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 »

Spooky Relations

Had this tale reached me a couple of weeks earlier it would have been perfect timing for Halloween, but better late than never, right? Sure, I could have kept it under my hat until next year, but this bit of family weirdness can’t wait. There’s not much to the story, really, and certainly everyone has heard more eerie or horrific tales, but I’m absolutely floored that this sort of thing took place in my family. Dad’s side of the family consisted of miners and farmers, conservative Ohio folk that were known for their dignity and moral propriety. It’s their upstanding demeanor and quiet reserve that makes this tale of the occult truly extraordinary.
My grandmother, Goldie Stevens (born Goldie Parker), was almost seventy in 1957, the year I was born, but I got to know her well enough to see her as guiding force behind dad’s strength of character. Goldie passed on in 1979, and my grandfather, Homer Stevens, died in 1961. I was too young to remember my grandfather, but from all accounts he too was possessed of a character that was beyond reproach. Not much was known of the Stevens or Parkers beyond my grandparents generation, and no prospects for further information were in sight until a few weeks ago. In the course of doing our genealogy research my sister Carol has corresponded with our aunt Dorothy Jean, hoping to add a generation or two to the family tree. Little was gained in that regard, but instead what surfaced was a number of priceless family anecdotes. This one, set somewhere around the year 1900, is centered around Goldie’s childhood and the family pastime, playing with a Ouija Board.
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Where’s Albert Stevens?

I’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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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