Where to Look When You Don't Know Where to Look

 

I'll admit it: when stuck with this brick wall ancestor John Stevens and his (likely) brother Hugh Stevens, I haven't the faintest idea how to proceed towards solid answers. Thankfully, I have learned that there are ways to move forward in such a stalemate. There are ways to look for answers, even when you don't really know where to look.

Before I talk about that though, truth be told, I have a second problem with the family history project I chose to work on this month. While I remember seeing Hugh Stevens' Declaration of Intention, which was originally filed at Lafayette, Indiana, if I actually purchased a copy, I have no idea where to find it. So many years ago, when I did make paper copies of records, some ended up damaged over time, and discarded. While I have since digitized John Stevens' Declaration, I have no idea where that same document was for Hugh. I'm working from memory at this point.

That clear memory, though, stayed with me: that Hugh followed the same basic route outlined by his likely relative John, from County Mayo in Ireland, to the British port of Liverpool, then to New Orleans and up north on the waterways leading from the Mississippi to Indiana. My question now is whether I can read between the lines on those two Declarations—Hugh's and John's—and find any further information on either Stevens men. But where to look next? That is where I'm stuck.

When it comes to family history questions in general, I know Cyndi's List can provide links to explore all sorts of research topics and techniques. For even more broad-based answers, I've developed the knack of putting search engines through their paces. I've also learned that it is possible to do genealogy by Wikipedia, not only for background information but also for specifics—sometimes even down to specific ancestors. And there are other, more specialized wikis which hone in on precise topics, such as the ISOGG wiki for genetic genealogy information.

But in a case such as this month's puzzle, my go-to resource is the FamilySearch wiki, and that is mostly where we'll turn for a quick refresher course to get grounded in the details of documenting immigration and naturalization on behalf of this puzzle surrounding Hugh Stevens.

If I had to rely on what is usually shared on subscription genealogy sites—those many documents which, while appreciated, are sometimes limited in scope—I would only have been in luck, had I searched for immigrants passing through, say, New York City. But filing a First Declaration in Lafayette, Indiana? Such a discovery would either have become lost in the shuffle, or not been included in the featured online collection at all. In fact, the only way I first found those two records for Hugh and John was by traveling to Lafayette and looking them up myself.

Thankfully, things have changed quite a bit since I made that trip over ten years ago. It is now possible to order a copy directly, online, for a modest fee, and I will be doing that to access a record of Hugh's arrival. But in the meantime, let's spend some time this week reviewing the history of the naturalization process as it changed over time in the United States. For that, we'll look at the articles available at the FamilySearch wiki, as well as at the source, the National Archives itself. The process of reviewing what we think we know can still be beneficial, especially when key details that we've inadvertently omitted or forgotten get brought to mind afresh. 

About Hugh

 

What I know about Hugh Stevens: nothing.

Well, that is not entirely true. I do know a few things. Those few things are not very useful, however, but a researcher has to start somewhere. This is my start.

The little I do know about Hugh Stevens is that he took the exact same route in arriving in Lafayette, Indiana, as did another Irish man by the same surname. That man was John Stevens, my husband's second great-grandfather. Oddly coincidental details about the two Stevens men make me wonder whether they might have been brothers, such as their place of origin—County Mayo, Ireland—and the route they took from Liverpool to the port of New Orleans. Even their date of travel was during the same month, only separated by a year's distance.

I found all that out by comparing notes on two slips of paper, each the Declaration of Intention or "first papers" signed to begin the naturalization process as an immigrant to the United States.

I've written about John Stevens' First Dec before—ten years ago on the eve of our trip to Ireland, in fact, posting a copy of the original—and revisited my Stevens research quandary a couple years after that. John had made his journey, according to his declaration, from his home in County Mayo to the English port city Liverpool, where he boarded a ship taking him to New Orleans. From there, he had taken another vessel up the Mississippi, then along a tributary river until he arrived at Lafayette, Indiana. 

According to the immigration record, John Stevens arrived in New Orleans in December of 1850. As I remember it, the curious detail about Hugh Stevens' First Declaration was that he, too, arrived in December, following the same route, but his arrival was a year afterwards. I can imagine the one Stevens man, John, sending a message back home to the other Stevens man, Hugh, in County Mayo, telling him it would be to his advantage to follow that same route.

Apparently, Hugh did so, for there is a document demonstrating his arrival and his specific route, but where he went after that point is still a mystery to me. That is what I'm hoping to set aside this month to discover. 

Huge Project — or Huge Mistake

 

A thought which in the malaise of midwinter seemed a good idea might not, in midsummer's sweltering heat, bear out as a productive move.

Last winter—on New Year's Day, in fact—I had pondered which project might have been the best choice for July's research efforts, the year's first attempt at pushing backwards on my father-in-law's line of Irish ancestry. In the case of immigrant ancestors like last month's exploration of Michael Metzger, and even more so for my husband's Stevens line, crossing that watery boundary to the immigrant's homeland doesn't always go as well as hoped. Especially for Irish inquiries, I am beginning to wonder whether it is possible to make any further progress at all. In the post-holiday haze, selecting a Most Wanted target for far-away July, I decided to focus on a Stevens collateral line, in hopes of making an end run around a research brick wall. In retrospect, I now see that that will, at the very least, become a huge project—or it will turn out to be a huge mistake. Now that July is here, we'll have thirty one days to decide which of the two this task will be.

The focus for July will be the supposed brother of my husband's second great-grandfather John Stevens. The man's name was Hugh Stevens, according to the one slip of paper upon which he made his brief appearance in the United States in the 1850s. After that statement, I lost any sight of him at all. Poof—gone, as if he never even existed.

The choice was whether to tackle this task at all. Hugh Stevens was a collateral line, after all. But what else did I know about his brother's origin, if not for that and a very few other records? With the decision to chase Hugh Stevens back to his supposed point of origin in County Mayo, Ireland, came the choice to broaden the search to take in more general information.

This month's project will be a series of discoveries about generic topics having much to do with how the Irish came to America. Since Hugh followed John Stevens' footsteps (so to speak) from Ireland through the port at New Orleans, I want to learn about that specific shipping route—which ships traveled that route and why. Since passenger lists for that route seem riddled with gaps in dates, I want to learn more about whether the missing records have since been preserved, and if so, where they can be accessed. On my last research attempt, guess whose arrival fell in those gaps?

While I would love to identify exactly which ship carried both Stevens men to America, even if that is no longer possible, there are far more details to pursue. Both men ended up in Lafayette, Indiana; could there have been a history of Irish men heading there in response to advertisements for laborers? Checking into local history resources may tell the tale—if not specifically about any Stevens relatives, at least this will be an effort broadening an understanding of the experience for Irish immigrants to Indiana in general.

Another avenue I have used to learn more about each of my Twelve Most Wanted has been DNA testing. However, in the Stevens case, matches—whether for autosomal connections or through Y-DNA testing—have been rare and uninformative, so while I'll keep an eye on matches during the month, this will not be an area likely to produce answers.

As always, the initial research questions will lead me in a general direction. As more clues pop up, they will hopefully lead farther still into more detail. Hopefully. I am certain there is an untold story in this Stevens line. Finding it will be the challenge.