Category: Shepard

A generation gone…

On By jenbumannIn death, junior, obituary, Shepard, williamLeave a comment

On Monday, December 15th my last grandparent passed away. William Atkinson Shepard, jr. He was 94 years old. Only few weeks short of being 95.

Bill, as he was known by family, was the son of William Atkinson Shepard, sr. and Rachel Hays. He was born in Ohio spending his formative years there and first saw my future grandmother, Lois Shaw, while sitting in church one day.

He joined the US Army Air Corps (which eventually became the United States Air Force), on June 12, 1942 during World War II.

Bill and Lois had 5 children. The first, William Gerald, didn’t live but a day after being born. Lawrence Alan died in a car accident in 1978 after being hit by a driver who fell asleep at the wheel.

I am sorry that I didn’t know my grandparents better, but travel and distance made it difficult. My favorite memory of my grandfather is his stories, he was a great story teller, certainly not a skill I inherited. He would open the trunk in the attic of their house on Sugar Hill in Maine and pull out stories of Brer Rabbit and that briar patch and read them to me and my brother and sister.

Like my grandmother he donated his body to science.

I can’t really find the words to memorialize my grandfather with, but I do have pictures. So here are a few of my favorites. Starting with Bill and Lois looking so young, starting their life out together.

 
Grandfather and Grandmother with Sue and Ken, the eldest two.

This is grandfather in Korea.

My favorite picture of me and my grandfather, this would have been about 1963.

Patience is a virtue…

On By jenbumannIn dagguereotype, hartley, james, ShepardLeave a comment

Although I have to admit, I am not a virtuous person. In this case the patience I have lacked hasn’t mitigated the length of time is has taken to finally find a photograph of one of my ancestors. A photograph I have been looking forward to seeing for the last 15 years.

This is what patience looks like

This folks is a picture of Hartley Shepard. And a big hug and thanks goes out to my cousin Doug Shepard for sending this to me.

He also send me a picture of two other Shepard family members. One is of a daughter-in-law, the other is James Shepard who was 20 years younger than his brother Elza, my ancestor.

You will notice that the background in the above two pictures is the same. Here’s some interesting pictures to see:

These are unlabeled pictures in our own collection. I believe that the couple on the right is William Buchanan and his wife Margaret Mobley, Jane Buchanan’s parents. Jane married Elza Shepard. I have no idea who the other gentlemen is.

The following unlabeled family images are also daguerreotypes, possibly taken around the same time. The gentleman sitting in the chair looks a lot like James Shepard in the picture above:

I have to say this post was a long time coming. Thanks again Doug and thanks to your Aunt too.

Looking over the family tree…

On By jenbumannIn atkinson, buchanan, cousins, elza, Shepard, smithLeave a comment

This morning I was looking over my family tree chart to get a feel for how it was looking these days,  (and I must say, my efforts have filled it out pretty well in the last few years), when I realized that my great great grandparents Elza Shepard and Jane Buchanan were second cousins. Susan Smith, who married Hartley Shepard, was the daughter of Catharine Atkinson, William A. Buchanan was the son of Rebecca Atkinson, sister of Catharine. Susan’s son Elza married William’s daughter Jane.

That also means we descend from James Atkinson and Margaret Brown twice. Not an unusual occurrence at all, but one I just realized.

Elza Shepard and Jane Buchanan, 2nd cousins, my great great grandparents on my maternal size. They are sitting on chairs that are on an incline. Hilly country in West Virginia.

Baseball, hotdogs, apple pie…

On By jenbumannIn baseball, chicago white sox, clarence, John, ShepardLeave a comment

We have a couple of pictures in our family of my grandfather, Clarence John, that are a pretty classic American theme:

Clarence John, sometime between 1916-1928 in Wisconsin.

He is clearly wearing a Chicago White Sox uniform. Family rumor had it he played for a farm team for a short while. Unfortunately, I can find no record of Clarence playing for a farm team or for the White Sox. I checked with the Baseball Hall of Fame. It is possible he played for a local team that took on the name of the White Sox. Although I find that idea, passed on to me by an acquaintance, not very likely.

