I have found no connection with any other Stephens. Does anyone know any of these people? My Third Great Grandfather is William Stephens. The 1850 Stoddard County Missouri census shows his wife's name as Mahaly. The 1860 census shows his wife's name as Sarah, and the same children as in the 1850 census. I do not know if this is the same woman or not. And I do not know their last name/names. Both the 1850 and 1860 census say that William is from Kentucky and Mahaly/Sarah is from Tennessee. My Second Great Grandfather was Daniel H. Stephens, and he married Mariah Clementine Kinman. My Great Grandfather was William Morris Stephens, and he married Falby Caroline Mann. All of these people were in Stoddard County Missouri near the town of Bloomfield. My Grandfather, Fred Hill Stephen, was born in Stoddard County Missouri and he moved into Greene County Arkansas near Marmaduke. He married Nancy Elizabeth Brewer. Note that the s was dropped from Stephens. Everyone in this line from my grandfather on spells it Stephen without the s. It is known that William Morris Stephens, the Grandson of William and Mahaly Stephens, was part Cherokee. One of the major Cherokee Trail of Tears passed through Southeast Missouri. They crossed at Cape Girardeau. My Second Great Grandfather Daniel H. Stephens was born in April of 1839 in Missouri. The word passed down in the family is that William and his family lived as whites. These people may be associated in some way with the trail of tears. A possible idea is that they ran away after crossing the river at Cape Girardeau and settled on Crowley's Ridge, a narrow strip of land anout five to ten miles wide that at that time ran between two swamps. The ridge runs all the way down into Arkansas and comes out at Helena. Stoddard County is about twenty five miles down the ridge.