Johnson, Robert Frederick
Summary
Father: James Walter ReevesMother: Dorothy H Alexander
Birth: 12 April 1927
Birth Source: Family Bible
Death: 11 July 1958
Death Source: Funeral records, family bible, newspaper obituary
Spouse1: Marie Yvonne Sage
Narrative
Children of Robert Frederick Johnson and Marie Yvonne Sage- Male child, b. 1955
- Female child, b. 1958
In 1930, the Federal Census shows him living with his mother and Frederick Thomas Johnson in Los Angeles 3. In 1940, the Federal Census shows him living with his mother, who is now divorced from Frederick Thomas Johnson, and they are living at 1723 1/2 Broadway in Long Beach. The record states that they lived at the same address in 1935 4.
On February 7, 1948, he married Marie Yvonne Sage at St. Luke's Episcopal church in Long Beach. In the wedding announcement, published on 15 Feb, 1948, it states that Douglas Reeves of Pasadena was one of the ushers.
In 1951, he graduated from the University of Southern California, with a Bachelors in Science in Physics.
From April 1952 through July 1955, he worked at the US Naval Radiological Defense Lab in San Francisco. He had a number of assignments, including design and layout of buildings, installation of science equipment, development of tools for radiological analysis . A note in the possession of one of the descendants, written by Robert's wife, documents that in September of 1956, they found a growth on his neck, and he received medical treatment for it in the Covina, California, area. They went to Washington DC for further treatment in February of 1957. They moved to Monterey, California, when he began his studies at the Naval Post Graduate School there in August 1957. In the fall of 1957, he started becoming very ill, and he received a disability retirement from the Navy on May 11, 1958 at 31 years old.
He was transferred to Oak Knoll Naval Hospital in Oakland, California, in February of 1958, and he died of pancreatic cancer on July 11, 1958. His death certificate lists the cause of death as "retroperitoneal sarcoma with widespread metastases", with approximately 2 years as the interval between onset and death.
Family Tree DNA yDNA: Y-chromosome (paternal line) DNA test from Family Tree DNA.
Y-chromosome haplogroup: I1-M253
Big Y Haplogroup - I-BY166198 (500 markers)
Number of markers that were tested: 500
Research Notes
Robert Frederick Johnson was the son of James Walter Reeves and Dorothy H. Alexander (hereinafter referred to as "Dorothy"). The evidence for this is given below:1. Hundreds of cousins have been discovered through autosomal DNA matching between the two living descendants of Robert Frederick Johnson and descendants of Solomon Reeves (1730-1772) and Elizabeth Cox (1734-1771). Furthermore, FTDNA Y chromosome results (Kit # 852118) match closely (two exact matches at 37 markers, and one match at 1 genetic distance at 67 markers) with two other individuals who are descended from this Reeves family line, meaning the Reeves connection is on the living descendant's father's side.
However, based on the information given to the descendants by their mother and grandmothers, there are no Reeves connections on their "genealogical" family tree. Indeed, the family tree information given to them shows that their grandfather was Frederick Thomas Johnson, whose family was subsequently meticulously documented back to William Johnson, who arrived in Charlestown in 1634. Further DNA research showed that these living descendants of Robert Frederick Johnson do not have close matches to relatives on the Johnson line, even through there are individuals who should be second cousins that are active on Ancestry, and yet a close DNA match is not found.
While many of the matches of the children of Robert Frederick Johnson to descendants of this Reeves line are 3rd cousin or further back, two extremely close matches were eventually found - one at the 2nd cousin level (~330 cM, on Ancestry DNA) and one at the 2nd cousin 1x removed level (~157 cM - on 23&Me). Correspondence with the more distant of these matches revealed that the closer match on Ancestry DNA is her mother, and that her mother is the granddaughter of one of James Walter Reeves' three siblings.
James Walter Reeves and his siblings moved to the Los Angeles area from Iowa in the 1890s with his mother, Mary Ida Schee, and her parents and extended family. Apparently his parent's marriage had broken up - with his mother filling for divorce on the grounds of desertion in April 1895 in Santa Monica, California. He had two sisters, one of whom married but had no children, and another that did marry, had two children, who subsequently married and had children. This latter line is the one that produced the 2nd cousin and 2nd cousin 1x removed links. His brother, William Fulton Reeves (1880-1964) married and had children born in 1922 or later. By 1920, this brother was living in the Imperial Valley in California (meaning, he was not living in Los Angeles).