He does look cute in his uniform though.

On the same theme here is a Shepard relative with his baseball team, this one is in West Virginia:

One of the Shepard boys with his ball team, he is front row second from left. It could be my great-grandfather William Shepard, Sr., but I would have to confer with Mother about that.

A little spit goes a long way…

On By jenbumannIn bumann, cain, dna, FAMILYTREEDNA, John, myOrigins, ShepardLeave a comment

This week FamilyTreeDNA announced their new ‘myOrigins’ which is, according to their website, the new version of their DNA Population Finder. This is the test that gives you your ethnic makeup. If you had the FamilyFinder test done previously, then you will automatically see the new results. Apparently they have updated their database, so the percentages and breakdowns of one’s results, in some cases, will have changed slightly.

I have already seen one change, the 5% JOHN result that had Palestinian/Jewish/Bedouin is no longer there. But now I see Spanish/Italian/Greek in the mix instead, which is also seen with William Shepard’s results. Interestingly Bill has a slight bit of Middle Eastern showing up now, and no Germanic whatsoever. I highly suggest you click on the images to see them larger.

Vic’s results show very little of his German ancestry, but lots of his mother’s Norwegian and, possibly, George Hamm’s unknown father’s Northern Mediterranean heritage, (which probably showed up as the Jewish background before the update). There is also a bit of the JOHN’s Trans-Ural Plains.

Bill has mostly English/Irish/Scottish with good percentage of Northern Mediterranean thrown in, and that smudge of Middle Eastern, maybe the latter two came from the Roman empire’s invasion of the British Isles.

For myself, it looks like I got mostly the German DNA with about equal amounts Irish/English/Scottish and Norwegian. The surprise for me is seeing the Finnish added in the mix with our Norwegian, although I am not sure why I should be surprised.

Now for those Bumann relatives. No surprise here, with a guy who is half German and half Polish, these results were pretty well expected.

I didn’t put Robert Cain’s results on here because he is only related to us on one side of his family, the Cain side, so I don’t know what part of the results would be from his mother and what part his father.

Personally I find the new way of presenting the data very organic and more comprehensive, also colorful. And as purple is my favorite color, I am glad to see lots of it on the maps, even if it’s not on mine.

The study of the origins of the human race has always been of interest to me. As far back as high school I was most interested in those classes that taught DNA and Anthropology. Reading about the breakthroughs in science, that are helping us understand where we come from, has been a fascinating journey these last few years. And it seems that more and more of these breakthroughs are coming out everyday. I am glad that I am able to participate in the ride and I thank those of you who have joined me by donating your spit.

Science Rocks!

Ahh Politics…

On By jenbumannIn griswold, lyon, ShepardLeave a comment

Who said fun couldn’t be had in Congress. Proof that the business of politics really is a circus.

Political Cartoon, 1798 

The above cartoon was created from an incident that occurred in Congress in February of 1798 Here is Mr. William Shepard’s testimony of the event:

Source: Breach of privileges. Communicated to the House of Representatives, February 20, 1798.Date: 1798-02-20; Publication: American State Papers 037, Miscellaneous Vol. 1; Report: Publication No. 104; page 176. Click on images if you need them bigger.

If you wish to read more about this incident, all you have to do is search for “griswold lyon” and you will find all you would need or want to know about it.

Ah…the tropics!

On By jenbumannIn 1950, passenger, puerto rico, Shepard, shipLeave a comment

Right about now I am almost be temped to kill to get to a warm clime. The weather lately has been crazy cold. Winter has definitely not been shy about letting itself be felt this season.

So to bring warm thoughts I am posting this fun document for my mother. It is a passenger list of her and her siblings along with her mother arriving in New York from Puerto Rico in 1950.

