Welcome To TheEcoTrek.com

I was born on March 13, 1940, in West Point, Georgia, a small town of 4000 people on the Alabama line. I grew up with a love of nature, exploring the woods and riverfront in back of our house, and also developed a love of geography and history from reading National Geographic and Life magazines, along with the numerous books in our house. My aunt and grandmother introduced me to genealogy at an early age, taking me to family cemeteries and court houses to help them copy records. I became interested in birdwatching as a child, and continued this interest in later years. After graduating from high school, I attended Emory University in Atlanta, obtaining an A.B. with a major in Chemistry, then spent 3 years in the U.S. Air Force. Then I attended the University of Georgia where I obtained an M.S. in Zoology. I taught High School Science for the next 24 years, in both Public and Private schools as well as Community College, teaching all the sciences :Earth Science Physical Science, Biology, Chemistry, and Physics. During summers and after retirement, I have enjoyed traveling to all parts of the world, birdwatching, seeing solar eclipses, learning the history and culture of various countries, and having all sorts of new experiences. I have visited all 50 states and all continents except Antarctica. I have also done a great deal of genealogy research, tracing several family lines back to the 1600s, and have traced my Y chromosome to Kent, England. I had hoped to go to the spot my immigrant Johnson ancestor came from this May, but the current virus pandemic forces me to postpone that plan. I have also published several articles in Genealogical magazines and Historical Society newsletters. I am a member of at least a dozen environemental organizations and several genealogical organizations. I'm now too old for strenuous hiking and backpacking, but with so many interests, I'm never bored, and look forward to more years of research and traveling.
A. Stephen Johnson