Stidham/Stedman Surnames DNA Project

Thoughts concerning one of the Scottish Steedman lines

By John Lisle, Co-Group Administrator

Joseph Earl Steadman wrote a genealogy of the Stedman family about 20 years ago after doing about 60 years of research on the family. The book is called, BARTON and STEDMAN, also STEEDMAN and STEADMAN FAMILIES (1987). Many of you may have seen or have this work. About 3 years ago, one of his cousins joined the DNA project and the data showed that his DNA was the same as that of the descendants of the Stidham family. This was a surprising result.

The pedigree of Joseph Earle Steadman is:

Joseph Earle Steadman (29 August 1893 - 20 January 1995)
Henry Spann Steadman (8 October 1859 - 16 August 1916)
John Marcellus Steedman, Sr. (18 September 1833 - 7 January 1867)
Anderson Steedman (21 August 1808 - 1 October 1869)
George Steedman (22 August 1765 - 1 November 1838)
John Steedman (bp. 5 May 1715 - 1795)

The pedigree of the member is:
DNA Member (14 July 1958 - )
Wallace Wendell Steadman, Jr. (3 July 1922 - 17 August 1983)
Wallace Wendell Steadman, Sr. (22 September 1892 - 13 March 1965)
John Marcellus Steadman, Jr. (15 May 1866 - 26 April 1945)
John Marcellus Steedman, Sr. (as above)

Before we discovered this result, we knew that many of the descendants of John Steedman had, at least, adopted the Stidham (or some variation) spelling of their surname. Further, we knew that when John Steedman moved from Charleston, SC, to Fairfield (and later Lexington) county in the late 1760s/early 1770s, he was moving into an area where a number of Stidhams were living, principally a Zachariah [105] Stedham.

When we trace the family in the census, we see that George Steedman's name is spelled using some variation of the Stidham spelling from 1790 to 1820. And then in 1830 it is spelled as Steedman.

The obvious conclusion is that George was actually a Stidham and changed his name. (He actually went to court to change the spelling.) And this would mean that all descendants of George were actually Stidhams.

I recently re-read the section of Steadman's book on John Steedman. And found this paragraph that is forcing me to change that assumption.

(p. 28) Talking about John Steedman 1715:

"It evidently was in Dumfries that John learned and followed the trade of 'a weaver in Scotland', as was told by one of his sons (George Steedman) to his children. -- (Letter of Reuben Steedman, dated 27 May 1885, Statement of Jonathan Gregory Steedman, an older brother of Reuben.) In a letter dated 21 May 1886 Isaiah George Washington Steedman, son of Reuben, elaborated on his father's statement, as follows: -- 'He (John) and his immediate family were expert weavers with the hand loom: all his daughters and granddaughters became expert weavers and dyers of the olden times.'"

I can only interpret this as evidence that George Steedman was a son of John Steedman. Anderson, Jonathan Gregory, and Reuben are the three youngest children of George Steedman.

I also know from census data and the Stiddem database that all of the known Stidhams from Zachariah's family seem to have left Lexington county by 1830.

http://awt.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=stiddemdavid&id=I1347

With that in mind, one must theorize that John Marcellus Steedman, Sr. and his descendants are likely to have the same DNA. This leaves Anderson Steedman as the problem. Could he be a Stidham? We really need to test descendants from his other sons. And test descendants of other sons of George Steedman. Could there have been some adoptions in the family that have not been documented?

Further, we have several DNA members who claim to be descended from John Steedman through his son Martin who is presumed to have been born in Scotland. Most of Martin's claimed descendants have followed the Stidham style name. Martin's son John is also known from some sources as Rubin Stidham. Two descendants of John/Rubin (one from 1st son Martin and one from last son William A.) were recently tested, and the DNA shows that their DNA matches neither the expected Barton-Steadman haplotype, nor the known Stidham haplotypes. Since two sons exhibit similar haplotypes, one must presume that the father did also.

David Stidham shared an article with me:

"John Rubin" came from a report on "The Steadham Family" prepared by Robert H. Steadham, June 1, 1978. It was compiled by Robert and Foster A. Stedham in 1968 and 1969. Robert wrote:

"John Rubin Stedham came to America from Ireland, landing at New Bern, N. C. in the 18th century. He had one brother, Adam, who also came to America at the same time. No further record is available of Adam. John Rubin Stedham had one son, William Addison Stedham, who was born in North Carolina. The family moved to Clay County (Talledega) Alabama. No record is available as to the name of John Rubin's wife, nor the dates of death or place of burial of John Rubin. Name shown by F. A. Stedham as Rubin Stedham, and by Robert Steadham as John Steadham, but due to agreement of dates, can be assumed to be the same person. Logical arrangement of names would be John Rubin Stedham."[Note: records were not available when Robert Steadham wrote the above, but John Rubin Stedham's wives and burial info has been docemented since this writing.]

Of course, Joseph Earle Steadman disputes most of this. He says John was born in South Carolina, and his brother's name was William. John's father, Martin, and his grandfather, John Steedman, were from Scotland, but they did migrate to America from Ireland. However, they landed at the port of New York (not New Bern) and apparently were never in North Carolina.

It would appear by the DNA evidence that there is something wrong with the presumed parentage of John Stidham, s/o Martin Steedman. We are looking for a descendant of Martin's son William to get another DNA reading.

It is very interesting that the name Martin and Marshal are common among the descendants of John/Rubin. One cannot be sure there was not somewhere an actual Martin Stidham.

What these data scream out is that we must do much more DNA testing so that we can help you sort out your lineage. We also need copies of old family documents that might help us with subtle clues as to what is going on.

If you are any part of the Steadman or Stidham family (all spelling variations) and want to help, please contact us (see below) privately, so we can find out how you might be able to help sort out these families before too many go extinct and can no longer be tested. We really need all of your help.

Here again is the link to join the project. You need to order the 37 marker Y-DNA test. This is only open to males, usually named Stedman or Stidham or some variation or who can trace a father to son biological link to such a male. If you have a brother, father, uncle, cousin, etc. who could participate, this is the time.

We will be posting a list of specific descendant lines that we need to test on this page very soon. Please check back.

Although this message is specific to this one very large family, we have many important family holes in our DNA research. An amazing recent result is showing that a descendant of the Sullivan county, TN, Stedman family, is a close match to a descendant of one of the major Shropshire, England, families. This result suggests that the John and Christopher Stedman that arrived around 1700 in Norfolk, VA, area were not Scottish Steadmans but were English.

We welcome your comments and questions.

Richard Steadham, Newsletter Editor, the Timen Stiddem Society and Co-Group Administrator of the Stidham/Stedman DNA Study

John Lisle, Webmaster, Stedman Family Organization, a website for family history and genealogy research of the Stedman, Steadman and Steedman Families, and Co-Group Administrator of the Stidham/Stedman DNA Study

Here is a link to the Stidham/Stedman DNA Study at Family Tree DNA.