Found this description of our surname today on
ancestry.com
Last Name: Callison
Scottish or Irish: reduced form of McAlison, a Gaelic patronymic based on the
personal name Alison (see Allison).
Last Name: Allison
English and Scottish: patronymic from a Middle English male personal name: in
most cases probably Allen, but other possibilities include a variant of Ellis
or a short form of Alexander. In some instances, it may be from a female
personal name, Alise or Alice
1920 census distribution for surname CALLISON--
69-136 families in California
24-68 families in Washington, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Iowa, Missouri,
Illinois, Ohio and West Virginia.
This looks about as I would expect esp in my line of John and Jane McClure
who had a branch in Kansas along with branches of Hiram's line and most all in
Ohio from John and Jane -- most all in West Virginia from the second James
Callison
North Dakota, Nebraska, Louisiana and Mississippi had NONE and all the rest
had 1-23 families.-- even Hawaii and Alaska. I did not know that they did
census in those two areas in 1920 since not states yet but maybe they were
territories of the US. Anyway, pretty interesting to me. In my John and Jane line --
all of their children stayed in Ohio (most descendants still in the same area)
except for one son. He moved to Indiana, Iowa and settled in Missouri by
1860. This family was pretty stationary until 1900 when part of them continued the
move westward to populate Kansas along with an Ohio branch who made it all
the way to Washington. Hmmmmmmm from the east coast to the west coast in 200
years and many did it in less years than that. AMAZING when you consider the
modes of transportation in those early years.
We know of 3 main branches of the tree who came to this country pretty early.
James and Isabella
James who came later and married a daughter of James and Isabella
James who came almost 100 years after the first James and settled in SC
One day, we may get DNA samples from these 3 lines to see if there is any
relationship among the three of them.
No news -- just some random thoughts for this beautiful morning. I am such a
proponent for colonoscopy since Ray missed the bullet of colon cancer from his
colonoscopy that I promised all of family and friends I would drive them if
they would just get it done. One of the friends is taking me up on my offer
today so that is where I'll be today. Take care all. Marilyn