TRACING BACK THROUGH THE GENERATIONS
Elizabeth Stedman, the mother of our 1764 ancestor, was baptised in Lenham on 6 April 1743, daughter of William and Elizabeth Stedman.
Elizabeth Stedman daughter of William and Elizabeth - taken from the Tyler Index to Parish Registers, 1538-1874
Elizabeth's father William was baptised at Lenham on 3 November 1706, son of Henry and Mary Stedman.
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William's father Henry was baptised on 15 July 1677, the son of John and Margaret Stedman.
Henry's father John was baptised on 14 February 1647, the son of Henry and Elizabeth Stedman — and interestingly, that Elizabeth’s maiden name was also Stedman, so they were very likely cousins.
​John's father, another Henry, was the son of Christopher Stedman, and his mother Elizabeth was the daughter of John Stedman — these are the two earliest ancestors I’ve been able to identify so far in this Lenham line.
​Getting confused? The lineage diagram below may make it a little clearer.
Stedman Lineage - Christopher/John to Thomas
What I’m Hoping to Find
Because of the illegitimacy in 1764, Y-DNA of any male descendants of Thomas can’t represent the male Stedmans of Lenham. Their Y-DNA will represent the male line of whoever Thomas’s father was. However, if we could find a living male descendant from an unbroken line of Stedman fathers and sons descending from one of those earlier Stedman men — ideally from Christopher or John Stedman’s lines — we could uncover the true Y-DNA signature of this branch of the family.
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That would not only help to place the Lenham Stedmans accurately within the broader Stedman DNA project, but it would also shed light on the deeper origins of this family, which seems to have lived in and around Lenham for centuries.
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So we need a LIVING male Stedman, descended from a purely male Stedman line, starting from any of those males listed above Elizabeth, mother of William. Could that Stedman be YOU?