The Williams/Sims Families of Greene/Orange Counties, Virginia and Allied Families (Riddle, Powell, McMullan, Walker, Maupin, Banks, Miller, and Beadles) contains information related to Johnston's maternal line. His goal was to trace the Williams and Sims and related family lines as far as possible in America. It includes detailed studies of Orange County court records using published abstracts by others, especially John Frederick Dorman III and Sam and Ruth Sparacio. Johnston also relied heavily upon the work of other researchers who have studied the McMullan, Maupin, Miller, and Powell families.

The Pinder/Ellett Families of Virginia and Georgia and Allied Families (Pinder, Tebeau, Treutlen, Ellett, Spears, Womack, Sublett, Cheatham, Smith, Trabue) With Some Account of the Pinder/Pindar Family Trail in the Bahama Islands, Bermuda, and Barbados begins with the story of Joseph William Pinder family of Savannah and its Georgia progeny. Johnston then retraces the family backward in time. Succeeding chapters cover the Ellett lines, and then the family of Joseph William Pinder (1828-1897) by his two marriages. Again, his goal was to track all lines as far back in America as possible. The impetus for this volume was the original family papers that were handed down to him by his mother, and research by his aunt, Belle Pinder Rand. There are also bibliographies, guides to library and archival holdings, research aids, and histories of the Bahama Islands, Bermuda, and Barbados, as well as information on the Bahamas DNA Project.

Satterfield and Allied Families of Person County, North Carolina (Yarbrough, Carter, Bigger, Cary, Winstead, Cozart, Bumpass, Sargent, Gold, Carney, Walker, and Davey Families) contains research on Johnston's wife's ancestors. Beginning with her parents, Johnston attempted to trace back all lines in America, but soon limited it to her paternal line, with a focus on Person, Caswell, and Orange Counties, North Carolina. This series also includes a copy of an article Johnston wrote for the Bulletin of The Genealogical Society of Old Tryon County in 2008 entitled "Rethinking the Ancestry of Daniel Gold (? - 1793) of Mecklenburg County, Virginia."

The Angier Family of Orange and Durham Counties, North Carolina, and Allied Families of North Carolina and Virginia (Dollar, Pearson, Trice, Duke, Jones, Yancey, and Withers) traces the maternal line of Johnston's wife's father back nine generations in America. It includes a good deal of information on the Duke family, some taken from records of the Duke Family Association. Much of Johnston's research was taken from work previously done by William D. Bennett, Weynette Haun, Brent Holcomb, and Ruth Shields.

This series contains research materials related to biographical sketches Johnston contributed to the Dictionary of Virginia Biography on George Carrington (1758-1809) and Thomas Carter (1731-1803). There is also a good deal of information on Johnston's investigation into the location of Carrington's estate, "Oak Hill" in Halifax County.

The Hoopers of Caswell and Durham County, North Carolina and Allied Families, With Their Virginia Origins (Walker, Henderson, Kimbrough/Kimbro, Jones, Foster, Horton, Wilson/Willson, Strong, Salling and Carter) traces Johnston's wife's maternal line. There is detailed information on the Hooper line in Caswell County that leads back to Zachariah Hooper of Amelia County, Virginia, and other Hooper lines in Virginia. There is also research on the paternal line of Capt. Richard Jones (ca. 1784-1861) of Caswell County, much of it with the aid of Audrey Z. Jones of Lexington, Kentucky. There is a good deal of correspondence with her, as well as Marilyn Symonds. The work of Katherine Kerr Kendall in abstracting Caswell County records, and information on the Hooper family provided by D. Wayne Gunn of Kingsville, Texas was also used to compile this volume. There are also copies of the Hooper Compass newsletter.

The Tangled Trail of Two John Popes: Colonel John Pope of Amherst County, Virginia, and John Pope of Prince William County, Virginia, and Wilkes County, Georgia contains information on two cousins named John Pope who have often been confused for one another in later attempts to identify the author of A Tour Through the Southern and Western Territories of the United States of North America; the Spanish Dominions on the River Mississippi and in the Floridas; The Countries of the Creek Nations and Many Uninhabited Parts (1792). Johnston's report explores records illuminating the lives and families of each man, one John Pope (1749-1802) who likely was born in Westmoreland County, Virginia, and lived in Prince William County, Virginia, and later in Wilkes County, Georgia, where he died; the other, Colonel John Pope (ca. 1754-1795), who was born in Louisa County, Virginia, and lived in Amherst County, Virginia, and died in Augusta, Georgia.

The Tangled Trail of Benjamin Dawson of Orange and Spotsylvania Counties, the City of Richmond and Northumberland, Fauquier, and Frederick County, Virginia includes information on the identity of the Benjamin Dawson (d. ca. 1826), who married second wife Ann Pope Roy (d. ca. 1832) in 1804, attempting to differentiate him from contemporaries with the same name. There is material on the first marriages of Benjamin and Ann Dawson, the dispute over Benjamin Dawson's will and land he owned in Ohio, his Revolutionary War service, his children with both wives, and likely candidates for his parents and siblings. Johnston's research indicated that this Benjamin Dawson showed up at different times in Frederick, Fauquier, Northumberland, Orange, and Spotsylvania Counties, and Richmond, Virginia.