Mary War Nan JOHNSON/JEANSONNE was born 9 March 1837 in Louisiana and died on 25 June 1918 in Obion County, Tennessee. Mary indicated on a family certificate that she was born in New Iberia, Iberia Parish, Louisiana, but the Southwest Louisiana Records book indicates she was born in Grand Coteau, Saint Landry Parish, Louisiana (see below). We have chosen to go with what Mary has indicated as her place of birth but wanted to make sure and note the discrepancy.

Also please note that Mary wrote on the same family certificate that she was born on 9 Mar 1837, but the Southwest Louisiana Records book indicates her birth was 9 Mar 1838. We have chosen to go with the date that Mary, herself, celebrated as her birth date (year); however, it should also be noted that when Mary applied for a widow's pension for Elias' Civil War service, she indicated she was born in Louisiana in March 1838 so she contradicted herself from the family certificate. My guess is that she was born in 1838 and not 1837. Mary also listed her maiden name as Mary War Nan Johnson.

Mary was the daughter of Dr. Thomas C. Johnson/Jeansonne (c1800-c1840) and Elaisa 'Eliza' STEEN (1818-1859). As far as we know, Mary was the only child of Thomas and Elaisa.

Going back to Mary's birth year - it is interesting to note that Mary herself wrote her date of birth as March 9, 1837 versus 1838, but her parents were married in September 1836 which would only be 6 months from their marriage until Mary's birth. In addition, Mary's birth is recorded in the Southwest Louisiana Records book as follows (the remarks in [ ] are my own):

"JOHNSON [JEANSONNE], ----[Mary War Nan JEANSONNE] (Thomas & Elisa STEEN ) b. 9 March 1838 (GC Ch.: v. 1, p. 146)" - GC ='s Grand Coteau.

The 'b. 9 March 1838' could stand for baptized as it indicates a church; however, the book usually indicates 'b.' for 'born' and 'bt.' for 'baptism' and as I explained earlier, Mary indicated her birth year as both 1837 and 1838 in different documents. I believe 1838 is correct.

We've also wondered about Mary's middle name of "War Nan" and whether it could have been "Warren" but in looking at a scanned copy of a family certificate, in Mary's own handwriting, she had indicated her middle name as 'War Nan'. The page is torn just where she wrote 'Nan', but you can definitely see the 'Mary' and the separated 'War' and what appears to be the separated 'Nan'. Then there's the widow's Civil War pension application where in several places her name is specifically spelled as "War Nan" so it appears that War Nan was, indeed, Mary's middle name but where on earth did it come from?

When Mary applied for her deceased husband Elias Laster's Civil War pension on June 19, 1905, she indicated that she and her parents (her mother Elaisa and Elaisa's 2nd husband Henry Callis) moved to Tennessee when Mary was 8 years old (she also indicated they moved from Louisiana to Tennessee in 1846 which would confirm a birth year of 1838 since she states she was 8 years old when they moved).

After Elias died in 1899, Mary waited until 1905 to apply for his Civil War pension as his widow. She states that she was born in March 1838 in Louisiana and that she and her parents (her mother Elaisa and Elaisa's 2nd husband Henry Callis who was not Mary's father) moved to Tennessee when Mary was 8 years old. Mary also indicates that they moved from Louisiana to Tennessee in 1846 which would confirm a birth year for Mary of 1838. Mary also indicated that she married Elias Laster on November 1, 1855 by a Justice of the Peace but a marriage record shows the date as November 1, 1854. She indicated that Elias died on Sept 10, 1899 in Obion County, Tennessee and that she was left with virtually nothing in regard to possessions. One of my cousins who is also descended from Mary and Elias has told me that they had very little and in their later years lived with one of their sons. Mary indicated on the application that she had household and kitchen furniture worth about $50 and that Elias had left her 2 cows, 2 mules and 5 hogs which she had sold to help pay her living expenses. She also indicated that they had had six girls and seven boys. Mary indicated that Elias' Civil War regiment had surrendered in 1865 at Gainesville, Alabama. *I had found reference to Mary's pension application and wondered if anyone had ever requested a copy of it so I spoke with my cousin Marion Lynn Laster and he said 'no' - he hadn't realized the document was out there. Lynn ordered it and shared it with me so many thanks to Lynn for doing that.

Also note that Mary herself wrote her maiden name as Johnson. For the past 157 years, her maiden name was spelled as ‘Johnson' versus what may be the correct spelling of ‘Jeansonne'. From speaking with a 'newly-found' Steen cousin in Louisiana, I learned that the pronunciation of Jeansonne sounds very much like Johnson and we believe that is how and why Mary's maiden name came to be spelled as Johnson. In addition, the anglicized version of Jeansonne is Johnson, so her father's surname may have originally been Johnson, but at some point the family apparently changed the spelling to Jeansonne (as found in the book, Southwest Louisiana Records), but then Mary or someone else changed it back to Johnson.

