Joseph Johnson was born on 12th April 1854 at 12, Powke Lane, Rowley Regis, the son of Heber Johnson and Nancy Brettell. The date of the marriage of his parents, Heber and Nancy, is unknown, but they are shown as married on the 1851 census when they were both in the household of Lucy Johnson, Heber’s widowed mother. In 1861 and 1871 Joseph was still living with his parents, who were nailers, in Powke Lane. Heber and Nancy had no other children although earlier in 1841 Nancy had had an illegitimate daughter named Fanny Brettell. Nancy married a Job Cartwright in April of that year although Job does not appear to have been Fanny’s biological father. Fanny Brettell appears later in the family records. It is not clear what became of Job Cartwright but Nancy was shown as married to Heber Johnson in the 1851 census as mentioned above.
Returning to Joseph Johnson: Joseph married Emma Willetts on 20 Jul 1873 in Rowley Regis when both were 19. By 1881 Joseph and Emma together with their children William (b abt 1873), Sarah Ann (b 21 Dec 1874) and Mary Hannah (sometimes called Mary Ann, b Feb 1879) were living with Joseph’s parents at 12 Powke Lane. Joseph was an anchor smith. Joseph and Emma went on to have 9 more children between 1882 and 1900! In 1891 Joseph and Emma were in Riddins St. Old Hill with their family: William, Sarah Ann, Mary Hannah, Alfred Heber (b 11 Feb 1882), Amphliss (b 10 Jan 1884), Aaron (b 28 Sept 1886) and Samuel (b abt 1888) and with Joseph's retired parents.
By the time of the 1901 census the family had moved to nearby Church St. Old Hill. Joseph was still an anchor smith as was his 19 yr. old son Alfred, his 14 yr. old son Aaron, his 13 yr. old son Samuel and finally his 27 yr. old William Willetts, the illegitimate son of Emma Johnson (nee Willetts). Clearly 13 and 14 year olds could be anchor smiths in the early part of the 20th century. Interestingly William was recorded as William Johnson in the 1891 census but as William Willetts, Illeg., son to Head of Household in 1901. Overall, this clearly was a household of tough hard-working men. By 1901 Sarah Ann who had married John Holmes in 1894 had left the family home but still lived locally until the grand age of 101. Mary Hannah and Amphliss had also left home; I can find no record of Mary Hannah marrying; but there is more about Amphliss below. Son, Jabez, died short of his first birthday in Nov 1890, but by 1901 the family had also been joined by further children: Elizabeth (b abt 1892), Ruth (b abt 1895), Joseph (b abt 1898) and Alice May (b 18 Oct 1900).
The big change in the Johnson household occurred in 1910 when Joseph emigrated to the US: he and his wife Emma are not present in the 1910 Federal Census , taken 15 April 1910, but they are absent from the 1911 UK Census, taken 2 April 1911, so the implication is that they emigrated between these dates. Joseph when he would have been 56 when he emigrated according to information in the later 1920 US Federal Census.
Joseph and family first settled in Maple Shade, Burlington, New Jersey; the 1920 US Federal Census has Joseph, Emma and their children, Joseph jnr. and Alice May there. Also present are Marie Johnson, Joseph jnr.’s recent wife: he married Marie Provacer ab 1919. Burlington is about 20 miles from Philadelphia where Joseph and Emma’s daughter Amphliss was already living.
Joseph was not the first Johnson to emigrate to the US, Amphliss emigrated earlier in 1903 departing on the Lucania and arriving at New York. Her husband to be, James Wassall, had emigrated a little earlier, arriving in Philadelphia Oct 1902. He worked as a chainmaker in England and continued in the same trade in the US. One can assume that Amphliss travelled to join him after he had got established. Amphliss and James married in Philadelphia in 1904 and their daughter Gladys was born there in 1905. There is a record of Amphliss entering the US with Gladys in Sept 1906 so it seems possible that she returned to the UK to be “looked after” and/or to show off her new daughter after Gladys’s birth (which is recorded as being in the US) before going back to the US in 1906. They had a second child Albert born in 1908 in Philadelphia and then they became naturalized US citizens; James in 1920 but Amphliss not until much later in 1941 . Ampliss was a lady who travelled: there is a record of her entering New York with her husband James in 1928, presumably after visiting relatives back in England and also of her flying into New York in 1950, again probably after a visit to England. She finally died in Florida in 1981.
Aaron Johnson was the second of Joseph and Emma's children to emigrate to the US. He arrived in Philadelphia in November 1913 with his wife Matilda and family: Albert, Aaron, Matilda and John, all born in the UK. Aaron was variously an anchor smith, chain maker or chain striker, all hot, hard work occupations common in the Black Country from where he originated (Matilda was also a chain maker from the Black Country: but she would have made only light chain!) Aaron and Matilda had at least 5 children, all US nationals born in Ohio, who went on to have their own children continuing the Joseph Johnson initiated USA family history. Alfred Heber Johnson, Aaron’s brother also emigrated with his wife Rachel to the US sometime between 1911 and 1920 and again had children and grandchildren. In 1920 Alfred and Aaron lived with their families just two houses away from each other in Franklin Ohio.
It seems likely that after Amphliss and her husband James made a success of their emigration to the US that Aaron and Alfred were encouraged to follow in their footsteps and shortly afterwards their parents Joseph and Emma.