We're joined this month by more than one guest contributor. Roy Hewitt
needs no introduction and has contributed, not only his advice on our John
Stedeford article but photographs that he took during yet another
visit to the battlefields of the Somme this summer. We hear that Roy has
also taken some more Stentiford-related pictures and look forward to seeing
them in
another article in the New Year.
There cannot be an historian in one of our family groups who
has not seen the spelling STETTAFORD used (mistakenly) when searching for
their ancestors. But one group of families have maintained this spelling
over several centuries and, this month, we are pleased to include
material relating to them which was sent to us by Beryl Cross from Australia
.
The Stentifords and Stuttafords can look back over the centuries
at families in which boys heavily outnumbered girls, thus
ensuring the continuance of the family names and the growth of descendent
families. Not so the Stettafords. All the Stettafords to be found in
this country and Australia since the 1840s have descended from a schoolmaster
called William Stettaford who was born in Plymouth and who we write
about in this Issue. Before then, the
picture is far less clear. We would like to acknowledge the contribution
of Hugh Lodge who, through his work on the Stuttafords, has done
research on the early days of this family as well.
Samuel
Johns married a Harriet Stettaford in Exeter in 1827 and so began a
second set of mysteries for their Australian descendents for his
background is just as obscure as hers. In this Issue, we're reprinting
material compiled by Jack Cross from notes made by Edward Duyker in the
hope that one of our readers may, in the course of their own research,
have come across information that will help this family to solve a little more of
their puzzle. We have some ideas of our own and shall return to this
subject in the New Year.
Which is why there is not a Stentiford in sight in this Issue!
