Welcome! I hope you will check back often, as I have more information to upload. I hope to add a little something each
week or so.
I'm going to start this off by saying I've found no evidence to substantiate the family myth that we are related
to the famous Texan, Sam Houston. Sorry to disappoint, folks. Our surname was spelled "Huston" until the 1850's, when some of our clan settled
in Texas. It may be that since the name "Houston" was familiar, and the name "Huston" got misspellled so often that
it was easier to just take on the new spelling.
Carol Watson and I traced our Houston line back to Robert Huston, who died in Pennsylvania about 1807, leaving seven children.
Susan Huston Reber, sister to my gr. gr. grandfather, Franklin Huston, recalled later in her long life what she could
about her forbears. She wrote, "The Hustons were from the north of Ireland, two brothers, Robert and Hugh, settled in
Chester County, Pennsylvania; a third brother went to Virginia. From "that one" the descendants of Texas Sam sprang.
Of the Pennsylvania Hustons, only one married, that one was my grandfather Robert. Hugh died a bachelor."
If you check the genealogy of "the" Sam Houston, however, (can be found online at
The Sam Houston Memorial Museum) you will see the first Houston in his line to come to America was John Houston, Jr., who
came to Rockbridge County, Virginia in 1735 with his mother, his wife, and six children. One of those children was Robert Houston,
and he is the antecendent of Sam Houston. This Robert is not the same as "our" Robert and there is no mention of a "Hugh". None of
these Houstons migrated to Pennsylvania, but rather remained in Virginia or moved south to Tennessee. There may be a more
distant connection, but I haven't found it yet.
There's also very little info on Robert Huston. He appears in the tax rolls of Chester County, Penn. about 1790, but so far
I know no more about him. Because of the lack of information about the patriarch, I begin this story with his seven children:
Robert, James, Mary, Thomas, Margaret, Andrew, and Hugh.