Comings and Goings, March 9, 2013

My soul longs for your dwelling place

and to see you face to face.

~Becky Davis

Hello Family and Friends,

Greetings to all of you from cool and rainy San Diego. This coming Wednes- day is the Birthday of my brother Russell Shepard and his son Steven Paul Shepard, who were both born March 13. Russ and Steve live in Anacortes, Washington. Happy Birthday to both of them!

The first composite picture shows Russ and Steve with Russ' mother Maida Shepard.

Becky Davis (1938-2013). I received word from cousin Bud Davis that his sister Becky Davis of Bartlesville, Oklahoma passed away just this past Thursday. Becky was a niece of my grandmother Bura Davis Shepard and a great lover of family history. Over the 5 years that I have written this blog Becky has corresponded with me several times and has been a great resource for her part of our family. 

The second picture taken in 2009 shows Becky in the middle with her sisters Jessie, Charlotte and Kathryn, and with cousin Dane Shepard.

Bud: Becky passed away this morning [Thursday] approximately 10 a.m. Her family, the hospice nurse and her minister were with her at the time of passing. One of the last requests was for us to read from Psalms including Psalm 23. We are sad to lose Becky but know she is singing and laughing in her unique way in heaven with the Lord.

Recently when attending a class at church on Psalms, the class members were asked to write a psalm of their own much like David did. The following is what she wrote:

My soul longs for your dwelling place and to see you face to face.  
As wonderful as earth is and all the things you give us to enjoy, 
there are times when pain and trouble overwhelm me.
I long for you.

Forgive me and give me peace 
and help me know that others are hurting more than I am, 
and think of your loving kindness, righteousness and justice 
and to be at peace.
I love you.

Our prayers and best wishes are with all Becky's family in this time of loss.

Irish Eyes Are Smiling. This month of Saint Patrick's Day I plan to mention in each blog post at least one of the Irish immigrants that are in our family tree. One of our most recent ancestors to immigrate to America from Ireland was James Spear (1768-1821) who is a relative of both Becky Davis and me. 

James Spear came from County Armaugh, (Northern) Ireland to Pennsyl- vania as a young man, probably in the 1780s, and married an American woman named Elizabeth Mcconnahaw in 1788. (With a name like Mcconnahaw, she may have been Irish herself, but I have no evidence for that.) Their grandson William Spear, born in Pennsylvania in 1832, eventually moved westward and settled in Owen County, Indiana where he met and married Margaret Frances Williams. William and Margaret's oldest child was Caroline Matilda Spear who married fellow hoosier James Brooks Davis, the grandfather of both Becky Davis and my father Eugene Shepard. 

A number of Spear descendants of immigrant James Spear settled near Spencer, Owen County, Indiana. Two years ago Cindy and I visited the Spear Cemetery, a few miles from Spencer, Indiana where laid to rest are a number of our ancestors, who are descendants of Irishman James and Elizabeth Spear. The third picture shows the peaceful Spear Cemetery outside Spencer, Indiana. (Read more HERE about this cemetery and our visit there.)
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Steve Shepard

Shepard Family Update, March 12, 2010

.
You've got to do your own growing,
no matter how tall your grandfather was.
--Irish Proverb

Hello Shepard Family and Friends,

Greetings to all of you from home in San Diego, as winter fades away and the new life of spring grows near.

Birthday Wishes. Happy Birthday tomorrow to my brother Russell Shepard, and his son Steven Paul Shepard, who were both born on the same day of the year, March 13. Russ and his wife Pam, as well as Steve and his sister Linda, live in Anacortes, Washington. Russ works for Dakota Creek Industries in Anacortes, while Steve (who is turning 20!) is enjoying his first year after High School Graduation. The first picture I am including shows Steven and Russ Shepard back in 1996.

Last week I mentioned an email I received from Larry Davis, one of my dad's first cousins. I mistakenly said that Larry lives in Dallas, Texas. Though all three of their daughters live in the Dallas area, Larry and his wife Sheila are long time residents of Amarillo, Texas.

Happy Birthday this Sunday to Jerry Clark, who has been a part of our family ever since he and my late sister Linda Shepard were married while students at Lubbock Christian University back in 1970, when he was a spry 20 year old. Jerry still makes his home in Lubbock, Texas, now with wife Cathrina, with whom he will celebrate a 4th anniversary next month. Jerry's birthday this year is a big one that ends in "0". Congratulations on such an auspicious milestone! The second picture, taken in San Diego in 1999, shows Jerry with Maida Shepard (middle) and Nola (Shannon) Gower.

Family and Media. I saw the first episode of the family history TV program last Friday evening, "Who Do You Think You Are?" and was pleasantly impressed. It was not just a shameless promotional for Ancestry.com. There were plenty of advertisements for that particular website, but I found this episode to be a very entertaining and interesting story about one person's search for their roots. It reminded me of some of the inspiring and surprising discoveries I have made in recent years researching our family. The series continues for several more Friday evenings on NBC. As they say, "Check your local listings." 

