Stidston Archive

About this register

This site brings together documented records relating to the Stidston, Stidson, Stetson, Stitson, Stilson, Stillson families. The people connected to them, and their links to Anglo-Saxon origins.

Everything on the diagram and in the panels is built from real material: parish registers, civil certificates, wills and probate files, passenger lists, cemetery memorials, newspapers and similar sources. If it is shown here, there is at least some documentary trail behind it.

The aim is not to serve up a perfect-looking “public tree”, but to keep the texture of the evidence.

Dates and places follow the records as closely as possible, even when they feel scrappy or incomplete.
Gaps and contradictions are left visible on purpose, rather than being quietly smoothed away.
Where a relationship involves a degree of informed guesswork, it is treated cautiously and labelled as such.

Think of the register as a working notebook that you are welcome to look over. If something looks odd, follow the source links, check the images or transcripts on the record sites, and feel free to question the assumptions. The layout will keep changing as new material is found or old ideas are revisited.

This register is devoted exclusively to Dudley Reginald Stidston (1927–2012) Without his life and legacy, the historical records presented on this archive would not have been possible.

Documented Vertical Family Diagram

Interaction Select an individual to reveal up to three generations of ancestors and descendants.

Pan: click & drag · Zoom: mouse wheel / trackpad · Search: type a name (press “/” to jump to search)

Selected Male Female

Individual Profile Panel

Select an individual in the diagram to display recorded details.

Story

When you select an individual in the diagram, this panel assembles a concise narrative from the underlying register entries.

The text is built from dated events, notes and source citations associated with that person. Its aim is to offer a clear, factual outline: not a complete biography, but a carefully documented sketch that can be revisited as new evidence appears.

In many instances a mature narrative will include, so far as the records allow:

core life details such as birth, baptism, marriage, death and burial;
movements between places inferred from addresses, parish references, passenger lists and other travel records;
occupations and roles documented in censuses, directories, service records and vital registrations;
additional context drawn from wills, memorial inscriptions, newspaper notices and similar material.

Every statement should be traceable back to one or more citations. Where possible, links point outwards to the record custodians (for example Ancestry, FamilySearch, Find a Grave and Newspapers.com), allowing you to examine the images or transcripts directly and form your own view of the evidence.

Register overview

The register is an ongoing attempt to trace several centuries of the Stidston / Stetson surname cluster, beginning in the South Hams of Devon and following branches as they move into wider regional, Atlantic and imperial settings.

In broad outline, the material presently assembled touches on:

early generations centred on Modbury, Kingston and neighbouring parishes in the South Hams;
seventeenth‑century movements into Plymouth and onward to New England settlements such as Scituate and Norwell;
nineteenth‑ and twentieth‑century appearances in British India and Burma/Myanmar, with subsequent links to South Australia and North America;
collateral lines and marriage connections that help explain local surname clusters, property transfers or characteristic naming patterns.

The scope is deliberately selective and evidence‑led. Individuals and lines are normally included only when there is a meaningful combination of parish, civil, probate, migration or cemetery records to support their placement.

Where the records live

The register depends on the work of archives, record offices, digitisation projects and volunteers. Citations within the tree point outward to a range of catalogues and databases, including for example:

