If you go on-line and visit Freecen.rootsweb.com you will discover that work has begun to make the Devon 1861 census available. Not many pieces are completed yet but with a database of this kind, you can call up all the entries recorded so far for the name you want. This site gets very busy so it's a good idea to visit  early in the morning and print out results to work with later.

The 1850s were a bad time for agriculture in Devon and people left the villages in droves to seek a supposedly better life in towns that were developing rapidly. Our Aveton Gifford family was no exception to the general trend and in 1861, we find them (or some of them) living at 1 Park Street in the Plymouth parish of Charles the Martyr.

STENTIFORD Thomas  Head  M M 51 Cordwainer Aveton Gifford

STENTIFORD Jane  Wife M F 46 Ugborough

STENTIFORD Edwin  Son U M 20 Carpenter Aveton Gifford

STENTIFORD Thomas Son U M 18 Labourer Aveton Gifford

STENTIFORD Hannah Symons Dau F 12 Scholar Aveton Gifford

Also in the house are Jane Bardens M F 24 Aveton Gifford and a lodger - Andrew Scoble U M 23 Tailor Modbury. 

No longer listed with the family are Jane, John and Emily. We must try to discover if they have married, gone away or died? A quick visit to www.freebmd.org.uk finds us the marriage of a John Bardens to a Jane Stentiford in Plymouth in the 1860 June Quarter. So now we know that daughter Jane was at home with the family for the 1861 census although her name has changed.

The original Rectory at Aveton Gifford

The absence of Emily and John is, currently, harder to explain. When there are more records in Freebmd, we might discover if Emily died between 1851 and 1861. When more of the 1861 census is available on Freecen, we might find her working somewhere else.

John, however, is not dead. He and his wife Susan, together with their 3 children ( Jane, Ellen and Emily) show in 1881, living at 28 Love Street in Plymouth, Charles the Martyr. 

Of the children still at home in 1861, Edwin and Thomas remain elusive but Hannah Symons Stentiford can be traced. She married John Henry Maddock in 1868 March Quarter (see Freebmd) and they can be found in the 1891 Census (using Freecen) living at 3 Portland Place East with a family of ten children. 

So with a little help from our database, we can begin to create a tree for this family:

Their marriage has not yet been found so Jane's maiden name and the date of their wedding are still mysteries to us :although she was born in Ugborough they could have used a Register Office somewhere else. The dates of their respective deaths come from the GRO Index.

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