What's New (past 30 days)


Welcome to the Scotson Family History website! 

I do hope that you find that the numerous trees on this website will bring you great pleasure and will be most useful for your family history, whether setting out as a beginner, or as an experienced genealogist. There are over 13,900 names on the website, 1,796 being born with the name Scotson and 33 with Scottson spelling. Other names are their spouses, descendants and those in families linked to the Scotsons by a marriage.  Please note this website is being updated almost daily, latest updates can be seen below.  

A Surname list is found by clicking on "Surnames" under "Search" menu on the right of the home page.   

For photographic material, click on the links in the left-hand menu on the homepage for "Photos" (portraits), "Cemeteries", "Headstones", and "Documents".    

If you could contribute further Scotson information, documents, certificates, newspaper articles, obituaries, anecdotes, internet items, just anything relating to the family, it would be warmly appreciated. This will provide additional life to the bones of this research. Photographs of people, headstones, related buildings, and scans of documents are requested in jpeg format in medium resolution.

The website is a means for a Scotson photograph bank, by which similarities and traits can be compared between members of the family in different trees? So please help.

The website also includes information on living Scotsons. If you belong to the Scotson family, then you are welcome to register via the homepage for access. Please let me know how you are related during registration. Any information on living individuals is strictly for personal use, and may not be published in any form.


The link for "Registration for a New User account" is under the photograph on the homepage.

Please contact me via the website line or at the email address below if I can answer any of your questions or assist you with your Scotson or related research. 

Scotson Surname DNA Project


Early this year I received results for the big DNA Y-700, meaning that 700 markers were tested. My results show that I have 41 SNP marker mutations not shared by anyone in the huge FamilyTreeDNA Database, this meaning that the Scotson DNA is quite unique. Maybe this fact is not surprising considering the rarity of our name.

The sad fact is that out of ten Scotson family trees found in the 19th Century, today male descendants only survive in five. I really would like to discover if all Scotsons share the same forefather, the only answer being Y-DNA testing - the reason I was tested.

Why Y-DNA? Because it is passed down almost unchanged from father to son, meaning that if all Scotsons are related, then all males should have an almost identical DNA.

My request now is for male volunteers to be tested, preferably 2 representatives (not too closely related) from each tree. A 37-marker test is recommended. If you are female, perhaps you could considering sponsoring a male Scotson relative. Do let me know If you are interested, and do not let finances be a problem as I can get considerable reduction by being a project administrator.

Whether you be male or female and have had Autosomal or mtDNA testing with any company this too is of interest. I would be grateful if you too would consider joining the Scotson DNA project by sharing your results for comparison.

Please contact me via scotson@one-name.org

The Trees

All the main SCOTSON trees in Lancashire, Yorkshire and County Durham can be found, and are being constantly updated. 


1. COLTON TREE: Although the original Scotsons lived in Lancaster and in Colton in the Furness Fells (near the Lake District) in the 14th century, this is the earliest  Scotson tree that can be compiled from church records. Unfortunately known male descendants died out in the 18th centuy, although living descendants through the maternal line are known in Canada. It is highly likely that the Scotsons in southern parts of Lancashire originated from this family, but documentary evidence is still required to prove this. 

2. RADCLIFFE TREE: This is the largest Scotson tree, originating in the early 17th-Century via John Scotson and Ann Heywood in Bury. It is thought that their son Edmund Scotson, born in Bamford, Rochdale in 1659, moved to the Radcliffe area, and it is assumed that this family and/or his children would have lived in the 18th century at SCOTSON FOLD FARM, in Radcliffe near Bury. This 16th century farmhouse still survives today. Edmund's descendants moved first to Abram before spreading to localities such as Hindley, Wigan, Lowton, Leigh, Warrington, Prescot, Rochdale and Stretford. Branches of this tree are also found in other parts of the world, such as Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa and Montana in the United States. 

3. ATHERTON TREE: These Scotsons are mainly in Atherton and Leigh, and easily confused with those in the Radcilffe tree who also settled in the Leigh area. They are descendants of a William Scotson and Mary Morgan who lived in Liverpool in the late-18th Century.

