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Back in the mid-1990’s, I became very involved in researching my Casto ancestors. I did not even know my grandfather’s full name when I started but I kept writing letters and visiting libraries and started finding other people who were researching Castos, too. Then I discovered some information that I wanted to share with a lot of people at the same time and decided I needed to start a newsletter. That was the beginning of CASTO CONNECTIONS! No sooner had I started the newsletter than one of my subscribers suggested I start a webpage. That was very early in the modern internet age so I said, “Sure, why not?”. That was over 20 years ago and I’m still at it!
I do not publish the newsletter anymore due to time constraints but I frequently post on the CASTO CONNECTIONS Facebook page and add any large data that I find to this website. The old newsletters can be found here on the website along with quite a bit of other information on the Casto family. This site is not devoted to any one branch of the family — I research ALL Castos in the United States and have had contact with Castos in other parts of the world, as well.
The #1 question I am asked is where do the Castos come from? For a very long time, no one knew the answer to that question. However, thanks to the Y-chromosome DNA research conducted by several Castos including Walter, David, and Roy Casto, author of 2 Casto books, we have now connected with Costello cousins who share DNA in Kilkenny, Ireland! These DNA tests are more thorough than the ones you find from Ancestry, MyHeritage, 23&Me, etc. so don’t be surprised if you test through one of those sites and see very little or no Irish. These types of tests only go back 6-8 generations (150-200 years) and will not show the connection like the Y-chromosome DNA tests do (25 generations).
The most thorough research, verified by records (not unsourced online family trees) leads me to believe that MOST of the Castos in America are descended from William Casto (various spellings) and his wife, Elizabeth Abbott of New Jersey, circa early 1700’s. If you’re a West Virginia descendent, you’re descended from their son, David. If you’re from other parts of the U.S., you could be descended from their other son, William, although the WV lines eventually moved west and it takes research to determine which line you descend from.
There are over 2,000 pages of information on this site, mostly dealing with WV Castos since they are the largest group of Castos in the United States. Please feel free to look at what I’ve uploaded and if you have any questions, please drop me a line!
Danita |
