After a decade of searching, the day has finally come to pass!
Saturday evening, I had the long anticipated profound personal pleasure of actually
speaking via telephone to a direct descendant (5 generations) of Pirate Bill Johnston. It
was doubly rewarding as prior to the phone call, the family had not known that Bill had
even existed. So now I have the opportunity to "fill them in" on their
notorious ancestor. I was beginning to despair that a direct living descendant might no
longer exist or that I would never find him or her. As some of you well know, the search
took me a decade as the branches of that family tree grew from Jefferson County into such
places as Connecticut, Texas, Canada, Florida, Mississippi, California, Ohio, Mississippi,
and finally Michigan.
My search would not have been successful without the efforts of many of you who have
donated your time and efforts to Jefferson County genealogy informational pages and your
personal email messages. To all of you I say a hearty THANK YOU! It's been a real
learning experience along the way.
Most especially I would like to thank "KAT KIEFER" and her family who provided
me with the final big break through.
My only question now is: What shall I do with all this free time! LOL
Jim Eagan