I was taking advantage of the free access to Newspapers.com over the weekend while doing some family history research for a friend. Her 2X great-grandmother, Abigail Evans, was born in County Louth in 1833. Abigail and her younger brother Robert joined their father in Canada in 1851. Siblings Abigail Evans Morden and Robert H. Evans remained close as adults and ultimately settled with their spouses and children near Spearfish, South Dakota, where Abigail died in 1899.

Applying cluster research to learn more about the Evans family, I queried “Robert Evans” on Newspapers.com. My curiosity was piqued when I saw an article dated 8 July 1907 in the Sioux Falls Argus Leader with this dateline, “That Long-Lost Uncle Fell There—Will Inherit Portion of Land Grant Made by Texas to Heirs of Heroes.”

I was drawn in further when I read the opening lines: “Spearfish, July 8—(Special to the Argus-Leader)—R. H. Evans, a well-known resident of this place, has within the past few days ascertained the fate of an uncle whose whereabouts and fate had been a mystery to surviving members of his family for considerably more than half a century.”

The article went on to tell the story of the “heroes who fell during the massacre of the Alamo,” including Robert Evans, the uncle (or great-uncle) of Robert H. Evans and his deceased sister.

Back to the clipping for more fascinating details: “The uncle of the South Dakota man was named Robert Evans, and came from Ireland to Canada about 1830. The Evans family are of Welsh descent, although born in Ireland. When the South Dakota member of the family went from Ireland to Canada, he was only a small boy, but he remembers having heard his father inquire about Robert Evans, who had preceded them across the ocean. All that could be learned of Robert Evans was that he had departed for New Orleans…

That was the last trace any member of the family secured of Robert Evans until a few days ago…By the merest accident the South Dakota man secured possession of a newspaper published at Gonzalez, Tex., in which was reprinted an account of the battle of the Alamo, together with a list of the heroes who fell there, and in the list appeared the name of Robert Evans, whose former residence was given as Ireland.

The South Dakota man, by establishing that it was his uncle who fell with the other heroes at the Alamo, as one of his heirs will be entitled to an interest in a land grant of 1400 acres of Texas land, which was assigned to all soldiers from that state who were massacred by Santa Anna and his troops at the Alamo.”

Was Robert Evans able to prove his familial relationship to the Alamo hero with the same name? Did he inherit a big Texas spread? We don’t know yet. I’m dubious. It seems my friend would have heard the story before if Uncle Robert had been successful in seeking this inheritance.

And along the way I learned something about Welsh names: Robert Evans is roughly equivalent to John Smith. “The woods were full of them,” as an Irish cousin-once-removed quipped to my husband about a common surname.