Welcome to everyone interested in the surname SCAMAN OR SCAMANS

I'm Geoff SCAMANS, living in Cropredy, Oxfordshire, England. I've been piecing together the SCAMAN(S) family trees for the past few years, following on from an initial letter and family tree sent by Hugh SCAMAN, and considerable initial spadework by my cousin Martin SCAMANS. I have expanded the Hugh SCAMAN family tree and have started several other, so far disconnected, SCAMAN trees. I have also developed the SCAMANS tree branch.

The tree in the Hugh SCAMAN letter, descends from John SCAMAN, born in Burgh-on-Bain in Lincolnshire in 1771. A second SCAMAN tree descends from Thomas SCAMAND who was married in Thornton by Horncastle in 1721. His grandson Francis SCAMAN married into the DYMOKE family that descends from the King's champions. This tree contains SCAMAN, SCAMAND and SCAMON and descendants are still living in Lincolnshire. There is also a North American branch of the SCAMAN family that descends from Benjamin SCAMAN born in Swaby, Lincolnshire in 1774 and his wife Rebecca BIRD who was the grandaughter of John BIRD. Benjamin SCAMAN was the sixth of eight children of John SEAMAN, christened in Swaby in 1757, and his wife Mary. The name is frequently transcribed as SEAMAN particularly in census records. The descendents of Benjamin SCAMAN have been researched by Cathy PAULSON and Stacy NEESE and further information is available from The Scaman Branch link below.

The SCAMANS variant of the name seems to have started in the family of John SCAMAN who was born in Leverton in 1794. His father, James SCAMAN (my 4th great grandfather) was born in 1756 and then buried in Leverton in 1814. John, the fourth child of James SCAMAN, had a large family of 13 children and most of these started naming themselves and their children as SCAMANS rather than SCAMAN although the reason the S was added in unknown although it could have been to distinguish this large family from another local SCAMAN family but this is just speculation. James Mack SCAMAN, my great grandfather was born in the Union Workhouse, Skirkbeck Road, Boston on 4th August 1856 the son of Mildred SCAMAN and John LAMIN WILSON. Mildred SCAMAN was the fourth daughter of John SCAMAN and his wife Anne HIBBERT. His birth certificate has him recorded as James SCAMAN. He moved to London before 1871 to live with his Aunt Ann (Mildred's sister who was born in 1834 one year before Mildred). In the 1871 census he is listed as James MACK an apprentice upholsterer living in Clerkenwell with his Aunt and her husband James MACK a poulterer (feather dealer). This is where the Mack in his name came from as James MACK essentially became his father. He was married in Clerkenwell on 12th August 1875 to Mary Ann GAVELL as James SCAMANS an upholsterer living at 3 Gloucester Street. In the 1891 census he is James Mack SCAMANS living at 17 Buttesland Street, Hoxton. He died in a taxi cab in East Street, Hoxton on 6th December 1909 aged 56. He gave seven of his eight sons Mack as a second name. His seventh son was my grandfather Lawrence Mack SCAMANS born in 1887. He had five sons but none of them were given the second name of Mack. My father Sydney Arthur SCAMANS gave me the middle name MACK after his grandfather although he did not know where the name came from. My grandson has Mack as his christian name although his surname is SMITH. The SCAMANS tree contains SCAMAN, SCAMANDS, SCAMANS, SCAMON, SCAMONDS and SKAYMAN as different spellings.

It now seems most probable that James SCAMANS, my 4th great grandfather, was born in Kirkby-on-Bain to John SCAMAN (born in 1730) and Susannah HUDSON and that his father Thomas SCAMAN was born in Immingham which is near to the source of all the SCAMAN families worldwide as from the earliest findings of Hugh SCAMAN. This means that my earliest ancestors are Thomas SCAMAN (my 7th great grandfather born in 1675) and his wife Ann Thompson. I have also recently found that James SCAMAN the first son of John SCAMAN and Ann Hibbert who was born in Benington in 1828 emigrated to Canada before 1861 where he changed his name to John Hibbert SCAMAN. He and his wife Elizabeth SHARMAN had five children, one boy and four girls. The four girls each got married and had large families.

More recently the SCAMANS branch has been significantly expanded following having my DNA analysed through Ancestry.com. This has resulted in more than 20,000 matches and in most cases where there is a common ancestor and a public linked tree is available the matched person and their ancestors can be directly linked to the SCAMANS family tree that has now expanded to more than 9,000 individuals. The most surprising discovery so far has been that my mother had a half sister that she didn't know about and that I had a cousin that I didn't know about. 

There is also a branch of the family based on Charles SCAMAN born in Kirkby on Bain in about 1817. Some of his descendants emigrated to Canada and this may have resulted in a second North American SCAMAN tree. I have also started a SCAMONS tree and most recently a SKAYMAN tree.

I have found a large number of SCAMAN, SCAMANS and other of the many spelling variations that I have so far been unable to fit on any of the trees I am working on. There are records of SCAMAN in Lincolnshire going back to the Viking invasion in the 12th century where they landed close to Immingham.

I have also set up a SCAMANS and a SCAMAN group on Facebook