Meet the Family

It dawned on me recently that many people find this site while looking for relatives, and I haven’t made things easy for them. If someone arrives here after having Googled “stevens genealogy”, or “caldwell family”, they’ll find a frustrating lack of organization. But I must say that I prefer a more casual, “organic” layout, and find that excessive structure only serves to infuse the subject with banality, and genealogy needn’t be boring.
In order to clarify my family tree a little, here’s a quick-and-dirty outline of the family:  I’m Mark Stevens, born in 1957. My father was Homer Douglas Stevens (”Doug” 1915-2007), and his father was Homer Stevens (1888-1961). Homer’s father was Albert Stevens (1852- ?). Albert’s father isn’t known, although there was a John J. Stevens that’s a possibility. All the Stevens mentioned here lived in Ohio, primarily in Guernsey County. My grandmother was born Goldie Irene Parker (1888-1979), and her father was Henry G. Parker (1840-1914). Her mother was Emily R. McMurray (1846-1930). Read the rest of this entry »

What motivated this project?

It’s a realization that comes to most of us at some point: I should have paid more attention to things over the years. It’s just so easy to get caught up in the drama of ones own affairs, finding one day that the people who you knew would always be there for you aren’t there anymore. Loosing my mother in 2004 and my father in 2007 prompted much reflection, as I suppose the loss of ones parents always does. It occurred to me that not only were my parents gone, but so too was a priceless window into the history of our family. They knew facets of the family history that were known to no one else, and that information was now gone forever. I should have paid more attention, asked more questions. I should have listened.
Having lost Dad (Doug Stevens, or “Pop” as I affectionately called him) a little over a year ago, I decided that I needed to make up for my previous indifference to the family history. This goal was further encouraged by the Hopson Family Reunion which, unfortunately, I was unable to attend. (Hopson’s are on my mother’s side) But thankfully my sisters, Carol Miller and Gail Aguilar, made the trip to Tiptonville, Tennessee and brought back with them a tremendous amount of information as well as contacts for further genealogical study. Additions to this site will be frequent, and I welcome any information that might be provided by fellow historians/relatives. I can’t guess how much time this project will require, but it will certainly be measured in years. I’ll be right here, plugging away at it.

- Mark Stevens