There are many Lytle families in the United States. The oldest may all be somewhat connected, as many branches have either oral traditions or documented evidence placing them in this country in the 1720's.
The Lytles were originally "borderers", who lived along the English/Scottish border. The name can be found in records back into the 1300's. The border changed, of course, over time, too. Many of the borderers came to America in the 1700's. Some were in Northern Ireland for up to a generation or two before coming. Those who lived in Ireland are known as "Ulster Scots" or "Scotch-Irish." However, once in the colonies, the various borderers were indiscernable in manner, dress, speech, and habits, and were only known collectiely as "Scotch-Irish". Thus, at this point, there is not enough evidence to state whether or not any of the Lytles passed through Ireland on their way to the New World. Be sure to see the Clan Little page or the Border Reivers of Scotland and England for more information on these early connections. Or, see the Tartan of Clan Little Society, USA.
"Lytle" is most commonly an American spelling of the Scotch pronunciation of "Little", and many of the oldest records do have this spelling, making the task of sorting out Littles and Lytles that much more difficult. By the early 1800's, however, the Lytle spelling had stuck. We have not tried to include Littles after this time.
From about 1920 to about 1960, Leonard Lytle undertook the task of gathering Lytle data from all over the country, largely in Pennsylvania, Ohio and parts of the midwest. He produced several works on Lytle families, some known to be connected to each other and some not. His works were placed in many libraries where the Lytles he studied were concentrated. Some were even placed in the Family History Library in Salt Lake City and are now on microfilm there. We are indebted to Leonard Lytle for his work in this area, but some of his works are still hard to find, due to the passage of time. We would like to obtain photocopies of as many of these as possible. Please contact Rik Vigeland if any of his works is available to you.
These pages are, of course, a work in progress. We have started with the largest groups of Lytles, those from Pennsylvania, who may be related to each other. Additional families and locations will be added as time permits. We have already helped several people find connections. Perhaps you would like to add your data, too!
To learn more, Search the Lytle Databases