Newfoundland's Grand Banks Message Board

I am looking for any information on my great-grandfather. His name was William Seviour and I believe he was born in Newfoundland in 1879 and was a merchant mariner (this is based on UK census records from 1901).

According to his marriage certificate, his father was called Martin Seviour - but I have no other information on him whatsoever.

Does anyone have any information they could share with me?

Many thanks

Dave Seviour

Hi Dave:

It may be worth your while to concentrate on the community of British Harbour, Trinity Bay, NL.

SEVIOUR Aaron fisherman
SEVIOUR John fisherman
SEVIOUR Aaron, sr. fisherman
SEVIOUR Wiliam fisherman
SEVIOUR James William fisherman
SEVIOUR John Richard fisherman
SEVIOUR Richard fisherman
SEVIOUR Annanias fisherman
SEVIOUR Martin fisherman

Milt

Hi Milt

Thanks for the tip and information. I'm pretty new to this searching on-line business, but will give it a go.

Thanks again

Dave

Hi again, Dave:

Where in the UK do you reside - Dorset?

I have an interest in certain surnames of persons who emigrated from Dorset to Newfoundland during the 1700's and early 1800's..

For your information, I have seen various spellings for the 'Seviour' surname in Newfoundland. The most common probably being Seviour and Sceviour. I have conducted some research on the Sceviours' - circa early to mid 1800's - of Exploits in Notre Dame Bay.

Milt

Hi Milt

I actually live in Wiltshire, but that's not really the key as I moved here for work in 1983.

My great grand-father (William) was in the merchant navy and married a Cornish woman around 1900 in Falmouth, Cornwall. My grand-father and father were both born in Penryn (next to Falmouth), before my father moved to London (he was working on the railway) where he married my mother and where I was born.

I had heard of the spelling Sceviour and have seen references on the web-site, but am new to on-line researching and am not sure where to go next without wasting money on all sorts of searches etc that might take me nowhere. I have a feeling that I am going to hit a problem over religion - I am not sure anyone in my family has shown any inclination that way and certainly have not found any baptismal records for William (or his father Martin for that matter), so will probably be a bit slow getting much further - but I'll keep trying.

Cheers

Dave

Good morning, Dave:

I use various online search engines to ferret out information on names, surnames, etc.

Here is a simple one you may have already used - that is useful in searching records mostly relating to Newfoundland.

Go to the bottom of the "Newfoundland Grand Banks" homepage - you will see a Google Search block.

Type in the word 'Seviour', and you will get approximately 121 hits. Scroll down through them and you might find something relating to your family. The names Martin Seviour and William Seviour do show up in the late 1800's.

Do the same using the word 'Sceviour', and you will get approximately 200 hits.

And do the same using the spelling 'Sevier' and you will get about 104 hits.

You can use other search engines and repeat the process - using key words such as "Seviour Newfoundland", for example.

Trust this helps you to some extent.

Milt

There were Sceviours/Seiviers/ Savions/Siviers in the St. John's area as far back as early 1800s. Garland Sceviour married Margaret Martin, daughter of Thomas. No marriage found online yet.

She is listed as Margaret Savion in the will of Thomas Martin http://ngb.chebucto.org/Wills/martin-thomas-1-468.shtml and this may be a transcription issue.

First child of Garland and Margaret was Ann who later married William Dowden.

Vital Statistics Vol 26B (Part 2) 1813-1815
Anglican Cathederal of St. John the Baptist
1796 - 1848 Baptisms

Anne SIVIER (SCEVIOUR)
daughter of Garland & Margaret
b June 1 1813 bap Aug 1 1813

http://ngb.chebucto.org/Vstats/vs-26b-a ... -stj.shtml

Geoff Martin
Calgary

Hi Dave

I have a substantial file on the Sceviours of the Exploits area, Notre Dame Bay
that I would be happy to share. Do you have a rough year of birth for your
g-gf William?

Jill Marshall

I don't know if this will help, but there's a Martin SCEVIOUR here who would be about the right age to have fathered William b. 1879.

http://www.alden-bugden.ca/phpgedview/d ... bugden.ged

Ian Roberts

Hi Dave

I also have sceviours in my family tree that were born around the Notre Dame Bay Area if you think I can be of any help please contact me. There are six different Williams in my tree.

Macduder

Thanks for the new posts. Ihaven't got back sooner as I've just got back from holiday - including a brief visit to Newfoundland. Brief visits to St Anthony/L'Anse aux Meadows, Bonavista and St Johns - hopefully will get back for longer i th enot too distant future - it looked a lovely place and the people were all really hospitable.

So, thanks again and I'll update on any progress.

Kind regards

Dave