The Jordan Story

Origins Chapters

Connecting to John Issac Steward

by Dave Jordan

As one researches further back, it become increasingly difficult to know you have the right family. No one is alive who can guide you, records become sparse and with less data, and with the similarity of given names it is sometimes easy to connect with the wrong family.

With luck, you have an ancestor with a unique given name, or who regularly used a middle name. Another way is to have multiple sources pointing the same way.

For many years, going back beyond Joseph Steward progressed very slowly. His name had been known from his wife's obituary (Elizabeth Holloway Steward) when the early Jordan family was in Wisconsin. Their daughter, my gg-grandmother Elizabeth Priscilla Holloway Steward became Elizabeth Priscilla Jordan when she married James Jordan. In due course the Joseph and Elizabeth Steward Family Census listings were found in the Poplar censuses for 1851, 1871, 1881 and 1891, which provided names and dates for Joseph and Elizabeth, but nothing about his parentage.

A key record for finding his father was Joseph Steward's 11 June 1848 marriage record to Elizabeth Holloway. English marriage records record the name of the father and occupation, but not the mother. Joseph's father's name was John Isaac Steward and his occupation was shipwright. This was very helpful as not only was there a name, but there was a middle name and one which was pretty uncommon, at least compared to Joseph, or John, or William. In addition, shipwright was a pretty uncommon profession, at least compared to entries such as laborer, or stevedore.

In May 2006 through Diane Cusiel, I gained access to the John and Sarah Steward Family Census listings for the Poplar census of 1841 and 1851. Diane was also searching for Stewards in Poplar, and though we eventually determined that although the names we both wanted were uncannily similar, we were looking at different Steward families. An important result was both a good exchange of data and a sorting out whose Stewards belonged to who. The results are summarized in The Stewards of Poplar, a chapter Diane wrote as part of the accumulated stories on the Stewards.

It was through the John and Sarah Steward Family Census listing for 1841 that the first linkage came for establishing Joseph's mother's name, parent's origins and two siblings. The record showed Joseph Steward as a boy of 15 (1825-26) with a father named John who was a shipwright. These were very good matches to establish that this was probably the correct family. The 1841 also showed that Joseph had a younger brother John and a much younger sister Elizabeth. The John and Jane Steward Family Census listing for 1861 shows a John Isaac Steward married to Jane A. The middle name of Isaac, and the same age being the key items that tie the pieces together. A check of the Marriage Index showed that John Isaac Steward married Jane Ann Hooper in 2Q1854 in Poplar. Here was another circumstance of the Hoopers and the Stewards being interconnected. See also A Steward/Hooper Connection.

Thus with a little sleuthing, the basic structure of the John Isaac Steward family was established. The next step was to see if it held up as further data was found. The next set of added data were indexed baptismal records obtained from Docklands Ancestors Ltd Volumes 10,15 for All Saints Poplar 1815-1857. These data showed entries for little John Isaac and Elizabeth Steward with parents John and Sarah and a father who was a shipwright. It also showed another child Mary Ann Steward.

Notes

1. Initial Web Publication Date: 1/13/2008
2. Modified:
3. Desktop Master file: Stories_Jordan