Stevens? Stephens? Anybody?

 

In an era during which spelling mattered much less than it might today, a thirty one year old man left County Mayo in the northern reaches of Ireland, journeyed to Liverpool, England, where he obtained passage—likely on the cheapest ticket possible—to New Orleans, Louisiana. From there, he completed his journey up the Mississippi, then by its tributaries to Lafayette, on the Wabash in Indiana. According to his report recorded on his First Declaration, he arrived during the last month of 1852.

The name he gave was Stevens—Hugh Stevens—but it could just as likely have been spelled Stephens. In fact, looking at passenger records for New Orleans, I was just as likely to find entries for "H. Stephens" as for a man spelling his name as Stevens. Besides, who are we kidding here? Hugh Stevens signed his First Declaration with a mark, not a signature; he likely had no idea at all how to spell his own name.

So, taking that question one step further, I took one last peek at the records drawn up—and thankfully still in existence—back in his home location in County Mayo. For this, I first visited the website Ask About Ireland, where their search of Griffith's Valuation yielded me one solitary household in County Mayo listed under the surname Stevens: the family of Michael Stevens.

Ah, then, the question becomes: could this Michael have been the father of Hugh? Or even of his possible brother John? Looking back at John's family where he settled in Lafayette, Indiana, I can see he had three sons named James, John, and William. No Michael. Can I trust that Irish immigrant to follow the tradition of his forefathers and name his firstborn son after his own father? If so, that father wouldn't have been named Michael.

What can be learned about the parish in which that Michael Stevens was said to have lived? Griffith's Valuation showed Michael Stevens to have lived in the civil parish of Killasser. Taking that question to the search engines led me to a newsletter published for what appears to be the church parish by the same name. Still, it provides a usable description of the rural location for someone as far removed from the scene as I am, as does another entry I found on the near-defunct old RootsWeb site. Townlands.ie fills in some of the blanks about the many townlands within that civil parish, but as I'm at a loss as to where to turn next, the information is currently of no use to me.

Could that surname have turned out, rather, to be spelled Stephens? Trying this second option back at Ask About Ireland, I found thirty six entries in County Mayo, including two with the given name John. Prominent among the many given names listed were Patrick and Michael, but no James, the name of John Stevens' firstborn son. And not a one of those thirty six was named Hugh, making me wish all the more that Hugh had not disappeared—not, at least, until having fathered a firstborn son and followed the traditional Irish naming pattern to give me some help with that question.

Until I find more clues to help with this puzzle, I doubt I'll be able to move forward with this month's research question. With that, I'll fold the file up and put it back in its digital place. If any major discoveries of further records surface in Ireland—or a long-lost distant cousin and descendant of our missing Hugh Stevens decides to take a DNA test—I'll be happy to revisit this research question. But for now, it's time to move on. There are other research tasks to tackle.