Surname Saturday ~ Alston of Scotland and Allegheny, Pennsylvania

My immigrant Alston ancestor is John Alston, born on September 2, 1806, in Lanarkshire, Scotland. He and his wife, Lillias or Lillian Johnston, both 29 years old, immigrated to the U.S. in the summer of 1835, leaving from Greenock, Renfrewshire, Scotland, and arriving in New York on August 7, 1835, on the Platina with their son, John, age 1.

Ancestry.com, New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957. Year: 1835; Microfilm roll: M237_27; List number: 562;
Lines 28-30 [Passengers 69-71]. Record for John, Lillias, and John Alston.

In November 1835, their second son, Robert was born in Pennsylvania. (November 1835 is what is reported as his birth month in the 1900 U.S. Census.)

John and Lillias went on to have Lilly, Margaret, William, Mary, Andrew and twins Marion Helen and Christine Agnes.

In the censuses between 1850 and 1880, John is reported to be a Carpenter, a Master Carpenter and a Lumber Merchant, as well as in various Allegheny / Pittsburgh City Directories for the era.

Directory of Pittsburgh and Allegheny cities, 1870/1871, p. 42
from Historic Pittsburgh City Directories

He must have been successful by 1870, as that census reports that he owned real estate valued at $10,000 and personal estate valued at $20,000.

Detail from 1870 U.S. Census for John Alston

His wife, Lilleas Johnston Alston, died on January 3, 1852, and is buried in Uniondale Cemetery in Pittsburgh, along with many of the Alston family. (See her Find A Grave Memorial.) By 1860, John had married Marion Slimon. (I know her maiden name because it is on her gravestone. See Marion's Find A Grave Memorial.)

John Alston died on April 4, 1882, at his home in Allegheny, Pennsylvania. He is buried in Union Dale Cemetery on the North Side of Pittsburgh (formerly Allegheny City). (See John's Find A Grave Memorial.)

I descend from their daughter, Marion Helen Alston, who was born in 1850.

Generation 2:
Marion Helen Alston was born in 1850 and she and her twin made it into the 1850 U.S. Census for the 3rd Ward, Allegheny City, Allegheny, Pennsylvania. The date the census enumerator visited this family was at the end of September 1850.

Detail from 1850 U.S. Census for Alston family

This census record indicates that Marion Alston and Christina Alston were age 4/12 (four months old), and born in Pa (Pennsylvania). The right column indicates "Twin." Marion's gravestone indicates a birth date of June 15, 1850. Christina never married.

At right is an ambrotype that I believe is of Marion and Christina.

Marion married George Lysle, Jr. on October 13, 1875. See their wedding invitation. They had two children before she died on May 2, 1885 of Enteric Hemorrhage (intestinal bleeding).

After Marion died, George married Edith Hadly, who was born in February 1868 according to her 1933 death certificate. This made her only eight years older than George's daughter, Marguerite, and a bit more than ten years older than George's son, George Barton Lysle (1878-1950). George and Edith had two sons, James (who died young) and Charles (1890-1958)

I descend from their daughter, Marguerite.

Generation 3: Marguerite Lysle was born on August 13, 1876. She married Percy Earle Hunter on October 21, 1897, and died on December 25, 1967.
Generation 4: Helen Lysle Hunter married Lowell Townsend Copeland
Generation 5: My mother
Generation 6: Me