English: habitational name from any of the many places called
Alton, in Derbyshire, Dorset, Hampshire, Leicestershire,
Staffordshire, Wiltshire, Worcestershire, and elsewhere. The origin is
various: Alton in Derbyshire and Alton Grange in Leicestershire
probably have as their first element Old English (e)ald
‘old’. Those in Hampshire, Dorset, and Wiltshire are at the sources of
rivers, and are named in Old English as ‘settlement (tun) at
the source (?wiell)’. Others derive from various Old
English personal names; for example, the one in Staffordshire is
formed with an unattested personal name, Ælfa, and one in
Worcestershire, Eanulfintun in 1023, is ‘settlement associated
with (-ing) Eanwulf’.
Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4
168,329
Historical Documents & Family Trees with Alton
Click on a place to view Alton immigration records
The information for this chart came from the U.S. Immigration Collection at Ancestry.co.uk.
You can find out where the majority of the Alton families were living before
they immigrated to the U.S and learn where to focus your search for foreign records.
Immigration records can tell you an ancestor's name, ship name, port of departure,
port of arrival, and destination.
Click on a circle in the chart to view Alton emigration records
You can find out when most of the Alton families immigrated
to the United States.
You can focus your search to emigration records dating from that era.
Emigration records can tell you an ancestor's name, ship name, port of departure,
port of arrival and destination.
Did the Altons fight in a war? Military records can tell you a lot
about your ancestors including birthplace, occupation and even physical descriptions.