It should be noted that when people moved to Louisiana who were not of French or Acadian descent, the priests and clerks often wrote their names in the French or Spanish manner. Sometimes this was done because the individual didn't know how to write their name and the priests/clerks wrote it as it sounded to them. Also, the priests especially changed the spelling to the French version because they had a hard time with spelling of names for German immigrants and others. So even first generations had their given and surnames changed in spelling and subsequent generations were listed in the same manner.

Per a marriage record, Mary War Nan JEANSONNE/JOHNSON married Elias Laster on 1 Nov 1854 near Troy, Obion County, Tennessee. However, once again Mary has indicated another date for their marriage in the Civil War pension in which she indicated they were married on 1 Nov 1855 by a Justice of the Peace (whose name I believe was Maury Harper - that's what the spelling looks like on the pension application).

Mary and Elias had 14 children:

Sarah Eliza (1856-1938), Mary Francis (1858-1942), Minerva Jane (1860-1948), James Thomas (1862-1943), Lucy Elias (1864-1922), Andrew Jackson (1866-1922), Nanie Odor (1868-1897), Daniel Frank (1871-1948), Albert Clarence (1873-1948), Pinknie Alonzo (1874-aft 1900), Female Infant (1876-1876), Virgil Henry (1878-1966), Stillborn female baby (1881-1881), Lizzie Maude (1882-1973) and William Warren 'Willie' Laster (1886-1961).

Mary, Elias and their children appear on the following census records:

1860 - District 6, Obion Co., Tennessee
1870 - District 6, Obion Co., Tennessee
1880 - Rives Station, Obion Co., Tennessee
1900 - Civil District 7, Obion Co., Tennessee (Elias has died by time of 1900 census)
1910 - Civil District 7, Obion Co., Tennessee

According to some researchers and family history, Mary's mother, Elaisa's heritage, was French and Creole descent. Also, according to family tradition, Mary War Nan, was supposed to have been part Indian (Native American).

Nothing supports Mary War Nan JEANSONNE/JOHNSON Laster as having any Native American blood nor can we find any French in her. It possible, but not likely, that her father, Dr. Thomas C. Johnson/Jeansonne, was possibly of French or French Creole descent but we cannot find much information on him. We had thought the other option was that Mary's maternal grandmother, Catherine STELLY, may have been Acadian, but that has been found not to be the case. Catherine STELLY and her husband, Hilaire Elias Steen were both of German ancestry (confirmed). However, as Catherine was born in Louisiana and since Hilaire moved there when a boy or young man (by 1809 at absolute latest) and they continued living in Louisiana, they would be considered White Creole's of German descent (Catherine especially since her heritage started in the very early days of Louisiana with her Edelmeier line having been in Louisiana sometime between 1718 and 1721 and her Stelly line in Louisiana no later than 1743 [confirmed]).

This is probably where the family story about Mary War Nan JOHNSON/Jeansonne Laster being either Creole or Cajun came from but again, Mary was not Cajun - she was a White Creole of German descent [confirmed]. This also means that Mary's mother, Elaisa, was not French, but would also be considered a White Creole of German descent (confirmed). So Mary's heritage was definitely mostly German but unknown on her father's side but with the name of Thomas C. Johnson, he probably was of English or Irish descent (NOT confirmed).

See the link to Mary's mother, Elaisa STEEN, for further info on Elaisa and Elaisa's parents.

*Mary was my 2nd great grandmother. I am descended from her daughter, Manerva Jane LASTER James. I would like to add that I took a DNA test that showed that I was 100% European so there is definitely no Native American in Mary's heritage but my sister and I have already proved that in our research. Mary's heritage was 100% German on her mother, Elaisa's side, but we are not sure of her father's heritage as we can find very little on Thomas C. Johnson (also spelled as Jeansonne in the French records).

We were able to confirm beyond a shadow of a doubt the family story that Mary's father was a doctor. Dr. Thomas C. Johnson is found in numerous lawsuits in Louisiana where he is referred to as Dr. Thomas C. Johnson.

In October 2012, my sister, my cousin and myself published a book on Elias and Mary titled "Family Chronicle of Elias Laster and Mary War Nan Johnson". The book starts with the history of the Laster family and then continues with "new" (in 2012) information that my sister and I had discovered as to Mary's heritage. We were able to determine with 100% certainty her heritage back to Germany and included information on Elaisa's parents, grandparents, great grandparents, etc. Family names related to Mary's heritage include Steen, Stelly, Ritter and Edelmeier - all with a very early history in Louisiana.