My Family Mystery Solved through DNA
1918 – John and Betsey Johnson (on the right) were my mother’s great grandparents
John Paul Johnson (my mother’s great grandfather) was born out of wedlock and was by far, the most challenging ancestor to research. Nothing was known about his parents.. Who were they? Where did they come from? In 2014, the floodgates opened when I took a DNA test.
My origins at Family Tree DNA
In December of 2013, I, Devin Flato, took the autosomal DNA test with Family Tree DNA. On January 14th, 2014, my results appeared in the FTDNA database. The next day, someone contacted me with the following message…
Hi, You match me, my sister Victoria, and my mother Helen, on a DNA segment which is associated with cousins who descend from common ancestors; Lars Bjørnson Ekrene (1780 – 1822) and Marta Larsdatter Nordbø (1786 – 1876). They came from Southwest Norway- Rennesøy, Rogaland. Unfortunately, I have limited information about them, to the disgust of my cousins on my mom’s side, but if you are interested I could probably ask someone who might know more.
Risa farm in Rennesøy, Rogaland, Norway
The message was from a predicted ‘second to fourth cousin’ named Julianne. Her revelation was intriguing yet, baffling to me at the same time. My mother’s paternal grandmother’s ancestry was from Sogn og Fjordane County, which is far north of Rogaland and out of the realm of possibility. Without a doubt, the relation would certainly come from my mother’s paternal grandfather; Temmen Johnson (1895 – 1960). Temmen’s maternal side of the family (the Erickson’s) have deep roots in Rogaland. The dilemma with this query is that the names and place that she mentioned are not found in my Rogaland ancestry, which is well documented through the 1700’s and beyond. In Julianne’s second message, she wrote…
Dear Devin, both my mom and I have also tested at 23andMe, where we both match a cousin whose most obvious connection to us is through common descent from that couple [Lars Bjørnson and Marta Larsdatter]. I descend through their daughter Marta and through her daughter Stine Johnson who married John Ludvig Larson. My cousin descends through their son, Rasmus Larson Hauske (1815-1900), Rasmus Hauske (1860-1925) and Mabel Hauske. She shares another segment match with us on Chromosome 2 and matches us on the same segment we match with you. I know we are looking at the same half of the chromosome pair because both of you match my mother.
Chromosome browser at Family Tree DNA
After exchanging a few emails, Julianne sent me an invitation to view her family tree at Ancestry.com. While searching for clues in her family tree, I noticed a mutual place of interest. Her Norwegian ancestors settled in Fillmore County, Minnesota - the same county where my Norwegian ancestors settled. Another interesting clue is that the island of Rennesøy is less than two nautical miles southwest of the island of Finnøy, where Kirsti Kjellsdatter (John P. Johnson’s mother) was born and raised. Then it dawned on me, could Julianne’s family be the missing link in John P. Johnson’s paternal ancestry?
Stavanger Region in Rogaland County, Norway
John Paul Johnson was born in 1858 in Wisconsin. Nothing was known about his parentage until in 2011, when I randomly found John and his mother in an 1870 Iowa census record; However, the identity of John’s biological father remained a mystery.
1870 Forest City, Winnebago, Iowa. John Johnson (age 12) with his mother (Christy) and step-father; Paul Ryerson and half-siblings
Julianne’s great great grandmother was Stine Marie Johannesdatter (1843 – 1909). Stine, along with her brother (Peder) and her mother (Martha) immigrated to America in 1862. Stine had two older brothers; Lars and Sivert, who immigrated in 1853 and 1854. Upon arrival in America, all of the brothers changed their patronymic name of Johannesson to the surname of Johnson. Could one of the older brother’s be the biological father of John P. Johnson?
While searching for more answers, I found a descendant and family historian of the Johnson/Rennesøy family named Rachel Gibson. Like Julianne, Rachel is also a descendant of Stine Marie Johnson and has been a tremendous help with her own research and knowledge of the family. We learned that Stine’s eldest brother; Lars, settled in Minnesota in 1855, long before the birth of John Johnson in the State of Wisconsin. Suddenly, the scope of possibility was narrowed down to one brother; Sivert Johnson.
In the following months after taking the DNA test, four more descendants of the Johnson/Rennesøy family tested at Family Tree DNA and the results confirm that I am closely related to all of them. One of the testers; Phillip Johnson (great grandson of Sivert Johnson) took the Y-DNA test, which traces the paternal “father to father” line exclusively. My mother’s first cousin; Larry Johnson, agreed to take the Y-DNA test as well. In July of 2014, the results were in, and confirmed that Larry and Phillip Johnson are Y-DNA cousins! Now we have proof that our Johnson lineage descends from the Johnson family of Rennesøy!
Y-DNA genetic distance report at Family Tree DNA
It has been concluded that Sivert H. Johnson (1836 – 1896) was the biological father of John P. Johnson. The extent of Sivert and Kirsti’s relationship continues to be a mystery. I suspect that Sivert remained close to Kirsti until the time of John’s birth for one reason in theory.. If Sivert and Kirsti parted ways shortly after conception, then Kirsti would have likely named her son: Kjell (after her father). Instead, she named her son: John, in homage to Sivert’s father (Johannes). This pattern is traditional in the Norwegian naming system.
Sivert Johnson, circa 1870 – Biological father of John P. Johnson
We may never learn the reason as to why John P. Johnson’s biological father was never mentioned in family lore. Regardless of the matter, it is truly fascinating that with genetic testing and conventional genealogy, our 156 year old family secret was officially solved!
"There are no secrets that time does not reveal." - Jean Racine