Happy Saint Patrick's Day! March 17, 2015

Always remember to forget

The things that made you sad.

But never forget to remember

The things that made you glad.

~old Irish blessing

Happy Saint Patrick's Day! The first picture I am including was posted earlier today on Facebook by Rachel Shepard, the mother of this little fellow with the very Irish name of Kellan Shepard. He is one of the very youngest descendants of the Irish immigrants mentioned below.

My grandmother Nola Shannon Gower (1903-2004) was the most Irish person I have ever known in our family. There are numerous persons in her family tree -- probably more than she ever knew about -- who were Irish immigrants who came to America long before she was ever born. Even though she was very Irish and proud of that fact, I do not remember her ever being particularly interested in Saint Patrick's Day. As a country girl from small town Arkansas in the early 20th century, her people were hard working, pious Baptists, who never got very excited about things.

Saint Patrick himself was Catholic, and the celebrations of his day are often given to excessive drinking, two things not highly valued in the lives of most of our Arkansas ancestors.

Even so, today is a day to celebrate our Irish heritage. Numerous ancestors of ours took great risks by sailing across the Atlantic and journeying to America with high hopes for a better life. They are folks like Thomas and Eigness Shannon who came from Londonderry about 1700, and James Alexander and family who came from Raphoe in northern Ireland in the late 1600s; and folks like John and Lucy Maxwell also from northern Ireland in the mid 1600s; and Robert and Mary Alexander who came from Scotland also in the 17th century.

And then there was William Henry Pickens (1670-1735) originally from La Rochelle, France, who crossed over to Ireland and married an Irishwoman named Margaret Pike. Then, from the town of Limerick in central Ireland, with several children in tow, William and Margaret sailed to America and settled in Bucks County, Pennsylvania near Philadelphia. The second picture has appeared in this blog before, and shows a descendant of these Pickenses, Samuel Pickens Shannon with his wife Finetta Dearien Shannon, parents of my grandmother Nola Shanon Gower.

Happy 16th Birthday this Thursday to Kaylan Shepard of Newcastle, Oklahoma. Kaylan is the youngest of the 21 great grandchildren of William and Bura Davis Shepard, and their last descendant born in the 20th century. 

Kaylan: "I am enjoying my sophomore year of high school by playing volleyball and bowling. I also love the art class I'm taking! Thank you so much for thinking of me! Hope you and your family are doing well! Thanks again, and have a blessed day."

Best wishes to Kaylan and to her family! This picture shows Kaylan (on the left) with a friend of hers, taken last month.
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Steve Shepard

Family Keeps You Going, March 30, 2014

Trials keep you strong,
sorrow keeps you human,
failures keep you humble,
but family keeps you going.

Happy Birthday, Joan! Tomorrow is the birthday of my cousin Joan Shepard, mother of Havilah Wardle, daughter of Elmer and Beryl Shepard and granddaughter of William and Bura Davis Shepard. Joan was born and raised in the San Diego area but lives today in Davis, California. She is the third one in our family who was born in early 1954 and therefore is celebrating an important milestone birthday.

Joan: The years continue to bring blessings. The older I become the more I appreciate all our progenitors and our children--the love and gratitude flows both ways. I still have great health, which is probably a legacy from Bura and William. I remember Granddad Shepard climbing a large, old walnut tree to trim branches when he was in his 80's. We came home that day to find him over 30 feet in the air with a saw in his hand. That's a goal to consider!

A highlight of my year was visiting Havilah and Kevin in South Texas, their current home. It's a delight to be with them and sightsee.  I always learn exponentially when with them. They help me advance into the 21st century, this time with my Christmas gift, a Nook. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to podcasts with them and brought home some favorites for my tablet, "Stuff You Missed in History Class," for example. Being with them is a joy beyond compare no matter what we do. Blessings to everyone... Joan

The first picture (above) shows Joan while she was visiting in Texas last summer. The second picture (below) is an old family photo taken in 1975 in Mira Mesa, just north of San Diego, California at the home of my brother Gary and Jackie Shepard (pictured on the right). Joan is in the middle standing next to our grandparents Bura and William Shepard. Others pictured here are Darrell Shepard (standing to Joan's right), Barbara Shepard holding Kelly Shepard, Darren Boyd, Dane Shepard, Kerri Shepard, Jason Shepard and Kim Boyd. On the ground is Russ Shepard.