Margaret Shepard is my mother in this passenger list, her mother is Lois. You can see that David, the youngest, was born in Puerto Rico. The image is from Ancestry.com [Year: 1950; Arrival: New York, New York; Microfilm Serial: T715; Microfilm Roll: 7812; Line: 10; Page Number: 94].

‘et by sharks…

On By jenbumannIn shark attack, Shepard, williamLeave a comment

Shortly after settling on the Connecticut river in the latter part of the 1600s, William Shepard was out on a boat in Boston Harbor with William Lee.

“He was shortly after overset in a boat…and while swimming by the side of William, had his thigh bitten in two by a shark, and was pulled under the water. He arose and said he was dead man, for a shark had bitten off his thigh. Lee heard the shark give one more snap and saw him no more.”

I will assume this is why none of our Shepards are sailors.

Some say this story is pure fabrication, who knows. It certainly makes for a more interesting story than the fact that his wife divorced him for desertion and that’s why he wasn’t around.

Society of the Cincinnati…

On By jenbumannIn massachusetts, revolutionary war, Shepard, society of the cincinnatiLeave a comment

I have been doing a little reading about Shay’s Rebellion. Why you ask? Well as my ancestor General William Shepard was one of the major players in this incident, I thought it might be relevant to my research.

I won’t be going into the rebellion as this time, but in my reading of the incident I ran across an interesting tidbit about William. He was a member of the Society of the Cincinnati.

The Anderson House where the Society’s archives and main branch resides.

According to Wikipedia and the Society’s own website this organization was created in 1783  at the Continental Army encampment at Newburgh, New York. The concept was started by Henry Knox and would consist of only those officers who has served 3 years and were above a certain rank. It is the nation’s oldest patriotic organization, founded by officers of the Continental Army and their French counterparts who served together in the American Revolution. Its mission was to promote knowledge and appreciation of the achievement of American independence and to foster fellowship among its members.

William joined the Massachusetts group.

There was some controversy when the organization first started as many Americans were fearful that the group was trying to create an hereditary aristocracy. The group was a bit shocked by the accusations, and decided to change a few of it’s policy’s and rules to alleviate some of the fears of the American citizens, the main one being it’s restriction of hereditary membership to the eldest son.

The group continues to this day. If you want to read more about them check out wiki or go to their web site: http://societyofthecincinnati.org/.

Great expectations…

On By jenbumannIn 1940, census, John, ohio, Shepard, wisconsinLeave a comment

Well it finally arrived. The 1940 census, 72 years after the fact.

Day one of research – total server meltdown. After a few hours I just said fugetaboudit. Day two – better luck, I managed to acquire a couple of records. Day three – much better access, found a few more records and only a few more to go. By Friday I had pretty much found all the records I will be able to. The only missing one is of course, Fred Hamm, my wandering vagabond.

So for your viewing pleasure the 1940 census for Clarence and Mytle John:

This census shows Clarence, Myrtle, Claire, Victor and Carol all living in Laona, Wisconsin. My one hope for this record was to see if Clarence was listed as having worked for one of the Government programs like the WPA or CCC, unfortunately there is just a dash in the box. Clarence was also one of the two people on a page that were asked extra questions in this particular census. The only item of interest to me was his occupation was listed as forestry and government work. So maybe because he wasn’t one of the unemployed men working for the WPA or CCC, he isn’t listed as working for either program, even though he was but in a different capacity.

Next is William and Lois Shepard:

In this census you can see that Lois and William are living with William’s parent’s William and Rachel in Genoa Township, Delaware County, Ohio. This is just north of the Westerville area. None of the Shepard children are born yet, looks like we will have to wait another 10 years for the next census.

So I am pretty much done looking for relatives in this census. Carrie Cain is still around as is Eliza Hays. I even found Emil Hamm in Duluth, while looking for Carrie/Kari Amundson. Fred Hamm is my only fly in the ointment. I checked the complete census for Shawano County,Wisconsin as that was his last place of residence in the 1930 census, but that was a bust. No surprise there. Looks like I will have to wait for the indexing to be done.