Gibbs Family
The Gibbs family origins are in England. The earliest Gibbs in the U.S. settled in Jamestowne Colony in about 1619.
The Gibbs families who were our ancestors lived in the Jamestowne area for a time, moved to the Middlesex area and eventually settled in Orange/Culpeper County Virginia. The Ray Gibbs ancestors lived in the area since the 1600s. Madison County was divided from Culpeper County in 1792.
I don’t have extensive family records from the Gibbs family like I do for the Johnson family. The information for the Gibbs families comes from several different sources:
- The book From Castle to Country. Dorothy Gibbs and her group researched the Gibbs families and collected quite a bit of information from Gibbs genealogists as well as public records.
- Dorothy collected family genealogies from local Madison people.
- Books about Colonial Virginia. Records of the Jamestowne Colony and the happenings there survive and give us a marvelous view of what it was like to live there.
- Wills and other public records. The Madison County Clerk’s office has will books and land records going back into the 1700s. Wills, marriage records were found there and I made copies.
- Census records. The census began in the early 1800s and many of these records exist.
- Bible records were the way many families kept track of marriages, births, and deaths. The Estes family Bible contains records of many of our family
- Family Search maintained by the Mormon church is a great resource and most of our Gibbs/Estes and related families can be found there.
- FindAGrave website has a great database of who is buried where. The references include family relationships. The Ray Gibbs family cemetery can be found on FindAGrave (maintained by me – Betty Gibbs).
- Anne Winn, an Estes cousin has provided extensive information about the Estes side of the family.
- Other sources will probably show up!
Visit the Gibbs Family page and the Appendix for more about the Gibbs family.
Johnson Family
The family started in the U.S. when Jens Jensen immigrated from Denmark in 1869 and settled in Sarpy County Nebraska (near Omaha).
These are the stories of the Jens Jensen (Johnson) and allied families. The ancestors and descendants of Oliver Victor Johnson and Anne (Anna) Josephine Lawless are covered in the ‘books’ on this Web site. The intent is to preserve what is known about the family for future generations. All of Anne and Oliver’s children are gone, but they left stories.
The stories are compiled in a series of chapters about the families and individuals. The stories can be accessed in the Johnson Family page. The family genealogy has been entered into the Legacy genealogy software. Some of the stories are included in the ancestor and descendant reports. The chapters include much more detail about the lives of our ancestors developed from the usual sources: census records, marriage records, etc. The real value is added by letters and stories written by the ancestors.
Our uncle, Victor Joseph Johnson, collected a lot of information on the genealogy of both families and this work compiles his research. He contacted cousins on the Johnson and Lawless sides and tells their stories. Other information was collected by Lucille and Marion Johnson. Betty Gibbs collected additional family stories from letters, old papers, photographs, and contacts with cousins. Victor was a prolific photographer who took still photos and movies of the family starting in the 1940s. Pictures from the early 1900s were also preserved by Eugenia Lawless and saved by Anne and Victor Johnson.
We come from a family of pack rats! Because of that tendency, we have letters and miscellaneous documents that have survived over 100 years. The earliest are letters written to Anne by her mother when she was away at boarding school. Most of the letters talk about everyday happenings and seldom have any momentous news. The most precious thing is knowing that our great grandmother and grandmother handled these papers and wrote those words.
Visit the Johnson Family page, the Videos, and the Appendix to explore our history.
NOTES: Be aware that some of the information in the family details is not up to date and additional data from various sources may be added. Several reasons:
- Living families may not have all the children and grandchildren listed. If you see that some have not been included in my database, please contact me. Details of living people are not included in the descendants lists. If you want a chart with information about living people, ask for a private copy.
- A primary goal is to build a narrative family history with chapters for family groups and/or children individually. Some of these have been completed, but more stories are in development. Those in development are noted. Completed stories link to the PDFs.
- Victor Johnson did extensive research on the Johnson family. Not all of that has been entered into the Legacy database.
- Besides the videos, hundreds of letters from/to members of the Johnson family are not yet catalogued or read completely. The letters may add to the stories.
- On-line resources like FamilySearch and FindAGrave are continually updated and sometimes provide more information about the Gibbs and Johnson families. As these sources provide more information, the stories may be updated.