Woman of Note: Anna Pickens Shannon. On this last post of March, 2014 (National Women's History Month) I want to highlight one more woman in our family tree: Anna Pickens Shannon.

My GGG grandmother Anna Pickens was born in Abbeville, South Carolina on March 24, 1785 (229 years ago this month!). She was the great granddaughter of French-Irish immigrants William Henry Pickens and his wife Margaret Pike who came to America in 1722 from Limerick, Ireland.

Anna was the child of Andrew and Mary Gillespie Pickens and was born just 2 years after the American Revolution. It was not only a time of fighting the British, but also of dealing with warring American Indians. Her father Andrew Pickens served honorably in the Revolution, while her father's first cousin (also named Andrew Pickens) was a decorated General in the war. Anna Pickens' family has a prominent place in the history of South Carolina, not only because of Abbeville where many kinfolks settled, but also because of the namesake town of Pickens, 60 miles north of Abbeville.

Anna's grandmother was also named Anna Pickens, because her maternal grandfather was a first cousin of her father. This phenomenon of marrying relatives, though not too good for the long range health of the family tree, was fairly common at this particular time in American history.

As a young woman her family migrated a few hundred miles west to the area south of Nashville, Tennessee where she met her husband-to-be, David Shannon. They were married in 1808 and helped populate the American frontier by having a family of 9 children. Sometime after the children were born her family migrated southward to the area near Tupelo in northeastern Mississippi, where she lived the last years of her life. She and husband David are buried in Keyes Cemetery near Tupelo (see photo of Keyes Cemetery by Jonathan Phillips). 

Just as the American Revolution greatly affected Anna's early life, so the Civil War affected her later life. She outlived her son David Reid Shannon, who died in the War between the States as a young family man in Louisiana in 1864. One of Anna and David's grandchildren was my great grandfather Samuel Pickens Shannon (Nola Shannon Gower's father), who was named after his grandmother Anna Pickens Shannon.

You have to give it to Anna: she endured the aftermath of the American Revolution as a child, then moved as a youngster from South Carolina to Tennessee, where she married and bore 9 children on the American frontier, and finally relocated to Mississippi, where she was a Civil War Gold Star Mother for her last years. Even though her life was not too different from many frontier women, her sacrifices were great and her place of honor in our family tree is well deserved. She is remembered with gratitude on this Women's History Month.
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Steve Shepard

A Limerick Limerick, May 1, 2013

An Irishman's heart is nothing but his imagination.

~George Bernard Shaw

Hello to all of you from Limerick, the third largest city in the Republic of Ireland, where Cindy and I and our traveling companions are spending a few days. This was one of the cities from which some of our Irish ancestors sailed to America.

The first picture was taken yesterday from our hotel, situated over the Shannon River which you see here in the morning light. Over the Shannon Bridge moves the modest rush hour traffic as it continues through the Shannonbridge Roundabout on the right. What you can't see is Shannon Street just beyond the buildings on the right. I am guessing that Grandma Nola Shannon Gower would have been impressed.

Her Shannon ancestors were among those who came from Ireland. Dexal Shannon's family history book says that 4 Shannon brothers, sons of Robert Shannon, (including Thomas Shannon, Grandma's 4X Great Grandfather) came to America from Munster, Ireland (where Limerick is located). If they did, they would have sailed away from the docks that were once situated alongside the Shannon River in this first picture. Other genealogical sources say that the Robert Shannon family was from the north of Ireland, having immigrated first from Scotland and then to America, presumably from a northern Irish port. 

