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.