The Westmoreland One-Name Study was started by Dr. Maureen Ille in 1999, Maureen transferred the guardianship of this website to me in early 2018. My own research also started around 20 years ago, primarily it was focused on solving the mystery of my grandfather's (Henry Hooper Westmoreland) family, who were a big secret up until that point. My father knew nothing of his grandparents, uncles, aunties, cousins, of which it turned out he had quite a few, including a few previously unknown half-brothers and sisters. It seems that a large portion of the Westmoreland family in this study heralded from a small area of Lincolnshire around the village of Scawby circa 1750 and from there branched out across the world in the late 19th Century

The Registered variants of the name Westmoreland are Westmorland, Westmoorland and Westmerland. Although from my limited research it seems that Westmoreland is the predominant form and, again, has been the main focus of this study to date.

The earliest Westmoreland family recorded in the International Genealogical Index (IGI) kept by the Church of Latter Day Saints was in the Ludgate area of London in the mid-16th Century, they were Thomas and John Westmerlande, probably brothers. 16th Century records also show 11 baptisms of Westmorelands in Lincolnshire, these were the children of an Edmond Westmorland in Normandy-le-Wold and nearby Claxby. Our family origins are in the village of Scawby in northern Lincolnshire. The Scawby Church (shown in the attached photograph) cemetry contains many Westmoreland graves.

General William Childs Westmoreland is a member of the Westmoreland family although it is likely that he is a descendant of the "southern branch" of the American Westmorelands who arrived in America as early as 1610 when the first colony was established at jamestown, Virginia. This part of the family slowly migrated south to the Carolinas where the General was born on 26 March 1914. He died at age 91 on 18 July 2005. It is unlikely therefore, that any of the Westmorelands featured in this study are directly related to the General.

There were 399 Westmorelands named in the cenus of 1881, 128 of them in Lincolnshire. The Westmoreland family have spread far and wide, but nowadays, interestingly, there are almost none still living in Lincolnshire.