Adam Howard Johnson 1907 - 1946 Maryland

Adam Howard Johnson
BIRTH
10 Aug 1907
Maryland, USA
DEATH
30 Dec 1946 (aged 39)
Baltimore City, Maryland, USA
BURIAL
Cedar Hill Cemetery
Brooklyn Park, Anne Arundel County, Maryland, USA
PLOT
Section H - 204 - 4
MEMORIAL ID
114684401 · View Source
MEMORIAL
PHOTOS 5
FLOWERS 0
"On her deathbed, his mother said she got Adam as a baby while working for an Italian family, in Baltimore — in a nice Italian neighborhood. She brought him home in a basket and adopted him. But she died before we could get more information. We didn't really know much about his mother."

This has been the only knowledge of Adam Howard Johnson for decades. But thanks to Ancestry.com 23AndMe and a whole lot of effort to dig into the records and the genetics, a much clearer picture of Adam's origins is available.

His birthdate, according to his WWII draft card, was August 10, 1907. He was physically described as being a white male, 5'3", 135#, with brown hair and eyes.

There is one Census record in 1920 that shows Adam H Jonson, 13, living with mother Elizabeth B Johnson, on Hull Street in South Baltimore.

He worked for Bearings Service Co from at least 1929 to 1940, first as a Clerk, but later as a Mechanic.

He moved to Curtis Bay area to a street called Arundel Cove, where he must have met his future wife whose family lived nearby.

He married Helen Audrey Stegman, born 1915, probably in the early 1930s. They had 3 children: Sissy, Chuck , and Ron.

An obituary from the Baltimore Sun indicates Adam Howard Johnson died at the end of 1946, while his children were all quite young.

"Johnson -- On December 30, 1946 Adam Howard, beloved husband of Helen Audrey Johnson (nee Stegman) of 6408 Arundel Cove Avenue, Curtis Bay. Funeral services will be held at William J Tickner and Sons, North and Pennsylvania Avenues of which due notice will be given."

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Some years after his death, in 1961, a newspaper notice lists a dormant bank account for Adam H Johnson and Elizabeth B Ernst. George works as a pipefitter.

Further investigation of this name reveals much more about Adams adoptive mother. In the 1920 Census, she and Adam were living across the street from a George B Ernst. She married him and the three loved together for a while. Adam is mistakenly labeled as Adam Ernst in one of the Baltimore City Directories, in 1924.

In 1940, George and Elizabeth Ernst are living very close to Adam and Helen Audrey Johnson in Curtis Bay.

George died not long after Adam, in 1948:

"July 11, 1948; Baltimore Sun obituary: Ernst, George B. of 1212 Marshall Street, husband of Elizabeth Barbara Ernst (nee Wolf). Internment at Schwartz's cemetery."

Elizabeth died 16 years later. Both obituaries state that her maiden name was "Wolfe" or "Wolf."

"1964, June 9 -- Death notice Ernst, Elizabeth B (nee Wolfe). Formerly of 1420 South Hanover St, wife of George B Ernst; sister of Annie Ball, Rev Henry Wolfe, and Katherine Wolfe of NY. Buried in Schwartz's Cemetery."

When looking through this old Schwartz's cemetery, a headstone is shared between a G.B. Ernst on the bottom and a J.A. Johnson on top, with the latter's death date being July 1, 1909.

This turns out to be Elizabeth B Wolfe Johnson Ernst's first husband, John Andrew Johnson. His death was the result of a neighbor John Scharman, who stabbed Adam's adoptive father to death with a saber. It was quite a shocking and scandalous news story and criminal trial later in the year. Adam would have only been a 2 year old toddler when the murder occurred.

Read about John Andrew Johnson's murder here:

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Read about Elizabeth Wolfe Johnson Ernst here:

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The genetic parents of Adam Howard Johnson are much more difficult to ascertain. However, with a lot more work and some understanding of triangulation, it is possible to pinpoint a couple of families, thanks to the DNA Relatives data and connections provided by 23AndMe and Ancestry.

It is believed that he was the the child of two different families of traveling glass workers.

One came from the Belmont, Ohio area, went through Marshall, West Virginia and found their way to north west Pennsylvania, in a couple of nearby towns in adjacent counties. Many window glass and other glass factories existed in these areas, including Potter County and McKean County Pennsylvania.

The other family came from New Jersey to Baltimore in the late 1800s, then moved to Ithaca, NY,. They then returned to Baltimore in the early 1900s. The family split up and some moved to West Virginia, and some moved to northwest Pennsylvania, where they settled and died in Coudersport, a town in Potter County, Pennsylvania.

The working proof, from triangulation of genetic cousins points to two married people. Robert Enzign Boulton (1859 to about 1921) and Julia V Dolan Glass ().

* Read about Robert Enzign Boulton:

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Read about Julia V Dolan:

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Multiple direct descendants from both family trees point to rather close relations to Adam Howard Johnson's living relatives, and extended relationships with other distant cousins frequently hook up to these same families or place their ancestors in the same regions, especially the Darrah and Baker families of Marshall, West Virginia, which correlates with the grandparents of Julia V Dolan Glass.

Both of their families were in the northwest towns of Pennsylvania, doing the same types of seasonal glass work, and the various towns were only about 20 miles from one another.

Robert had an unhappy second marriage to a woman in Baltimore, Mary S Baldensperger Logan. They were both widowed when they married in 1902. His name appears on the residences where she lived, up till about 1916 when he filed for divorce from her in a West Virginia courthouse. He seems to have left their home after just a couple of years, though, to spend time with his father, brothers and sons at different glass working towns in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. It is not known exactly when or where Robert died, but he disappeared after 1920-1921.

Julia V Dolan was grand daughter of Irish immigrants and another couple of Pennsylvania families - - descendants of John Hontas Baker, and unidentified relatives of Henry Darrah and Peggy Yoho. There are many Darrahs in Marshall, West Virginia.

Julia was born in Belmont, Ohio, near the border of West Virginia, and her family moved to New Castle, Lawrence, Pennsylvania by 1900. She married a glass worker named Charles E Glass in 1900. The couple had 2 daughters. Grace Lucile Glass, born 1901 in Dubois, Pennsylvania, and Beatrice Lenora Glass, born in 1909 in Kane, McKean, Pennsylvania. The Glass family is listed in the 1910 Census in Kane, but are noted as being "Out of town."

Robert Enzign Boulton's son Robert Andrew Boulton married his young wife, Rae Wiltsey, in the town of Smethport, McKean, Pennsylvania, in October 1906.

Adam was allegedly born in August 1907, which means he was conceived in late 1906.

It is a leap of faith and 2.5 years to connect these two families and occurrences, but the distance between the two is only 26 miles. And genetic records so far indicate that the closest living unknown relatives and the known living descendants of Adam Howard, indicate a convergence of genetic material at the same time and in the same places; plus Robert Enzign Boulton's remaining tie to Baltimore, could mean - - could — that a baby given to him by the already married mother, might have been taken back to Baltimore to be given away for adoption.

More records need to be found to prove or disprove this evidence, but it is very strong evidence.

{Thanks to all of those who contributed to this record on FindAGrave, esp users Michael Minnich and LRobbin}

Read more about Adam --

Family Members
Spouse

Helen Audrey Stegman Dashiell
1915–2000 (m. 1933)