This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Stephens, Evans Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/Qg.2ADE/218.1.1.1.1.1.1 Message Board Post: Thank you so much Steve. I'm certain your last message will be of great interest to all family members who reach it. My wife told me last night that she thinks very few people actually go beyond a surname search. I hope they do. Then you must know the proprietors of the B&B up the hill (the one where you throw the bedroom window open in the morning to look out upon the valley), and the vicar too. Very nice people. One of the highlights of our last trip there was a "Duck Race" along the creek. By the way, I just wonder how people walked up and down that hill every day, without a car! Quite the hike! So, when are you going to take it upon yourself to do further research on our family? The problem is that this kind of stuff never provides one with an income. I just completed a 232-page (315 family photos) second volume of Illum Family History and sent it on CD to every family member I know of in the U.S. I could never afford to have it printed, especially with the number of photos. I simply asked for voluntary contributions. We'll see what comes of it. I'm not sure if I envy you for living in Pencader. It's a beautiful place . . . in the warm time of year. What do you do for a living there? Most of the people we met there are older, relatively poor people, but VERY gracious and hospitable. You are absolutely correct about the social status of D.P. Stephens. Very, very poor. I'm certain that's a part of why they emigrated to the U.S., for some improved "possibilities". Much of what we have here is "folklore" about our family, though some place more stock in it. How do you phonetically pronounce this nickname for David P., "Deio"? My father had an uncle, David Deschamps, probably named for his grandfather David Phillips Stephens. When Dad was a boy, he called this uncle "Dee-ahh". Who knows how to spell it correctly? You must know all about the Deschamps (also French-Canadian) and Stephens families in the history of St. John then. There are many of them today, but they are now scattered far and wide. Steve