Roberta (Owens) Brooks, a reader of these emails (and a 3rd cousin by way of William Shepard's mother Elvira Owens) emailed me to say, "I did view 'Who Do You Think You Are' on Friday. It was good for someone who doesn't currently do genealogy and is interested in getting started. There is another program on PBS (on my area on Wednesday at 8:00) called 'Faces of America'.  It is also about tracing your family and I think it is far more interesting because it goes into more depth about the celebrity they are profiling. Henry Louis Gates (I think he is from Harvard) is the host and is very thorough. He includes historical happenings of the time as they affect the family. Check it out. I love reading your emails -- keep up the good work."

Irish Eyes. Most of us have some Irish blood in us, probably from more than one family line. Here are two of mine:

• James Brooks Davis married a young woman named Caroline (Callie) Spear, whose Ggrandfather, James Spear (1768-1821) was an Irishman. Born in County Armaugh, Ireland he left his homeland for Belmont County, Ohio, where he lived out his days with his American born wife Elizabeth McConnahaw.
•  My maternal grandmother was born with the very Irish name of Nola Agnes Shannon (see her in the picture above). But it was nearly 200 years previous to her birth in 1903 that her GGGgrandparents Thomas and Eigness (Reid) Shannon (both with the dates 1686-1737) brought their Irish heritage to America and settled in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

You may be able to trace your heritage to other Irish immigrants. But regardless of how much Irish blood you carry, Happy Saint Patrick's Day this coming Wednesday! When you are having a green one this week, think of James and Thomas and Eigness. (How in the world do you pronounce "Eigness"?)
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Steve

Shepard Family Update, July 4

Dear Family members and friends,

Hello on this July 4th mid-summer holiday! I hope you are all able to enjoy this day with family and friends. Cindy and I are doing something a little different this year -- enjoying a quiet holiday at home alone. Nathan is vacationing in Southeast Asia -- of all places! -- but will be home in time for the three of us to go to Anacortes in two weeks for the family reunion.

Fascinating Family Fact: Did you know? On this July 4th holiday it is interesting to note that our family has been almost entirely rooted in the U.S. since before its founding in 1776. Drive around any U.S. town or city today and you will see a large percentage of citizens who are first or second generation Americans. And the number is growing rapidly. But of all the family roots that converge into Will and Bura Shepard, the one that winds its way back to another country first is traced through Gram's (Bura Davis') mother, Caroline Spear (see pictures of her in messages dated June 6 and June 20). Her great grandfather was an Irishman named James Spear, born in County Armaugh, Ireland in 1768.

James Spear came to the U.S. as a young man -- probably not long after 1776. He married an American born woman from Delaware named Elizabeth McConnahaw, had 12 children with her (!), and eventually died in Belmont County, Ohio in 1821. He is the first person I can find among all the ancestors of Will and Bura Shepard who was born in another country. In other words, you have to go back 240 years -- before there was a United States -- to find a single ancestor in Will and Bura's family tree born in another country. To me this is pretty amazing. And we are talking here about ALL the ancestors of Will and Bura, going back four generations before them. The amount of U.S. history experienced first hand by these ancestors is staggering. It covers the entire history of our nation -- every president, every war, every milestone, every single July 4th holiday ever celebrated.

Now to be sure, there are a few gaps in the information I have on the roots of our family, especially in Grandad's (William Shepard's) paternal line before the civil war. So there may be an exception to what I'm saying, but it's unlikely. This, of course, refers only to the ancestors of Will and Bura Shepard. We each have other ancestors named Gower or Boyd or Russell, etc., who are are a different story altogether.

Family Faces: I am including two family pictures. The first is a picture that Dane sent me a while back, taken at a family gathering, probably in Valley Center (near Escondido, Calif.) at the home of Rod and Violet Ramirez. Left to right in the picture are: Gary and Cindy Shepard; Bill and Pauline Russell; Carl, Phil and Shannon Wilk; Steve, Cindy and Nathan Shepard; and Dane Shepard. I am guessing the year this picture was taken is 1983 or 84, based on Nathan, who looks to be 6 or 7. Can any of you make a better guess?

The other is a picture of 5 of Maida Shepard's grandkids in Anacortes, Washington. Taken in the summer of 2002, it shows -- starting from the bottom left -- Steven, Rachel, Patrick, Linda and Christopher Shepard. Steven and Linda are children of Russ and Pam Shepard; and Rachel, Pat and Chris are children of Darrell and Mary Shepard.

Celebrations: Congratulations to Jerry Clark and to Jane Brock on the birth of their third grandchild last Saturday! Miller Sims Cave was born to Matthew and Becky Clark Cave in Weatherford, Texas.
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Steve