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The family name was originally Hansen and was assigned in Koikla, Karja (now Valjala), Saaremaa Estonia (an island off the coast of Estonia that usually has a population of 20,000 - 25,000). Common people in Estonia (serfs) didn't have last names in Estonia until arounfd1816. In this cases Hansen was based on "Hans", who was Koikla manor's weaver and one of the favourite employees. He was around 90 years old at this time - and lived to be 96. His wife even lived to be 92. One branch of the Hansens had their last name get tweaked into "Antson". This branch included Aleksander Anston who was a journalist and athlete who went to the Olym;pics for Estonia during the first period of Estonian independance. In my family's case the conversion from Hansen to Anson happened between 1900 and 1910 while the family was still in Estonia. Occasionally Hansen was written as Hanson and sometimes even as Hansson, depending on who was writing the church book entry.