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Preferred Citation

[Description and date of item], [Box/folder number], Gerald Stephens, Compiler, Stephens and Smith Family Genealogy, A&M 3575, West Virginia and Regional History Center, West Virginia University Libraries, Morgantown, West Virginia.

Scope and Contents

Genealogy of the Stephens and Smith families, primarily from the eighteenth to twenty-first centuries. (The families are related through the 1899 marriage of Ora Mae Smith to Leaman Clark Stephens in Ritchie County, West Virginia.) Includes series of 1) Genealogy Notebooks, 2) Transcripts of Compiled Genealogies, 3) Miscellaneous Notes and Papers, 4) Stephens Family Genealogy Papers, 5) Smith Family Genealogy Papers, 6) Genealogy Research Correspondence, 7) Photographs, 8) ADD of 2009/05/13, and 9) ADD of 2015/05/11.

1) Genealogy Notebooks (Box 1) include: Apollard Stephens and descendants; Andrew J. Stephens family; John Stephens and descendants; Stephens family obituaries; transcribed copies of the correspondence (1897-1899) of Ora Mae Smith and Leaman C. Stephens; families of John and Gerald Stephens; families of Miller, Amos, Hamilton, Jackson, Moats, and McNemar; Smith family; Layfield family; e-mails regarding the genealogy research of Gerald O. Stephens; miscellaneous papers regarding Stephens and Smith genealogy; and descendants of William Smith (born c.1530).

2) Transcripts of Compiled Genealogies (Box 1) contain "Ancestors of Jeffrey S. Smith of Vienna, West Virginia", "The Ever Changing Smith Family, Vol. 1", and "Ancestry and Descendants of Absalom Wamsley Smith. Pioneer to Utah 1852".

3) Miscellaneous Notes and Papers (Box 1) regard the genealogy of both families and includes handwritten and typed notes, a facsimile of a will, family trees and charts, family group sheets, maps, a copy of "Unclaimed West Virginia Civil War Medals", and lists of the crew of the U.S.S. Talamanca, a provision store ship, from its commission in January 1942 to its decommission in November 1945.

4) Stephens Family Genealogy Papers (Box 2) regard the ancestors and descendants of John Stephens (c.1735-1787) and Lucretia Gaskill Stephens (c.1740-c.1785) of Monmouth County, New Jersey, and the allied families of Layfield, George, Goff, Moore, Cross, Dunn, Stull, Golding, Arnett, Snodgrass, Tennant, Wagner, Gaskill, Amos, Miller, Endecott, Province, Reed, Spencer, and Shattuck. These families were most prevalent in Ritchie County, WV; Greene County, Pennsylvania; Monongalia County, WV; Marion County, WV; and Washington County, Ohio. Includes newspaper clippings; facsimiles and transcripts of wills and deeds; homestead maps; family group sheets; family trees and charts; birth, marriage, and death certificates; photographs; and the patent papers of Eschol Lee Stephens.

5) Smith Family Genealogy Papers (Box 2) regard the ancestors and descendants of James Smith (1732-1819), Ann Parks Smith (1733-c.1754), and Mary Capon Smith of Trenton, Mercer County, New Jersey. Its allied families are Drake, Board, Cain, Riddell, Rill, Goff, Parks, Shores, Shinn, Wamsley, and Hamilton. These families were most prevalent in the present-day West Virginia counties of Harrison, Ritchie, and Hampshire. Includes newspaper clippings, transcribed wills, copies of pages of genealogy books, family group sheets, family trees and charts, the patent papers of Lloyd B. Smith, a marriage certificate, and transcripts of court records.

6) Genealogy Research Correspondence (Box 2) includes the correspondence of Gerald O. Stephens.

7) Photographs (Box 3 and one folder in Box 2), mostly labeled, include portraits, group family pictures, candid snapshots, headstones, and copies of portrait photographs or paintings, as well as a collection of negatives.

Headstone photographs, taken c.1980-2000, include the families of Smith and Stephens, as well as allied families, namely Miller, Layfield, Hamilton, and Snodgrass. The majority of these photographs were taken in cemeteries in Ritchie County, WV; Green County, PA; Marion County, WV; and Monongalia County, WV. Additionally, there are Snodgrass family headstone photos in Wabaunsee and Morris Counties in Kansas, and Huber family headstone photos from Lawton, Oklahoma.

The balance of the photographs regards the Stephens family, c. 1890-2000.

Subjects include: the crew of the U.S.S. Talamanca AF-15 in the South Pacific c.1944-1945; U.S.S. Gherardi DMS 30; Smith's Chapel Baptist Church in Ritchie County; Oil Ridge Community Church in Ritchie County; Future Farmers of America gathering at Jackson's Mill, 1941; Cairo High School 50th class reunion in Ritchie County, 1992; train station at Williamstown, WV, (Wood County), c.1900; the ruins of the log house of James Stephens in Kirby, Green County, PA (1989); the log house of Apollo Stephens in Green County, PA; historical marker for Garard's Fort, PA in the Revolutionary War.

8) Addendum of 2009/05/13 (Box 4) contains materials related to the following series: 4) Stephens Family Genealogy Papers (chiefly the Endecott, Lippincott, Snodgrass, and Stephens families); 6) Genealogy Research Correspondence; and 7) Photographs. Also includes a copy of Descendants of John Stephens & Lucretia Gaskill of New Jersey, 1735-1991 by James Francis Stephens, 1991.

9) Addendum of 2015/05/11 (Box 4) contains obituaries for Gerald and Betty Stevens, eulogy for Betty Lou Baxley Stephens and Gerald Otis Stephens (2015), photo of Gerald Stephens at age 11 (1936), DVD of memorial service for Gerald and Betty Stevens (2015/03/21), and other material.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• Genealogy
• Smith family
• Stevens family