> On Sun, 16 May 2010 18:39:33 +0100 > > Nigel St C Gerdes <nigel.gerdes@milnet.uk.net> wrote: > > Hi List, > > > > I am in correspondence with a researcher tracing their > > Ecchinswell/Kingsclere STEVENS family. > > > > In the course of doing census searches I found in the 1881 census at > > St Giles Reading, Berks at 23 Silver St an unmarried lodger called > > John STEVENS giving his birth year as 1856 and a birthplace of > > Kingsclere, Hants. His occupation was Shoeblack. > > > > He might be: > > > > Birth FreeBMD Whitchurch 1857 1Q 2c 176 STEVENS, John Alexander > > > > There is a Robert STEVENS and Elizabeth ALEXANDER on the same page at > > Marriage FreeBMD Andover 1851 2Q 7 63. > > 1851 Census Hurstbourne Tarrant > George Green, head, 36, grocer, Hurstbourne > Mary , wife, 30, Hurstbourne > Alfred George , son, 11, -, Hurstbourne > John Alexander , son, 2 mo, -, Hurstbourne > Robert Stevens, servant, 25, shoemaker, Ecchinswell > Elizabeth Alexander, visitor, 32, -, Hurstbourne > > Is this too much of a co-incidence! > John and List Terrific - A Result - The list working really well. Looks like Mary Green could be the sister of Elizabeth Alexander. We now can go for the certificates with strong confidence. I had missed the visitor in the 1851 H/H and had only started thinking about a Stevens = Alexander marriage when I went looking later in the area and spotted a FreeBMD birth for John Alexander Stevens having seen a possible Stevens =Alexander marriage later in 1851 in Andover RD. John Alexander Stevens dies in 1883 St Pancras RD in London with a given age of 25. His father Robert by this stage had remarried to Jane Newby on 02 Oct 1870 at the Parish Church in Poplar. In the 1881 he was living with Jane at Woking, Surrey, as a Grocer and Shoemaker and in the 1891 was a Shoemaker and Grocer still living at Woking. A possible death for him age 88 is 1915 FreeBMD Guildford 4Q 2a 123 and his wife Jane was born ca 1821 in Norfolk, with a father Jonathan Newby who was a Farm Steward, has a possible death of 1894 FreeBMD Guildford 1Q 2a 47. Jane and Robert do not appear to have had any children and John Alexander's brother William Henry b 1854 Hants went on to marry Alice Emma Davey on 04 Aug 1883 at St Peter, West Hackney, Middlesex (Wow - same church as were some of my Gerdes family were baptised at about the same time!). William Henry called his house in the 1901 and 1911 census 'Hurstbourne' which was a very helpful clue but stated on some occasions he was born at North Waltham, Hants but finally stated in the 1911 he had been born near Hurstbourne which is more likely since the FreeBMD looks to be Whitchurch Hants RD for John Alexander Stevens. The family association with North Waltham is not yet resolved. William and Alice Emma had three children Alfred William b ca 1885 Hackney , Ethel M. b ca 1886 Hackney and Violet A. b ca 1890 1 Nightingdale Road, Clapton . The youngest was still with her parents in the 1911 census. A good development for the Stevens tree on the Kingsclere Website and a big thank you to my e-mailer who provided the data for the search for William Henry and his brother John who had proved, to date, hard to trace. Great to see another person reunited with their Kingsclere Family. I will forward this email to her and I expect John you will get a big thank you for spotting the last key piece in the jigsaw which I had overlooked. Regards, Nigel Gerdes > In 1861 Robert born Ecchinswell is in household of Henry & Emma Ford, > Emma age 34, born Ecchinswell. Robert is described as brother. So that > confirms Robert as a son of John Stevens & Mary Ann Rode. > > I think John Stevens must have died as Mary Ann Wheeler with 3 Stevens > children is recorded in George Street, Kingsclere in 1841, Thomas > Wheeler, 43, blacksmith is the husband (presumably). Too late at > night to start checking for a marriage but will do so tomorrow. > He did. Mary Ann Rode married John Stevens and after his death in 1828 her second husband was Thomas Wheeler - so all is clear. Details are already on the Kingsclere Website. > Baptism entries have both Emma & Robert born Kingsclere Town but family > could have moved to Ecchinswell and both thought they were born there. > > This Robert is recorded as a letter carrier in 1871, a boot/shoemaker & > grocer in 1881/1891 but with a wife Jane. In 1871 he has a 14 year > old son John > Same Robert b ca 1827 Kingsclere Town see above for details.