From my paternal Johnsons to my maternal Johnson line…

Sarah Suffling JohnsonI’ve spent quite a bit of time on my Michigan Johnsons in the past so now I’m working my way back out of the country. Sarah Suffling was the wife of #5 Richard Johnson and the mother of my 3rd Great Grandfather, William Suffling Johnson. She was the eldest daughter and the second of at least seven children born to William and Elizabeth (Pegg) Suffling. She was born in March of 1801 and christened on March 22nd in Lessingham, Norfolk, England. I have no concrete information about her life up until her marriage but from October of 1827 she built a life with Richard Johnson first in Horsey-Next-the-Sea and then in America.

Sarah was the mother of at least four children starting with my William in 1830. As I mentioned in the post on Richard, he supported the family as a husbandman, laborer and fisherman. William and his next brother, Matthew, immigrated to the United States around 1848 and the rest of the family, as well as a number of Sarah’s siblings, made the journey across the Atlantic. By the time of the 1855 New York Census Richard and Sarah had settled in Carlton, in Orleans County where the family farmed.

After Richard died in 1874 Sarah could be found visiting the households of her children. During the 1880 Federal Census she was living in Kent County, Michigan as part of William’s household.  She died in May of 1889—making this year the 125th Anniversary of her death—in Gaines Township, Orleans County. She is buried beside her husband in Otter Creek Cemetery.

This photo was passed to me by a generous cousin and fellow Johnson researcher.

Happy hunting!

Jess