Ancestry – indexes and images for civil registration, census returns, passenger lists and many compiled family trees.
FamilySearch – free access to a large body of parish, probate and colonial material, with both indexes and digitised images.
Find a Grave – cemetery memorials, grave photographs and associated notes that sometimes preserve otherwise fragile local knowledge.
The National Archives (UK) – wills and probate material, Board of Trade passenger records and other state papers relevant to migration and service.
South West Heritage Trust – Devon parish registers and related collections for the South Hams and wider region.
Modbury Heritage – local historical work on the Stetson / Stidston family and their Modbury context.
Newspapers.com – digitised newspapers that occasionally supply obituaries, family notices or reports enriching the bare structure of the tree.
General Register Office (England and Wales) – the official index and certificate ordering service for births, marriages and deaths.
FreeBMD – a volunteer-led index to civil registration for England and Wales, often used in tandem with the GRO.
Findmypast – particularly strong for British and Irish parish, census and military collections.
WikiTree – a collaborative, free family tree where some Stidston / Stetson lines are being developed and reviewed.
Geneanet – a platform hosting compiled pedigrees and user-contributed trees that have informed some secondary‑level hypotheses.
Centennial Park (South Australia) memorial search – a cemetery database used to anchor certain Australasian burials and memorial inscriptions.
Devon Family History Society – a specialist society for research on Devon families, parishes and nonconformist communities, with indexes and guides informed by local knowledge.
GENUKI – a long‑running virtual reference library for UK and Irish genealogy, including extensive parish‑level material for Devon and surrounding counties.
British Newspaper Archive – digitised British and Irish newspapers used alongside Findmypast holdings to trace notices, reports and obituaries.
Trove – the National Library of Australia’s portal, especially its digitised newspapers and gazettes for tracking Australasian references.
The British Library – catalogue and research guides underpinning access to many of the printed and manuscript sources cited indirectly through partner platforms.
FamilySearch Research Wiki – background notes and locality guides that explain how to approach records for particular regions, including Devon, New England and British India.
Devon Online Parish Clerks – volunteer transcriptions and finding aids for many Devon parishes, often complementing the main commercial datasets.
National Library of Scotland historic maps – high‑resolution mapping that can be overlaid with modern maps to visualise farms, streets and settlements mentioned in the register.
Internet Archive – digitised books, local histories and periodicals that sometimes preserve early printed references to the families and places represented here.
HathiTrust Digital Library – another major repository of digitised printed sources, used for cross‑checking local and family histories cited second‑hand.
FreeREG – a free, volunteer‑driven index to many parish registers across England, Scotland and Wales, complementing the main commercial collections.
FreeCEN – a companion project offering free transcriptions of historical census returns, useful for cross‑checking households and occupations.
Deceased Online – a pay‑per‑view cemetery and crematorium database that can supply grave registers, burial registers and memorial details for certain UK areas.
Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) – official database of Commonwealth war graves and memorials, invaluable for twentieth‑century military deaths.
National Archives of Australia – RecordSearch – the main online catalogue for Australian federal records, including immigration, military and naturalisation files.
Library and Archives Canada – Genealogy – gateway to Canadian census, military and vital record collections.
TheGenealogist – a subscription site with strong coverage of UK non‑conformist, census and other specialist datasets.

Each link takes you to the custodian’s own search interface or catalogue. Some collections may be consulted freely; others require a subscription, institutional access or the purchase of individual certificates or images.

Methodology and cautions

Research caveat The diagram and accompanying panels form an interpretive layer placed on top of external record sets. Inevitably there are gaps, mis‑links and unresolved questions, particularly in the earlier generations and at points where sources are thin or ambiguous.

Language that relies on terms such as “likely”, “probable” or “tradition” signals that a conclusion rests on indirect or secondary evidence. Such statements should not be treated as established fact until you have examined the underlying records and are satisfied with the reasoning.

No element of this site should be relied upon in isolation as proof of identity, entitlement, hereditary status or current contact details. It is intended as a structured research aid, not as an official or legally authoritative register.

In line with common genealogical practice, recent generations may be abbreviated or withheld from public view in order to reduce the casual identification of living individuals. Where there is a legitimate research reason to examine fuller contemporary detail, this should be discussed privately with the maintainer and supported by appropriate record references.

Source weighting is kept under regular review. Where large online datasets (for example, United States or commercial indexes) appear to dominate the evidence, additional work is undertaken to locate the underlying parish, civil or archival material in Devon and other originating jurisdictions.

Compiled online trees, local histories and other secondary accounts are used as signposts only. They are not treated as proof in themselves and any apparent conflicts with primary records are resolved in favour of the latter, or left unresolved and clearly labelled until stronger evidence emerges.

Stidston Archive Documented Register
Working build: December 2025. The overall structure, counts and narratives remain provisional and may be revised as further evidence is analysed.

Using this site

This visualisation is intended as a research finding‑aid. Before adopting any conclusion, return to the cited record images or transcripts in their host repositories and review them in context.

Feedback & corrections

If you notice a significant mis‑link or wish to suggest an evidence‑based correction, please note the relevant record references in your own files before sharing them with the maintainer or with the wider research community.

For considered feedback, you may also contact the maintainer by email at contact@stidston.org, summarising the point at issue and the supporting records you have consulted.

Managed and curated by Jonathan Dudley Stidston