Johnston is a common surname for families of Scots heritage. Johnstone is a common alternate spelling. While Johnson is often of English derivation (or a variant of a Swedish surname), it may also be a variation of Johnston, particularly among Scots who came to America.
Clan Johnston/e in America is a useful resource for the history of the Scots Johnstons, Johnstones, and Johnsons.
There is a Johnston DNA study project underway at Relative Genetics
- the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia
Johnston is in most cases a habitational surname derived from several places in Scotland; however, it may also be a variant of the surname Johnson. The surname is most common throughout Scotland, Ireland and North America.
Johnston family tree and history-related websites
- Crystal's Genealogy: Crystal's Genealogy is a RootsWeb-hosted site with subsidiary surname family tree pages, created by Crystal Sutton Foley. Most family lines seem to be from the midwest of the United States (Indiana, Wisconsin, Ohio). Surname pages include Adams, Beaumont, Buckmaster, Core, Devenport, DeVault, Faas, Folan and Foley, Gaulke, Hineman, Hines, Johnston, King, Klingler, Kneeland, LaMere, LeMoine, McMahan, Miller, Morse, Poole, Rinehart, Santas, Schuster, Seekatz, Stayton, Stevens, Sutton, Waldsmith. Other sources/material includes Sarah Costello's stories. Sarah immigrated from Ireland in 1883 and wrote several stories about Ireland and her family's history. There is also a transcription of two documents by Robert Johnston from September 1918, one a sketch of his father's family and his siblings, who emigrated from Ireland, and the second an account of his Civil War experiences.