Me

I was born Karen Stedman in a village on the Wirral where I still live today.  I have been interested in family history since the 1980's and have an abundance of information I would like to share with anybody who is interested, family or otherwise. 

This blog will include information about ancestors on both sides of my tree (paternal Stedman, maternal Smith) and  if you come across it, and have information you would like to share, or even if you just want some assistance with your own tree then please do get in touch.  Bear in mind information might be changed or added to as time passes, and as I come across all the papers and notes I have made over the past 35 years!

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[Pic:  My dad and his sisters]

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In the 1980s my gran (dad's mum Milly) and her brother (my great uncle Arthur) would often come to stay.  Gran lived in Surrey, and her brother in Kent.  They were Crouch's, my dad was a Stedman. 

My sisters and I remember gran making apple pies from the tree in our garden, and uncle Arthur building us a home for our pet mice in the old coal shed ... not a good idea as the wild mice were much smaller than the mice from the local pet shop and they managed to get into the cages and impregnate our females.  At final count I think we had 64 mice which my sister advertised in our front garden for 15p each.  The local pet shop were not amused as she undercut them by 75%!   I suspect some of the wild females were impregnated too and multi-coloured wild mice are probably still running round in that Wirral village today.  If you live on the Wirral, and you have noticed any strangely coloured wild mice, let me know and I will tell you if you are in the right vicinity!

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At that time Great uncle Arthur lived in Chatham, not far from where my dad's family had originated; a small village near Maidstone in Kent, called Lenham.  Stedmans are mentioned in Lenham parish records back to at least 1550.  Gran and her brothers grew up in the nearby village of Grafty Green.  What I remember most about uncle Arthur is that although he was a Crouch, he seemed to know quite a lot about the Stedman family.  He drew me a basic family tree and from that moment on I was hooked!