The Masterton Family
Look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug. |
.. and the sights and thoughts of my youth pursue me; and I see like a vision the youth of my father, and of his father, and the whole stream of lives flowing down there far in the north, with the sound of laughter and tears, to cast me out in the end, as by a sudden freshet, on these ultimate islands. And I admire and bow my head before the romance of destiny. |
The music accompanying the Masterton images in this video is Chopin's Mazurka 41, Op 63 No 3 played by Heikki Mesterton. For more examples of Heikki playing Chopin and Scriabin visit Heikki Mesterton, Piano and on YouTube and on spotify
The static image at the start of the video sequence is the author John Buchan with his mother, Helen Masterton, on his arm.
This site is intended to provide a knowledge bank for a small community of interest - the present day successors of those who have shared common roots.
There are a number of Masterton researchers who have freely exchanged information. The wonderful aspect of giving knowledge is that we are not diminished by the giving - and if we receive in return, we are enriched. Special mention should be made of David Masterton of Whippany, New Jersey who passed away in 2016. His work, generously shared, provided the foundation of many of the family trees. David and I would meet when he visited Scotland and I have expanded upon his work.
The site is dedicated to all who came before us, each unique in different ways, but who collectively have created the surroundings and the culture that we all enjoy, or tolerate, today. Our civilisation today is shaped by the sum of all their actions.
Search the Family Trees |
This site uses The Next Generation of Genealogy Sitebuilding("TNG") Version 14.0 for displaying genealogical data. In recent times, access to the database has been slowed down considerably by search engine optimisation and advertising crawler bots. Despite various attempts to resolve this, I have had to introduce a temporary "fix" that requires permission to access the database. Any such requests will not be rejected. Hopefully, other measures will remove the need for this in due course. The family trees have recently been updated with the results of the 1921 Census Returns for England, Wales and Scotland. Tips: Search by spouse name, if you can, rather than "Masterton" - the list of options will be smaller. When reviewing the results of your search, especially if the list is long, remember to look at the top and bottom of the list for names containing middle names or initials. After your first search, you can refine by using various selection fields. My name is Gordon Masterton. If you are a Masterton, or have Masterton connections, and would like to receive a note of when updates are made to this site, then please email me with a request. I will be happy to assist with any enquiries. Just click on "Contact Us" in the footer. Please sign our Guestbook. Here are some useful links for researchers. |
Searching for our Sense of Place
The desire to understand our origins and our roots is a pervading drive in many of us. We cannot help being curious, and some of us get mildly obsessed with building the picture of our ancestors and their successes and failures. The interest starts with the fun of researching some unknown names from previous generations, linked by the accident of birth. It develops into an interest in the social and historical context of their place in the evolution of our modern civilisation.
Accepting that the matrilineal relationships will be more reliable than the patrilineal, there is still a legitimacy(!) in researching those who have shared the same surname and were brought up in the family group, whatever the circumstances at conception. Below are 5863 Mastertons sorted across 34 Masterton trees that I've found in my research, with thanks also to Joe Petrelli for the Simcoe Mastertons. Clicking on the link will take you to a descendant report for one of the strong lines, but this does not display all the names in the tree, so I recommend you find individuals by using the Search boxes above and then explore relationships from there.
I've tentatively sorted these into 21 "active" and 10 "possibly inactive" (pre-20th Century) trees (through the lens of a patrilineal one-name study). If a Masterton descendant contacts me from an inactive tree, I'll be delighted to re-classify!
Included here is "Records not linked" with a miscellany of records of births, marriages and deaths of 778 of the Mastertons, some in isolation, some in mini-trees, but none yet linked to the other trees.
| Alyth | Bothkennar | Dundonald |
| Dunfermline (5) | Edinburgh (2) | Grange and Beath |
| Kirkcaldy | Linlithgow (2) | Parkmill |
| Records not linked |
Masterton links to Historical Events
The timeline in this link identifies some of the Mastertons who were involved in landmark incidents in history, rarely as key players, almost always as incidental victims of circumstances - as are most of us.
Some Mastersons recorded as Masterton
Masterson is a distinct and different family name, originating in Ireland. But sometimes the two surnames get confused in error at time of registration, or misrecorded by Census enumerators, or consciously changed by family choice. The eight trees below are originally Mastersons but later contain a mix of Masterton and Masterson in the records which required forensic investigation to distinguish them from Mastertons in the one-name study.
| Athelstaneford | Dundee | Dundee (2) | Glasgow (1) |
| Glasgow (2) | Leith | Liverpool | Wexford |
The Athelstaneford and the Leith Mastersons can be traced back to two Bernard Mastersons (or possibly one, with two families in different locations - not unheard of!) born in 1816 and 1818 in Ireland.
The first Dundee tree is of the family of John Masterson and Helen McGuire, both born in Ireland, but several of the index entries of births or deaths of their seven children are listed as "Masterton" in scotlandspeople.gov.uk. The Dundee (2) tree is of Patrick Masterson, son of Peter Masterson and Bridget Reynolds of Ireland, and Ann Murphy, also born in Ireland, who married in Dundee with "Masterton" appearing regularly in the records of later generations.
The Glasgow (1) tree spread to Scotland with Edward Masterson, born in 1894. Most of his family remained as Mastersons except for the family of one son, Joseph Augustus Masterson which adopted 'Masterton' and this was carried forward into later generations.
The second, smaller Glasgow tree begins with Patrick Masterson from Ireland, yet his daughter Grace and her daughter Annie appear in the Statutory Register (marriages and deaths) as Mastertons.
The tree labelled Wexford has 18 Mastertons and spouses mainly settled in Victoria, Australia. The records show that the original emigrant was Michael Masterson, son of Henry Masterson a farmer
in Wexford, Ireland, who married Ellen O'Driscoll in Victoria in 1868. Subsequently the surname adopted by the family in Australia evolved into 'Masterton'.
The trees are based on registration or other documented information, but making connections for people who died before 1855 involves making some judgements. Clues such as age at marriage, neighbourhood, and consistency with Scottish Naming Pattern all help, but no guarantees can be given. Sources are provided and users must take their own view of whether my deductions (or those on whom I've relied) are the most rational. I'm perfectly happy to receive challenges, queries and new information that might improve the value of the site. In the early records there are many deviant spellings of "Masterton" (I have found 96 - all of them are listed under Spelling). I have, for the convenience of researchers using search engines, converted these consistently to the modern spelling. The original spelling is referred to in notes attached to the individuals' data within the trees.