4. HEAPEY - STANDISH TREE:  Descendants of John Scotson who lived in Heapey,near Chorley until 1732. Large families lived in Whittle-le-Woods and Charnock Richard in the early 19th century. Descendants spread to Liverpool, Wales and Victoria, Australia where they still live.
This tree includes a small line descended from John Scotson and Margaret Wignal of Standish, north of Wigan. Besides Standish, the family lived mainly in the Wigan and Warrington areas in places such as Coppull and  Upholland in the 19th and 20th centuries. All Scotsons in the Standish line have evidently passed away. There was an intermarriage between the Heapey and Standish branches of Scotson, hence these being combined. 

5. CHORLEY TREE. This branch lived in Chorley from the 1780s starting with Samuel Scotson who was born in 1771. He married Mary Parkinson in 1788. These Scotsons mainly lived locally and in nearby Darwen where the Scottson spelling was frequently used. There are a couple of male survivors living in New Jersey, USA who have the Scottson spelling. This tree has been added to the RADCLIFFE TREE

6. LIVERPOOL TREE: A small family of Scotsons produced by William and Ann Scotson in the early-seventeenth century in the Kendal area of Westmorland. Their son Isaac married an Ellen Park in Liverpool in 1759. Children were born to Isaac in Liverpool and Radcliffe, but the Scotsons to have died out in 1953 with James Eustace Scotson who was unmarried. 

7. CHESHIRE TREE: A family in the closely knit community in Pownall Fee, Styal in Wilmslow. A James Scotson (b.1911) in Liverpool married Mary Bayley (Bailey) of this village in 1833. Although they had eight children, the Scotson name had become extinct there by 1900. However, descendants through the matriarchal lines of HENSHALL and BURGESS survive.  


8. COUNTY DURHAM TREE:  This is the large of the north-eastern trees. These are descendants of a William and Elizabeth Scotson who had three grandsons in Yarm, Yorkshire between 1777 and 1788. Today we find large pockets of descendants through John (b.1777 in Yarm) in the Stockton-on-Tees and Middlesbrough areas. Other descendants spread to Birmingham, Leicester and Salford.  

9. LEEDS TREE:  Another tree with its roots in Yarm. The earliest known ancestors, Thomas Scotson, born there in 1785 could well be a brother or cousin of the three mentioned in the Co. Durham tree. This smallish tree was mainly concentrated in the Hunslet and Fewston areas. It seems that all male members of the family had died by the 1890s. Thomas Scotson and Mary Stead did have twelve children between 1853 and 1874, but only Louisa b. 1870 had a child.   

10. NORTH YORKSHIRE: The founder of this tree was George Scotson b. 1727 in Danby Wiske, North Yorkshire. His ten children were born in Kirklevington, but the family was mainly found in Hartlepool before the 1850s. A few descendants are known to live in Country Durham and London, but it would appear that the last Scotson male passed away in 1998  

11. CARLTON: A very small pocket of Scotsons, descending from George Scotson and Elizabeth Wilson of Bishopton, County Durham. This family mainly lived in Carlton-in-Cleveland until about 1885.



This family with the Scottson spelling will not be related to the Scotson trees

of England. These are descendants of Carl Skadsen who evidently emigrated from

Norway to America in the 1880s. The SKADSEN name was changed to SCOTSSON and used by his children

Martha, Anfin, Carl and Harry and their descendants who were all born in


Accuracy has been sought at all times. Documentary evidence is fundamental, but because sometimes there is the danger of misinterpretation of evidence, typos or transcription errors, mistakes are always likely. Please forward corrections, omissions, extra information of people, places, events and dates via the website link or email address below. 

Wishing you much enjoyment in your moments of research


Allan Scotson

European Representative of the Guild of One Name Studies, member No. 3869

Suggested links: 

Scotsons in North East England             www.scotsonfamilyhistory.webeden.co.uk

Facebook pages:  Scotson clan              https://www.facebook.com/groups/116749205751/

Scotson Surname DNA Project               https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/scotson/about  

Guild of One Name Studies:                    http://one.name.org

Contact email address:                            scotson@one.name.org