Hello, in my genealogy research, I came across this Cornish-Gen list. I am inquiring about the Stevens surname. My name is Jenny, and I live in central Illinois, in the USA. The furthest back I have been able to go is to my great-great-grandfather, a William Stevens born 2 May 1832 in Land's End, Cornwall, England. He married Ruth Rogers (alt spelling Rodgers) and had a son named Ernest Chester Stevens, who was my great grandfather. I can't even figure out whether Ernest was born in the US or not, nor do I know which parish Cornwall is in or how to proceed from here... I'm an amateur, but hopefully I can learn and maybe help someone else one day. Thank you. Respectfully, Jenny Phillips

go to Cornwall-opc website. Search under google for it. That will give you a search engine to start looking. I am also a Stevens but not this line. At least I don't think so. > Hello, in my genealogy research, I came across this Cornish-Gen list.  I am > inquiring about the Stevens surname.  My name is Jenny, and I live in > central Illinois, in the USA.  The furthest back I have been able to go is > to my great-great-grandfather, a William Stevens born 2 May 1832 in Land's > End, Cornwall, England.  He married Ruth Rogers (alt spelling Rodgers) and > had a son named Ernest Chester Stevens, who was my great grandfather.  I > can't even figure out whether Ernest was born in the US or not, nor do I > know which parish Cornwall is in or how to proceed from here...  I'm an > amateur, but hopefully I can learn and maybe help someone else one day. > Thank you. > > > Respectfully, > Jenny Phillips > ------------------------------- > Listmom:  ybowers@gmail.com or CORNISH-GEN-admin@rootsweb.com > > Visit the OPC (Online Parish Clerk) web page for transcription > information http://www.cornwall-opc.org/ > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > CORNISH-GEN-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without > the quotes in the subject and the body of the message >   Carolyn Haines Holt, MI 48842

Hi Jennifer, I think you're going to have to do some research in the US before you try and find William in Cornwall. Both his names are extremely common. As Deborah has alreay pointed out, the US 1880 census has the family in Illinois. The eldest child with them was William (17, born Illinois) which means they probably married c.1862. Since Ruth was only 17 when she had her child, you're likely looking at a marriage in the United States, not Cornwall. Illinois marriage records are online at http://www.ilsos.gov/isavital/marriagesrch.jsp . I put them in as a statewide search for Ruth's marriage since her name is less common than William's. Good thing too, as they turned up as William STAVENS (not Stevens) and Ruth ROGERS married July 29, 1862 in Peoria County, Illinois. If you order a copy of their marriage certificate, you may get further information such as where they originally came from and/or their parents' names or occupation. Anything would be of help. Deborah has already told you the information she found in the 1880 census in Illinois. You can access United States census information at www.familysearch.org and see the information recorded for the family. You can also click through the links and see the original census sheet. William (37) and Ruth (25) STEVENS were in Illinois in 1870 with children William (7) and George A (3), both born Illinois. William was a farmer. Also there was someone called Lewis ROUSIN (18) who was a farm labourer. He may be related, or not. In the 1900 census, Ruth's birthdate was given as February 1846 and her birthplace as England. She was 54 years old and the mother of 7 children. William STEVENS was 68, birthplace England and birthdate May 1832. With them were Earnest C STEVENS (15) and Oskar P STEVENS (11). Find-a-Grave Memorial http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=108559548 has Ruth's birthdate as February 18, 1846 (died April 3, 1904), William's birthdate as May 2, 1832 England (died September 5, 1909) and a photo of the grave. Ordering the death certificates MIGHT get you parents' names as well. It just depends what the requirements were in Illinois at the time they died. If you're local to there, the library probably has their obituaries which might say "son of", or name other siblings who might help to narrow down the place in Cornwall. You should take all information you get with a grain of salt, but they can lead you to your folks. Spellings, birthplaces, ages, dates and years were far more 'flexible' than now. You will also need to make sure you don'g get committed to any certain spellings (the possibilities are much more than just STEVENS/STEPHENS and ROGERS/RODGERS). Any information that came from a death certificate almost always came from someone who wasn't there (i.e. they may just be repeating incorrect information they'd heard previously) but it can be a clue. Census information is given by whoever answered the door, and the person giving the information might just guess. There are also reasons why people would deliberately falsify their answers, particularly ages (so as to appear old enough to work, old enough to be married, to disguise an out of wedlock birth etc). On that note, this person is a relative: http://www.myheritage.com/names/clara_swords When you've got as much data gathered in the US as you can, you'll have a more productive search in Cornwall. When you're ready, Genuki for the particular parish you want, FreeBMD for birth registrations, and FreeCEN for census transcriptions as well as the OPC database are particularly useful. Good luck, shout if you need help Joanne Toronto, Canada ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jennifer Otto via" <cornish-gen@rootsweb.com> To: <CORNISH-GEN@rootsweb.com> Sent: Monday, May 04, 2015 11:00 AM Subject: [CORNISH-GEN] William Stevens information? > Hello, in my genealogy research, I came across this Cornish-Gen list. I > am > inquiring about the Stevens surname. My name is Jenny, and I live in > central Illinois, in the USA. The furthest back I have been able to go is > to my great-great-grandfather, a William Stevens born 2 May 1832 in Land's > End, Cornwall, England. He married Ruth Rogers (alt spelling Rodgers) and > had a son named Ernest Chester Stevens, who was my great grandfather. I > can't even figure out whether Ernest was born in the US or not, nor do I > know which parish Cornwall is in or how to proceed from here... I'm an > amateur, but hopefully I can learn and maybe help someone else one day. > Thank you. > > > Respectfully, > Jenny Phillips > ------------------------------- > Listmom: ybowers@gmail.com or CORNISH-GEN-admin@rootsweb.com > > Visit the OPC (Online Parish Clerk) web page for transcription information > http://www.cornwall-opc.org/ > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > CORNISH-GEN-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message >