I was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on June 24, 1957. I'm a son of Ray and Shirley Dunston, raised and schooled in Stanwood, Iowa. In 1976, I moved to Wilton, Iowa, and in April, 1976, started working for North Star Steel here in Wilton. I've worked at this same steel mill for 30 years now. In the last year, North Star Steel sold the plant to Gerdau Ameristeel. I married Nancy Sinclair, from Davenport, Iowa, on June 10, 1978. We have two children, both adults now, Shaun and Sheena. My main hobby is genealogy, though I enjoy reading both fiction and non-fiction novels, watching my favorite teams, the Iowa Hawkeye's and the Chicago Bears, and traveling. Genealogy is something I've been working on for probably 27 years now, off and on, mostly on now. I'm also the webmaster for the Muscatine County Genealogy Website on Rootsweb. Here is the link if you want to check it out: http://www.rootsweb.com/~iamuscat/ I enjoy working on the website, adding information and also helping other people with their Muscatine County genealogy. In the future, I plan on working harder on my own genealogy, and try to get farther back in generations. I hope someday to travel to England where the Dunston family started many generations ago. Now that I have bored you silly, let's move on, shall we!!!

DUNSTON, ALSO SPELLED DUNSTONE, DUNESTON, DUNESTUNE, DUNESTONE.

This surname is taken from a place. In the early beginnings of our modern surname identification, the names were not inherited or family names, but merely to further identify one namesake from another. As John from Dunston, John the Potter, John son of James, John, the fair haired.

The place or places are in Derbyshire and Lincolnshire. Both villages are recorded in the Domesday Book, Englands first census, the oldest mention in 1186 A.D.

It is a two element name and both elements seem to be Scandinavian in origin. Dun is from Old English dun, which in plural duns varies in meaning, from "hill" to "slight rise". In some cases it just might be from a given name "Dunna" an Old Norse name meaning "man of stone". Tun is an Old English word meaning originally "a fence" but by usage came to mean "enclosure" or "village". This word is known to have been in use in 811 A.D. Combined with Dun or Dunna we undoubtedly have a village that existed since Saxon times (7th century), Dunstown or Dunnstone.

So my great-great-great, etc., etc., grandpa was an Anglo Saxon from the Lowland country around the Wash. known as the man from Dunston.