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Archiver > EDMONDSON > 1999-08 > 0934721484


From: "Dave Edmonson" <>
Subject: RE: [EDM] different spellings
Date: Sun, 15 Aug 1999 07:51:24 -0500


Dear Phyllis

Both Edmonstone and Edmiston are early Scottish names. Edmeston might be
also an early form of Edmeston. Early Edmonstone families in this country,
descendants of Robert Edmonstone, father of Archibald who married Jane
Beall, many of their records are spelled both Edmonstone and Edmonston.
Some of the later generations changed to Edmonson. It appears that the
Edmonstones came to this continent in the 1680s, the Edmistons from Ireland
in the early 1700s. Both the Edmonstones and Edmistons were originally from
Scotland, many moved to northeast Ireland in the early 1600s, and then when
conditions got bad in Ireland, made the move to this continent.

Now many of the Edmistons changed to Edmondson. Why did they do this? I
think because their Revolutionary War records were written as Edmondson. So
why change? A good guess is that they received large land grants for their
Revolutionary War service with Edmondson as the name.

Now the Edmondsons were from Lancaster and York areas of England from the
1500s, I have not seen earlier records. Many of the Edmondsons came to this
country in the 1660 era. My ancestor John Edmondson to the Eastern Shore of
Maryland, Thomas Edmondson to Essex County, Virginia. Most of the
Edmondsons are descended from these two men. My family changed from
Edmondson to Edmonson in the early 1800s, but many of the other Edmondsons
from these two men still are spelled Edmondson. Of all of the EDM.. names,
Edmondson is the most common.

Edmundson appears to be a derivation of Edmondson. William Edmundson, the
Quaker Preacher, his name was spelled Edmondson prior to the mistake on his
journal. Most of the Edmundsons are descended from him.

Now if you want to learn about the most changed Edmiston family, just look
at who I call William #3243 Edmundson who married Margaret Suddereth, first
husband a Blair. His father was James Edmundson, his grandfather Robert
Edmiston, his grandchildren were Edmiston, Edmondson, Edmoundson, Edmisten,
Edmonson, and Edmisson. Many of the descendants believe that their spelling
of the name is correct.

Now frequently in early documents you will find multiple spellings in the
same document. I believe that they wanted to cover all basis of spelling
just to let someone know that if there was a mistake, that they would claim
all spellings for this land record.

The EFAB group, the Edmondson Family Association, tries to sort all of
this out. We have a database of 25,000 and growing individuals and spouses.
The reason that the Edmondson name was picked for this group I think is
because there are more with that spelling. Of Edmondson/Edmonson/Edmundson,
70% are Edmondson worldwide, and 82% in England. I don't have statistics on
Edmiston and Edmonstone to add to this yet.

If you are doing research, use all spellings of the name. My gr gr
grandfather Peter Allan Edmonson, in the census his name was spelled Peter
Edmensson.

Accuracy of the above is not guaranteed, but just my opinions after
compiling a lot of the EDM data over the past 7 years, and 3 years as
editor for the association.

What a mess. I am sorry that I can't help more, but I would really like to
know more also. Wouldn't it be great to have copies of early records back
to the 1200s?

Now the Edmonstones of Duntreath do go all the way back to the 1400s, and
claim earlier dates. Some of the problems also come about from the changes
in writing patterns when it was difficult to determine the difference from a
S to a T to a F.

Best regards,
Orvan Edmonson, Editor of the EFAB

-----Original Message-----
From: phyllis [mailto:]
Sent: Saturday, August 14, 1999 4:40 PM
To:
Subject: [EDM] different spellings

Perhaps this has been covered before but I'm wondering about the different
spelling of EDMONSTON. Could it be that during their move from Scotland
abt. 1715, the families that moved to Ireland put an 'I' (EDMISTON) and the
families that went to England spelled theirs with an 'E' (EDMESTON)?
Thanks, Phyllis <>


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