2. Dorothy's telephone book, which in possession of one of the descendants, includes the phone number and address of Dr. J. W Reeves at 863 No. Gainsborough Drive in Pasadena on one page and on the next the name and address of Douglas Reeves, on Oak Knoll Ave in San Marino and at Sandia Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Farther back in the phone book, another phone number for Doug Reeves appears again, just above a phone number for a "John Huber" (John Huber is John Felix Huber, the second husband of J. Walter Reeve's first wife, who remarried in 1950). In Dorothy's "Birthday Book", which is also in possession of one of the descendants, and which she was given in ~1910 by her parents, there is an entry for Dr. J. Walter Reeves on July 2, with an annotation at the top of the page "36-*22", which apparently means that he was 36 in 1922 - which is correct. There is also an entry for Doug Reeves on May 16, with a notation "25-1953", meaning he was 25 in 1953, which is correct. It also implies that she was in contact with him in 1953, after the death of J Walter Reeves. So clearly Dorothy was connected with these people, for some reason, and they were both living in the same town, within a few miles of each other. Apparently she must have perceived the relationship as close, otherwise the names would not have appeared in her birthday book.
3. Further evidence of connection between these individuals:
- On May 22, 1941, the San Marino Tribune has an article that says that there was a two-day birthday celebration for the 13th birthday of Douglas Reeves, the son of Dr. J Walter Reeves of 1036 Granada, and that "Bobbie Johnson of Long Beach" was in attendance. Robert Frederick Johnson went by the name "Bob" on a regular basis.
- Information provided on a Statement of Personal History form filed to received Naval benefits (in the possession of one of the descendants) once he became extremely ill with cancer provides interesting information. From 1943-1944 he was living at 853 N Gainsborough Drive in Pasadena, CA, and that he attended Pasadena Junior College during this period. In 1944, he was attending Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach, which he graduated from in 1945. In 1945 he was living at the US Naval Training Center at Great Lakes, Illinois, and in 1946 at the US Naval Training Station at Treasure Island, California. In 1946-Feb 1948, he was living at 635 Havana Ave in Long Beach. During this time he was attending Long Beach City College. Then, in 1948 - 1951, he attended the University of Southern California (USC), from which he received a BS in Physics. During this time, after his marriage, he was living at several different addressing in Long Beach and Seal Beach, California. From February to April of 1952, he was living in Newport, Rhode Island while attending the US Naval Training Station there. Then in 1952-53, he attended UC Berkeley, living in Orinda and then San Francisco.
- A newspaper clipping for Robert Frederick Johnson's wedding mentioned that Douglas Reeves of Pasadena served as an usher at the wedding.
For some reason, Dorothy's son attended Douglas Reeves' 13th birthday party. And for some reason, her son apparently lived at the address that appears in her address book (except that the form shows 853 N Gainsborough rather than 863 N Gainsborough - presumably a simple error in memory or transcription), and also appears on Doug Reeves' WWII military draft form (where his father lived), from 1943-1944.
4. J. Walter Reeves was a prominent physician and surgeon in Los Angeles/Pasadena, receiving his medical degree at USC and serving on the faculty there for some period of time. The "J Walter Reeves Memorial Award", which is awarded "to a member of the graduating class for outstanding achievement in basic sciences during the four-year doctoral program" of the Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry at USC is still given out. Further research on the family shows that J. Walter Reeves was the doctor who delivered Robert Frederick Johnson (see the birth certificate linked above). He was also the doctor who signed the death certificate for Dorothy's mother, Cornelia Bell Norsworthy Alexander, on March 21, 1930 Death Certificate for Nell Alexander. Examination of this death certificate shows that Dr Reeves notes that he was her doctor since May 1922 (the same year that the annotation "36-*22" was apparently made in the birthday book). So, he was apparently the family doctor, and was the gynecologist for Dorothy.
5. In the realm of family lore, Dorothy told the living descendants that there was a famous doctor "J Walter Reed" that had long been "after her", and that he had proposed to her on the same day that she received a proposal from her to-be second husband, but that she had chosen the latter because the doctor was "too busy" and that "Buzz worshiped her". Note that both Dorothy and Dr. Reeves were divorced from their respective spouses in the late 1930s/early 1940s - certainly for Dorothy by 1941, when she married her second husband. Also, Dorothy repeated mentioned that this doctor was "like a father" to her son, Robert Johnson.
6. In the realm of curiosities perhaps explained, one of the living descendant's middle name is Walter. There are no other recent Walter's on their family tree, without the inclusion of the Reeves line. So perhaps the parents were either honoring this kindly person who was "like a father" to Robert, or they knew of the relationship and were honoring him in a way that would make sense in terms of naming conventions.
