"Life, it's a pretty good deal.  I recommend it."   -   H.D. Stevens  (1915-2007)

Homer and Goldie

Posted: May 8th, 2009 | Author: Mark | Filed under: Childhood Memories, Ohio | Tags: , | No Comments »

Here’s an 8mm home movie still showing my grandparents (on dad’s side), Homer and Goldie Stevens. The movie in question was taken on one of our vacations to Columbus, Ohio, probably around 1955 or ‘56, which would explain my absence in the footage. (that’s our shiny new ‘55 Chevrolet in the background) My only memories of my grandfather are from these 8mm films, which have been viewed many times over the years. It’s really a miracle that the film has held together so long, but they’ve now been transferred to DVD, so they won’t be subjected to further wear.
I was too young to remember Homer, but I remember Grandma Goldie well. Goldie was a good person, and clearly the source of my dad’s sense of humor. I was a big fan of the Peanuts cartoons as a child, but our local paper didn’t run the Peanuts comics in those days, so Goldie would mail them to me each week. Neat lady.
I’ve thought of creating an area here at stevensfamilytree.com to house the home movie collection, to make them viewable to visitors online. I would have to transfer the DVDs to MP4 files, and then either put them on YouTube (which would make it easy to embed them here), or embed them directly to a page where they could be viewed with a QuickTime player. I’ll do a little research and see what I can do.

Where’s Albert Stevens?

Posted: November 4th, 2008 | Author: Mark | Filed under: Genealogy, Ohio | Tags: , , , | No Comments »

One of the few photos of my paternal Grandfather, Homer StevensI’m new at this genealogy stuff, and must admit that it’s proving to be more difficult than I anticipated. How is it that generation after generation of Caldwells, Hopsons, Tunes and Tiptons (Mom’s family) can be found with relative ease, while the Stevens, Parker, Hockenberry and McMurray clans reveal nothing? It’s as though Dad’s family tiptoed through the nineteenth century undetected.
What little information I have on the Stevens Family is thanks to what I will hereafter refer to as “the family outline”, a compilation of data that my sister Carol gathered many (many) years ago for a school assignment. Our Mother and Father each completed a page outlining their place and date of birth, marriage date, occupation, major place of residence, and religion, with similar pages being completed by, or on the behalf of, the other family members. Access to this type of first-hand information should have put us on the fast-track to a genealogical epiphany, but that has not been the case.
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