Edwardson Family Tree Research
Interested in tracing your Edwardson family tree?
Already started your research? Or just beginning?
Let’s collaborate!
By sharing findings, we can uncover common links and push the boundaries of Edwardson family history together.
Get in touch—we’d love to hear from you!
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Tracing your family tree can be a deeply rewarding—but sometimes frustrating—journey. With a rare surname like Edwardson, we have a unique advantage: fewer search results make it easier to spot relevant records. However, challenges remain. Search engines often mistake Edwardson for Edwards or even phrases like Edward’s son, making it tricky to sift through results. But perseverance pays off! Every discovery adds another piece to the puzzle of your personal heritage!
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Example:
My own Edwardson lineage almost certainly originates from the Lancashire/Cheshire Edwardson cluster, where the name has historically been strongest. From the 1500s onward, Edwardsons appear heavily concentrated around Widnes, near the Lancashire/Cheshire border.
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I’ve traced my paternal line back to my 8× Great-Grandfather, William Edwardson (c. 1690–1764), who was almost certainly born near Runcorn, just south of Widnes. To provide a clearer picture, here’s my direct paternal line, descending from William down to my Great-Grandfather, John Hooley Edwardson:
William’s son, my 7× Great-Grandfather Charles Edwardson, was born in Aston-by-Sutton, then a small village just outside Runcorn. In the 1740s, he made the 30-mile journey south to the village of Malpas, South-West Cheshire. Four successive generations of my ancestors would be born there beneath the great tower of St Oswald's Church.
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Life in Malpas had its hardships. In 1755, Charles suffered the loss of two young children, Ellen and Charles Jr. However, available records suggest that the family built steady lives in the village. One notable figure was William Edwardson (1780–1859), who became the landlord of a local pub, the Wyffin Inn. His gravestone still stands in the cemetery of St Oswald’s.
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But life in rural Cheshire was about to change dramatically. With the Industrial Revolution, childhood mortality began to decline, but society’s existing structures were upended. In the 1860s, my branch of the Edwardson family was on the move again, likely in search of work as industries transformed the country. By the turn of the 20th century, we had settled in the Chester/Wrexham area. While many families sought new lives overseas, ours stayed much closer to home!
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My Edwardson Family Tree Roadblock:
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As stated above, I've traced my paternal line back to William Edwardson (c.1690 - 1764). He married his first wife in 1716, so it's reasonable to assume he was born roughly 20 - 30 years before this. It's also logical to expect him to have been born near the place in where he later got married (Aston-by-Sutton, adjacent to Runcorn), since this was still true for the vast majority of ordinary people in the 1700s.
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So why can't I verify his birth, and his parents? The problem is that there are several William Edwardson's who were born within the likely time-frame and in the local area. As far as I can see, there is no reliable way to tell which one, if any, is William. The candidates are broken down below:
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Option 1
​William Edwardson​
Baptised: 8 Oct 1695
St Nicholas Church, Liverpool
​Father: Thomas Edwardson
Option 2
​​William Edwardson
Baptised: 16 May 1687
St Wilfred's Church, Widnes Farnworth
​Father: Richard Edwardson
*Bould - could refer to modern Bold Heath, just North-East of Widnes
Option 3
​​William Edwardson
Baptised: on 24 June 1694
Widnes Farnworth
​Father: Thomas Edwardson
William Edwardson (C.1690 - 1764) could realistically be any of these boys.
How have I been able to distinguish each man in the paternal line up to this point? Usually by using multiple pieces of evidence such as the location of birth/baptism, the father's name, and the mother's name, which is often also included on the baptism record. If we have both the mother's and father's name, we can look for a marriage record which fits them, within a time frame and location that makes sense - if we find one, then we can say with a reasonable degree of confidence that we have identified the previous generation in the family tree.
But we have no mother's name attached to any of these Williams. They were all born within a few miles of each other within a reasonable time frame to have married in 1716 and died in 1764. As such, there is no way to identify one of them as more likely to be the William Edwardson I am looking for.
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Whether there is any more light to be shed on this problem, only time (and more available evidence) will tell.
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How can you get involved?
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1) Can you make a Connection? If you are an Edwardson, do you have family heritage in Malpas? If so, you are almost certainly connected to the tree above. Can you trace your family tree to any of the men shown above? Please get in touch!
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2) How far back can we go? I have been unable to get any further back than William Edwardson (c. 1690 - 1764) with any confidence. I haven’t cracked it yet, but I fully intend to keep researching until I do! Maybe you can help with this??
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3) It's not limited to English Edwardsons! If you are looking into Edwardsons of Scottish or Scandinavian heritage, this is your hub too. By getting in touch, you could be linked up with people researching the same area.
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