When I began delving into my family history 40+ years ago, my mother’s family and particularly, the KELLISON line proved to be one of the easiest to research.  4 generations of Kellisons had lived in Pike and Scioto counties in Ohio.  The oldest generation, my 3x great grandparents, Samuel Mitchell Kellison and Martha Jane Jackson,  had migrated to Pike County, Ohio from Virginia in the early 1800s. I was always told they were “Scotch-Irish” but there was no mention of where exactly they emigrated from when they came to the United States.  Nor was there a consensus of which county in Virginia they had settled in before migrating to Ohio.

Recently I was contacted by someone else researching Kellisons in West Virginia. This reseacher says her Kellisons are German and her line stops at her great grandfather, Garland Kellison.  When initial efforts to connect her line with mine came up empty, and wanting to push my own line further back in time, I determined to do a One Name Study on this surname .

The name KELLISON is not common. With only 1518 people currently bearing this surname worldwide[1], it is most prevalent in the United States of America. The Dictionary of American Family Names 2013 suggests that name may be a patronymic (Kelly’s son) and of Scottish origin.[2] Another website suggests it may be locational. [3]

[1] https://forebears.io/surnames/kellison   accessed 4 March 2021

[2] Names.org, Kellison, https://www.names.org/n/kellison/about , accessed 4 March 2021

[3] http://www.4crests.com/kellison-coat-of-arms.html