7. On September 1 and September 3, 1941, young teen Robert sent two letters to Dorothy, who had just married her second husband, Edward Fayette Eldridge. The letters describe his stay with "Daddy" and his activities, along with an Auntie Gladys and and Auntie Elsie, as well as fruit trees loaded with prunes, a house with a gardener, and a "golf machine" that can be used to play golf in the house that his "Daddy" has. One of the letters is sent from Los Angeles, and the other is sent from Pasadena.
Note that Frederick Thomas Johnson - the person originally thought would have been "Daddy" to Robert, did not have anyone in his family who could have been a Gladys nor Elsie, nor did he have the money to have a house with fruit trees nor a gardener. Furthermore, Dorothy was not on good terms with him, so it is unlikely that she would have sent her son to stay with her ex-husband while she was on her honeymoon with her second husband. This implies that Robert knew that J Walter Reeves was his father, which may mean his wife did, too, and that there was a concerted effort by the family to keep this information from the living descendants.
8. Continuing in this line, Robert's former wife insisted that, when Dorothy died, she had to go through her things before her adult grandchildren could. One of the living descendants thought that was very inappropriate, since Robert's former wife was not directly related to Dorothy. But Robert's former wife was insistent, and the descendant assumed that she was just protecting her memories of her dead first husband. As it happened, when Dorothy died, both of the living descendants were out of the country, and couldn't make it for several weeks. Reflecting back, in the light of this new evidence, Robert's former wife's behavior in this regard was likely an attempt on her part to protect her children, and ensure that they did not find any evidence of Nana's relationship with the Reeves family. And indeed, they didn't find anything, except in the phone book and the birthday book, and the DNA. Furthermore, as another interesting aside, despite the fact that Robert's former wife in a way started one of the descendant's interest in family history, with the hand-drawn tree she provided, later in her life - after Dorothy had died - Robert's former wife actively discouraged descendant's interest in family history prior to her death.
9. Further research has revealed that there are three additional male autosomal matches on 23&Me to one of Robert Frederick Johnson's children; these matches have their Y-DNA haplogroup indicated as I-Z58 (which is consistent with the higher resolution result given above). Two of these are fourth and fifth great grandsons of Richard Reeve, and the other is a great great grandson of Levi Reeves, a grandson of this same Richard Reeve.
In conclusion, the DNA evidence and documentary evidence, as well as personal communications described above, lead to the conclusion that J Walter Reeves was the father of Robert Frederick Johnson. With this information, the hundreds of formerly unexplained DNA links to Reeves relations suddenly fall into place.
Sources
Birth: California, County Birth and Death Records, 1800-1994 - database with images, FamilySearch, Robert Frederick Johnson, 12 Apr 1927; citing Birth, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States, California State Archives, Sacramento.Marriage1: Family Bible, Long Beach Press Telegram, 14 February 1948.
Death: Family Bible; records preserved from Robert Frederick Johnson's funeral by his wife, in possession of one of the descendants; newspaper obituary; California Death Index, 1940-1997 - " database, FamilySearch, Robert Frederick Johnson, 11 Jul 1958; Department of Public Health Services, Sacramento.
Burial:
1930 Census: United States Census, 1930 - database with images, FamilySearch, Robert F Johnson in household of Fred T Johnson, Los Angeles (Districts 0001-0250), Los Angeles, California, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 110, sheet 9A, line 16, family 155, NARA microfilm publication T626 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2002), roll 136; FHL microfilm 2,339,871.
1940 Census: United States Census, 1940 - database with images, FamilySearch, Dorothy Johnson, Long Beach Judicial Township, Los Angeles, California, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 59-52, sheet 61A, line 21, family , Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, NARA digital publication T627. Records of the Bureau of the Census, 1790 - 2007, RG 29. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2012, roll 371.
Medical records prepared for the Navy by Robert Frederick Johnson and his wife (in the possession of one of the descendants).
Records of his service in the Naval Radiological Defense Lab ((in the possession of one of the descendants).
California, County Birth and Death Records, 1800-1994 - database with images, FamilySearch, Nell N Alexander, 1930.
Dorothy H. Alexander's birthday book and address book (in possession of one of the descendants).
Divorce records for Dorothy H Alexander from Frederick Thomas Johnson in 1940 found in Los Angeles by one of the descendants.
Letters written by Robert Frederick Johnson and sent to his mother in 1940, in possession of one of the descendants.
Wedding photos, in possession of one of the descendants.