Ten years ago my wife used to tease me that I had only 3 known relatives (names, addresses etc) Two of these are female cousins who were my "big sisters" when I was at boarding school in what is now Harare.
In 2000 the two cousins (resident today in Harare and Durban) put it to me that when the three of us "go" the Steer family name on our particular branch will die out 'cos we have only managed to produce daughters.
So I set about doing the trees of the four grandparents. It was much harder 10 years ago but I have now got all four back into the mid 18C.
I can boast to my wife that the number of living and identified rellies is now well over 200! And pursuing the rest, both quick and dead, keeps me out of mischief.
The Steers, Cooks and Hinks are / were farming / wooden shipbuilding / seafaring families centred around Appledore in N Devon. Apart from those at sea they did not stray far afield until recent times. Interestingly my professional forte is the design of timber structures and two lines of the family have wooden shipbuilding back to 1750.
The Greenslades were also in agriculture around South Molton. George Alfred Greenslade I (it now goes up to GAG 4) disappeared from the UK just before the 1881 census and surfaced in the Panama Canal, Ecuador and Cuba before settling in the USA and creating a wide flung dynasty there.
Looking forward to tracking down the elusive twigs on the tree.
Peter Steer
In 2000 the two cousins (resident today in Harare and Durban) put it to me that when the three of us "go" the Steer family name on our particular branch will die out 'cos we have only managed to produce daughters.
So I set about doing the trees of the four grandparents. It was much harder 10 years ago but I have now got all four back into the mid 18C.
I can boast to my wife that the number of living and identified rellies is now well over 200! And pursuing the rest, both quick and dead, keeps me out of mischief.
The Steers, Cooks and Hinks are / were farming / wooden shipbuilding / seafaring families centred around Appledore in N Devon. Apart from those at sea they did not stray far afield until recent times. Interestingly my professional forte is the design of timber structures and two lines of the family have wooden shipbuilding back to 1750.
The Greenslades were also in agriculture around South Molton. George Alfred Greenslade I (it now goes up to GAG 4) disappeared from the UK just before the 1881 census and surfaced in the Panama Canal, Ecuador and Cuba before settling in the USA and creating a wide flung dynasty there.
Looking forward to tracking down the elusive twigs on the tree.
Peter Steer
