I agree with everyone who suggested looking at all spellings. In 1850 my gg grandfather's name appears in the census with backward initials, and an odd spelling of his name. Instead of A.E. Stevens/Stephens, he appears as E. A. Stephans. In 1860 he was Stephans, A.E but it lists his wife as Helen instead of Harriet. 1870 he's Stevens, Ansel E One of the biggest surprises I had wasn't on my Stevens line, but on my MacClement line. For years I couldn't find them until Heritage Quest put a particular book online. With the leads I found in that book I was able to trace my family back and prove the oral histories that my mother always told me. The surprise was -- they were MACClements from 1870 forward, but they were simply Clements prior to that in the US. And I always thought the "Mac" was more Irish than American. ;-) There really wasn't much in the way of standardized spelling prior to the Civil War era. Most of the time people just wrote what they heard, so spellings can be anything from a slight change here to a major change there, just depending upon the complexity of the name. My Stevens line has been anything from Steevens, to Stephens, Stephans, Stevens, and I'm sure others that don't call to mind right now. My major problem right now is my 5th great grandfather Elnathan and who he married, as I sent in last night. Thanks, Linda Trent

We have found that in our Stephens-Stevens men's DNA testing project that Stevens are Stephens and one Stephenson was a Stevens. Chalk it up to semi-literate census takers and county officials who misspelled names repeatedly changing an immigrant into a new and differently named American citizen. Bill -----Original Message----- From: stevens-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:stevens-bounces@rootsweb.com]On Behalf Of Linda Trent Sent: Wednesday, March 05, 2008 9:12 AM To: stevens@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [STEVENS] Stevens various spellings I agree with everyone who suggested looking at all spellings. In 1850 my gg grandfather's name appears in the census with backward initials, and an odd spelling of his name. Instead of A.E. Stevens/Stephens, he appears as E. A. Stephans. In 1860 he was Stephans, A.E but it lists his wife as Helen instead of Harriet. 1870 he's Stevens, Ansel E One of the biggest surprises I had wasn't on my Stevens line, but on my MacClement line. For years I couldn't find them until Heritage Quest put a particular book online. With the leads I found in that book I was able to trace my family back and prove the oral histories that my mother always told me. The surprise was -- they were MACClements from 1870 forward, but they were simply Clements prior to that in the US. And I always thought the "Mac" was more Irish than American. ;-) There really wasn't much in the way of standardized spelling prior to the Civil War era. Most of the time people just wrote what they heard, so spellings can be anything from a slight change here to a major change there, just depending upon the complexity of the name. My Stevens line has been anything from Steevens, to Stephens, Stephans, Stevens, and I'm sure others that don't call to mind right now. My major problem right now is my 5th great grandfather Elnathan and who he married, as I sent in last night. Thanks, Linda Trent ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to STEVENS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message