Hazelton or Hazleton

Question

Is it Hazleton or Hazelton?  The history of Perry County, Ohio refers to the same family, which came from Pennsylvania, as Hazleton, but the family cemetery is the Hazelton Cemetery.  As a result, predictably, we have John Hazelton, Sr, and Johannes Hazleton who are clearly duplicates of the same person.  But before a merge can be proposed, which spelling should be favored?

Hazelton sounds like an English or Scottish name, but we're talking western Pennsylvania in the mid-1700's and there were many of German descent in the area.  So was Johannes Hazleton German, and was there a real German name from which "Hazleton" might have been derived?  

This is all part of a puzzle where a number of people, most of whom became my wife's ancestors, migrated from Saltlick Township in Pennsylvania to Saltlick Township in Ohio about 1815-1817.  Any brainstormers or  collaborators welcome!

Answer 1

Gervase Hazleton, Jr. was born in Wabash, IL, January 30, 1827, the same city of his marriage. Gervase Hazleton founded the small town of Hazleton, IN where he died in August 10, 1890. My father-in-law's full name was Leslie Hazleton Curtner.

There is also a Hazleton, PA, which I don't know much about. My ancestors include Hannah Hazeltine born October 03, 1757 at Haverhill, Essex, MA. Here earliest ancestor that I know of is Robert Peter Hazeltine born about 1582/83 in East Yorkshire, England.

I have tried to determine the relationship between the Hazleton's and the Hazeltine's at surnamedb.com .

Comments

Last name: Hazleton

This name, with variant spellings Hazelton, Haselton, Heselton and Hastlten, is of English locational origin from either of two places so called in Gloucestershire. Recorded initially as Hasedene in the Domesday book of 1086 for Gloucestershire and as Haseldene circa 1130, the early form of the name derives from the Old English pre 7th Century "hoesel", meaning "hazel", plus "dene", a valley, hence, "the valley of the hazels". The same place was however, recorded as Heseltona in Records of Winchcomb, Gloucestershire, circa 1162, the second element, in this instance, being the Old English "tun", a farm or settlement. On October 23rd 1575 Alyce Hasselton, an infant was christened in Painswick, Gloucestershire and on February 14th 1705 one, Daniel Hazleton was christened there. The christening of Christopher Hazleton took place on December 18th 1763 in St. Mary's Church Whitechapel, Stepney, London. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Richard Haselton, (marriage to Joan Knowles), which was dated November 1st 1568, Stonehouse, Gloucestershire, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, "Good Queen Bess", 1558 - 1603. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

© Copyright: Name Origin Research www.surnamedb.com 1980 - 2016

Read more: http://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Hazleton#ixzz4DAYAfrzp

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Last name: Hazeltine

This unusual name is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a locational surname from any of the various places that get their name from the Olde English pre 7th Century "hoesel", hazel, plus "-denu", a valley, for example Heselden in Durham, and Hasselden in Sussex. Locational surnames were usually acquired by a local landowner, or by the lord of the manor, and especially by those former inhabitants of a place who had moved to another area, and were thereafter best identified by the name of their birthplace. The surname from the former source is first recorded in the mid 13th Century (see below). One Alexander de Haselindene appears in the 1258 Records of the Abbey of Kirkstall, Yorkshire and a Reginald de Haselden appears in the 1275 Hundred Rolls of Wiltshire. In the "modern" idiom the name has at least twenty-five spelling variations, including Hazelden(e), Hazeltine, Hazeldine, Hazeldeane, Haseldine, and Haizelden. William Hazeldine (1763 - 1840) was an ironfounder who supplied ironwork for the Menai and Conway bridges in Wales (1819 - 1826). The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Robert de (of) Heseldene, which was dated 1243, witness in the "Assize Court Rolls of Durham", during the reign of King Henry 111, known as "The Frenchman", 1216 - 1272. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

© Copyright: Name Origin Research www.surnamedb.com 1980 - 2016

Read more: http://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Hazeltine#ixzz4DAYzYL7C

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Thanks, Frank!  One phoenomienon we run into is immigrants from non-English speaking countries adopting an English surname that sounds somewhat like their birth name.  Thus while my own Walker ancestors are of English or Scottish origin. one line of Walkers in Maryland started with a German immigrant named Wacher.

I've now run into Hasselton as a possible German antecedent for some Hazeltons.  So John Hazelton (or Hazleton) may well have started out Johann Hasselton.