Dear Mr. Dimeo

From the list of special interests of memeber of the Devon Family History Society I see that you are interested in the name TREVAN. I have recently applied to join the society, and have traced my ancestors back to the mid-seventeenth century from a John Trevan of St Germans, his grandson John who moved to Sheviock, his son John who moved to Morice Town, Devonport, Stoke Damerel (Plymouth) at some time before 1829.

I would be interested in any information that you have about any Trevan's. The name is so scarce that a very large proportion of those I've found (about 120 in all) tie in to my family tree. However there is another fairly sizeable tree descended from a Matthew Trevan, yeoman of Eggbuckland (Plymouth now-a-days) who moved to St Endellion on the north coast of Cornwall.

I enclose a brief synopsis of my family tree. If you're interested in any more details of any of these families I'd be only too happy to write to you again. I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely

[signed] MVTrevan

Mary Trevan

Dear Mary

Many thanks for your letter and enclosures, also for a very enjoyable evening on 17th August. Vincent was talking about the computer for a long time!

I hope I've remembered to enclose all the documents you asked for-

1. Birth cert for Lucretia
2. Marriage Cert. for Lucretia - John S. MILLS
3. PR St Germans baptism of John Trevan 1776
4. PR Sheviock baptism of John Trevan 1806
5. PR St Andrews, Plymouth, marriage of John = Hono(u) Treliving 1828
6. PR St Teath marraige of John Trevan = Christiana Henwood 1799

I wonder if in your travels to WDRO you have come across the name SAMBELL. Lucretia's husband was John Sambell Mills, and his wife {I think this should read mother} was Ann or Mary Ann, (possibly Sambell?) On the 1851 Census she was living at 6 Higher Batter? Street in Charles district, widow aged 43, born at Liskeard, living with her two sons John (15) and Nicholas (12). Her husband Nicholas Mills, died in Cambridge Street in 1843, aged 48. No record of a marriage in Liskeard according to CRO, so that one is still to be found. You may know if the name is common in the Plymouth area, or perhaps I'm on the wrong track.

We have just got two kittens so the last few days have been hectic. It is nice to have pets around again - last year we had an unfortunate time with a spaniel who bit a boy at Vincent's school - when she went there seemed to be a gap so after much thought we now have two Elizabethan composers - Tallis and Farnaby!

Please let me know if I forgot to send anything you asked for.

With best wishes

John

Notes:
1. Between my letter and his reply he visited me with his son in Plympton
2. By this time I had traced my line back to where it is today (5 Feb 2000) but had not found all of John's children, his marriage and headstone or made the connection that Matthew WAS John's son.
3. Almost all the information from the enclosures is available on my web sites, and what isn't will be added when I complete the family group sheets for generations 6-9.
4. It included an early index of the female Trevans which has now expanded into ../../tre/vanwomen.htm
5. The computer referred to by John was a BBC B which I bought in the late 1970's! When I started to use the database to put the IGI information for Devon and Cornwall into the same file so I could sort it by date, name etc I found that the computer (16K of memory - yes kilobytes, not megabytes!) could cope with 100 names but not 120!
6. John has moved and we have lost contact. John, if you read this I'd love to hear from you again. It's easiest to email me since I'm moving around mainland Europe a lot these days.