George Johnson

CORRECTED 16 Aug 2026 - HIS WIFE IS MARY ANN FAIRBROTHER, NOT MASON; AND THE DURHAM CATHOLIC REGISTERS ARE ONLINE, NOT MICROFILM-ONLY. Seven baptisms of his children at Esh Laude St Michael's name the mother Fairbrother, 7 of 7. Two claims in the 30 Jul note below are superseded. 1. THE SURNAME. Seven Roman Catholic baptism entries at Esh Laude St Michael's, Lanchester, Co. Durham name the mother of his children FAIRBROTHER: Mary (1826), Mary (1828), Mary (1831), Margaret (1833), Mary (1835), Mary (1837), Mary Ann (1839). Durham Records Online records 425217, 407709, 419739, 412606, 423665, 409647, 409118. The 1839 entry reads "Mary Ann Fairbrother", which is the tree's given name exactly. MASON came from the 1807 Kensington marriage detached below as a graft, and it fell with it. [874]'s name row was corrected the same day. 2. THE AVAILABILITY CLAIM, and this one cost eighteen days. The note below says the Durham Catholic registers are "DRO microfilm only and not online at any price", and names Croxdale Chapel. BOTH ARE WRONG. The register is ESH LAUDE ST MICHAEL'S, and it is transcribed, indexed by father's forename, and online at Durham Records Online at $2.25 a record. Seven were bought and read on 16 Aug 2026 for $15.75, and they evidenced seven of the eight children of this family. AN AVAILABILITY CLAIM IS A MEASUREMENT WITH A DATE, NOT A PROPERTY OF THE RECORD - write "not found online as of <date>, searched at <hosts>", never "not online at any price", because the second reads as settled fact and nobody re-tests it. 3. STILL TRUE, KEEP IT: this family has NO SOURCED MARRIAGE. The seven baptisms name the parents; none of them is a marriage record. The uncited 1826 marriage event is still contradicted by [875] William, born 1821, who is also the ONLY child of the eight with no Esh Laude entry - see ancestry/documents-read-index.md K144 for that controlled negative. --- THE 30 JUL 2026 NOTE, VERBATIM. Superseded ONLY in the two sentences named above: "Our George's wife is Mary Ann Mason" and the "not online at any price" claim. Everything else in it stands, including the graft detachment and the 1861 census negative. --- Audited 30 Jul 2026 (research 29 Jul) - Johnson branch, Q5. The 8 Dec 1807 marriage of George Johnson x Mary Mason at St Mary Abbots, Kensington was READ FROM THE IMAGE (Ancestry coll. 1623 rec. 30126917; London Metropolitan Archives DL/T/047/010; St Mary Abbots register 1800-1813, Bishop's Transcript; image 32184_218916-00268; local copy ancestry/sources/kensington-1807-johnson-mason-marriage-stmaryabbots.png). The record is a KENSINGTON-RESIDENT couple married BY BANNS - both parties described 'of this Parish', which banns require - with London Johnson witnesses (William Johnson, Eliza Rivers, Mary Johnson). NOTHING in it links to Brancepeth, Co. Durham, 250 miles north. The marriage has therefore been DETACHED from this family as a graft. CORRECTION TO THE EARLIER OBJECTION: the register records NO AGES - pre-1837 English registers do not - so the 'groom 16, bride 14' argument was an inference from tree dates, not a statement of the record. The graft is disproved by residence and banns, not by age. CONSEQUENCE, recorded so it is not lost: this family now has NO SOURCED MARRIAGE AT ALL. The surviving 1826 marriage event is itself contradicted by the eldest child born 1821 and remains uncited - it must NOT become 'the' marriage by default. 1861 CENSUS NEGATIVE, so nobody re-chases it: the single George Johnson at Brancepeth, Durham is NOT him - age 52, b. abt 1809 Leeds Yorkshire, coal miner, wife Selina 28 of Halifax (FamilySearch ark:/61903/1:1:M788-P2S; RG09 piece/folio 3736/36 p.31 line 14). Our George's wife is Mary Ann Mason and his son John Joseph was b. 1831. That is not evidence of absence - he may have died, moved, or been enumerated under a variant - but it shows how crowded 'George Johnson' + Durham is. The 1841 and 1851 Brancepeth/Lanchester households are still unread; the real unlock remains the offline Durham CATHOLIC registers (Croxdale Chapel), which are DRO microfilm only and not online at any price. Memo: ancestry/johnson-branch-research.md Q5