Re: Allen, Bela, Stiles, Adam Stevens NY/Ont
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In reply to:
Re: Allen, David & Adam Stevens of Whitby Township
9/13/01
Thanks for the additional detail. I have to admit that it looks to me as if you're tracking three separate Stevens families, but I'm sure that the additional documentation you find will clarify everything. You're obviously trying a "whole family" approach that identifies kin and associates and land locations, etc. From what you've sent on so far, I'd hypothesize that:
a. Adam Stevens and descendants are one family in Whitby from 1796 on, with Adam and son Joseph forced to leave town in a hurry circa 1815. Adam ended up in Wilson, N.Y.
b. Aaron Stevens and (presumably) Maria Crysler (Frances has sent me probate data on them).
c. Bela/Stiles and possibly Thomas Allen Stevens per land ownership, and therefore probably Allen Stevens. Note a Bela Stevens in 1790 in Columbia Co. per census records and a Stiles Stevens in nearby Great Barrington etc. per a previous posting.Probable connection to Vermont in here if I remember previous messages properly. Per your posting, you believe Bela left Canada around 1805 and ended up dying in Lockport, N.Y.
I don't really see any naming overlap in these families from postings so far. I don't see any direct land overlaps except that Bela and Stiles were brothers and there's a land overlap with Thomas Allen Stevens and Bela. Adam appears to have been from Orange Co. originally and Aaron from the Albany area. Allen et al were potentially from Vermont or some unspecified place in N.Y.They all obviously came to Ontario at some point and have the same surname but I can't help but wonder if that's all they have in common.Per one book about the War of 1812, 3/5 of the people in Ontario at that time were originally American so the surname overlap is much less important that might otherwise be assumed.
I had an experience with the Stevens line in Morrow Co. Ohio that made me very aware of the commonness of that surname.An Elijah Stevens married Phebe Sams. Her family was clearly from what is today Fulton Co., Pa.The proper township in Ohio had a numerous clan from one Abednego Stevens, also from the same locale in Fulton Co. I researched them for quite a while but had trouble overlooking the fact that Elijah's census records gave him a Canada birthplace multiple times.Abednego's family was just such a perfect fit of time and place. (There were also some 10 other Stevens familys in-county in the 1850 census whose general origins I was able to trace through Mormon records - I thus eliminated them one at a time). To make a long story short, Elijah's father is the Joseph Stevens who was forced to leave Canada during the War of 1812 for refusing to fight the Americans. Adam's son Joseph is the leading candidate for being this same Joseph.Once I got over my certainty that a Pa. connection of Sams/Stevens was a given, I was able to have other researchers help me find the data on this one lone Canadian family that lived right in there with the Fulton Co. group. That group turned out to be part of a much larger migration from Fulton Co. to this Ohio location because all the members of one church basicall picked up and moved at the same time. I just got burned by the obvious coincidence.It was actually a lot of fun finally throwing away the incorrect circumstancial evidence as more direct evidence arrived from various places.
Instincts can always be wrong but to me your latest data on Bela/Thomas Allen/Stiles seems like your most promising lead to date.Have fun with this one!/ Tom Gull
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Re: Allen, Bela, Stiles, Adam Stevens NY/Ont
Michelle Burke 1/13/02