mae Smith.  As a matter of fact, I have many Smiths in the family.  One could say that I have hit the jackpot on Smiths.  My Smiths were a very prolific bunch to top it all off.  One of their favorite pass times was making more Smiths.  Every time, I turn around, I'm running into a new Smith cousin.  Lucky for me, we have DNA to help us sort through the Smith woodpile now.
https://blogs.ancestry.com/cm/smith-a-short-history-of-americas-most-popular-surname/?o_xid=78115&o_lid=78115&o_sch=External+Paid+Media


Not too far behind the Smiths are the Johnsons.  According to the 2010 census records (reflected in the link below), the Smiths are at 2.4 million with the Johnsons at 1.9 million. 
 
Do I have a Johnson in the family?  Well, yes.  Yes, I do!  My Daddy was a Johnson.  Lawrence Gerald Johnson.  There are many, many Johnsons in my family tree.  There are about as many of them on ancestry to sort through as there are Smiths.  I'm lucky again to have DNA to help me sort through all the Johnsons.

I recently met a cousin with the surname of Jones on ancestry that is related to both sides of my family.  Smiths (Mother), and Johnsons (Father).  This ought to be interesting to find out if any of the Smiths married a Johnson to produce a Jones.  😅

Jones is running in fifth place on the 2010 census with Garcia close behind them.

I find it to be very interesting the way the most popular surnames are slowly changing in our country. 
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1NIqMRAF_SEOWoyMDJ2ZlZiQXM/view

Thanks Mama and Daddy for giving me such a challenging genealogy to research.  Out of all of the people in the world with different surnames, a Smith and Johnson found one another and fell madly in love.  When I really think about it though, I think I would rather have the challenging ( and probably more interesting than many others) genealogy, than to not be here at all. 

Rosie Mae Smith, Baby Helen Jane Johnson, and Lawrence Gerald Johnson

Thanks Mama Smith and Daddy Johnson again, for meeting, falling madly in love with one another and producing a little Johnson-Smith creature! Me! 😊

Legacy of Slave Holders

Wow!  I had no Clue Before!

I knew so little about our family background before getting into genealogy and having my DNA tested.  I knew the surnames of my Mom, Dad and Grandparents on either side and where they were all born.  I knew that they migrated from Oklahoma to California about 1940-41 and that they lived the life of poor Okies.

I always thought that my family would have been too poor to have any slaves.  I don't think my grandparents or parents knew very much beyond their own lives.  They were struggling to survive.

They worked in the fields picking cotton, hoeing cotton, picking fruit, or whatever else kind of field work they could get.  My Dad worked in the Orange shed in the winter and eventually, he made boxes for table grapes later.

When I found the first record that one of my ancestors owned slaves, I was in shock!  I had a physical reaction feeling like someone had punched me in the stomach.  Then, I felt numb not believing it was possible.

Why did I have this kind of reaction?  As I mentioned, I just didn't think that my ancestors would have had the resources to have been slave owners because we had lived in extreme poverty.  Another reason is because I felt and knew that slavery was wrong.  I feel very strongly about it.

Am I at fault because some of my ancestors owned slaves?  No, but I still feel horrible about it.  Can I change anything?  No, I can't change anything about the past.  I do feel a burning desire to learn more about the slaves.  Who they were, what their names were, how they were treated, and what happened to some of them after emancipation, and where they are buried.

We can always do something about the here and now....