My ancestor William Johnson lived in London in the 1700’s and as you can imagine, his was a brutally popular name! Such made it almost impossible to research. HOWEVER,,,,,, he left some golden clues in the names of his sons, Thomas ‘Scholes’ Johnson and George ‘Beck’ Johnson. It took years of research but eventually a combination of the surnames Scholes and Beck surfaced at Pateley Bridge, Yorkshire. These clues unfurled the lineage of that branch of the family. This discovery was very satisfying when one considers that it was done without any help from census returns that are so helpful for tracking people.