There is strong evidence, however, that Grandma Gower's Pickens ancestors did sail to America from Limerick. Willie and Marge Pike Pickens (who were also Grandma Gower's 4X Great Grandparents) and their 6 children made the dangerous voyage which began at the docks on the Shannon River very near where Cindy is standing in the picture below. They crossed the Atlantic in the early 1700s and settled in north Philadelphia. We don't know what motivated them to immigrate, although we do know that Willie Pickens was from France and had probably not been in Ireland very long. There may well have been economic considerations, or perhaps he was simply a wanderer who needed one more adventure.

Marge Pike, on the other hand, may have had strong family ties in the Limerick area. One of the sources I have read here in the Limerick Library says that Pike (also spelled Pyke) was a common Anglo-Irish name in this particular part of the country. 

Being here in Limerick is like stepping back in time, even though there are constant reminders that in the 300 years since the Pickenses left Ireland this land has changed tremendously. 

One of Limerick's claims to fame is the fact that it is often said to be the origin of the familiar (often bawdy) poem style called a limerick. With that in mind, here then is a (not so bawdy) limerick about Limerick.

Here's an ancestral tale that's terrific,
'Bout an Ireland town, name of Limerick,
where our kin sailed away,
in the "new world" to stay,
on a trip that was ever so epic.

Looking back o'er those 300 years,
at their faith and their pain and their tears,
the eight of them showed
in the courage that flowed,
that they merit each one of our cheers.

If we will remember the strain
of those eight family members who gained
their American dreams
from their hopes and their schemes,
then their efforts will not be in vain.

This, then, is their story so fine,
that I've taken great care to outline,
how from Limerick town,
they risked being drowned,
and fashioned a future divine.

- - -
Steve Shepard

"In the End the World Will Break Your Heart", April 8, 2013

To be Irish is to know

that in the end

the world will break your heart.

~Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Hello Family and Friends,

Greetings to all of you from Tampa, Florida where Cindy and I find ourselves today. We are getting ready to board a Carnival Cruise ship that will set sail later today for a trip across the Atlantic to Europe. We are with our friends Papa George and Yaya, experienced world travelers -- and fun people -- who will help make this a memorable experience.

Happy Anniversary! Speaking of memorable, tomorrow is the 7th wedding anniversary of Jerry and Cathrina Clark of Lubbock, Texas who were married back in 2006 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Best wishes to both of them for many more happy years together.

More About the Irish. In my last post I mentioned the family of William and Margaret (Pike) Pickens, ancestors of ours who immigrated to this country from Limerick, Ireland in the early years of the 18th century. 

I told you that two of Willie and Marge's grandchildren (first cousins) married each other, illustrating how some Irish immigrants remained in family clusters and intermarried. Another anomaly of their family is that at least 3 of their children married members of one other family, by the name of Davis.

Their first child, Israel Sidney Pickens, married Martha Davis; their 3rd child, Robert Pike Pickens, married Miriam Davis; and their 4th child, Andrew Pickens, married Nancy Ann Davis. All three Davis girls were presumably children of Church friends George and Lydia Davis. (George's name was spelled "Davice" in Ireland, and became "Davis" in America.) It appears that the Pickenses and the Davises -- both immigrant families -- settled near each other in Pennsylvania, and in three instances their children hooked up with each other.

This reminds me of two of my Grandmother Bura Davis's sisters, Winona and Myra Davis, who married Kilpatrick brothers back in the early 20th century. Curiously, the last name of the women in both instances is the same -- Davis. But the 2 Davis girls married their Kilpatrick boys in Oklahoma, 200 years AFTER the 3 Pickens boys married their Davis girls in Pennsylvania. I have found no indication that these sets of Davis folks -- 200 years separated -- were related. But it certainly is a remarkable coincidence nonetheless.

George and Lydia Davis (the parents of those 3 girls who married the Pickens boys) were Irish immigrants themselves, and can be added to our growing list of immigrant ancestors, with the total now reaching 20. So we can see again that there was such a large number of Irish immigrants in Pennsylvania at this time that they tended to live near one another and in some instances even married within their families.

Two of the aforementioned Irish immigrants who had come over separately, but had met and married each other in the new world, were Israel Sidney Pickens and his wife Martha Davis. They married in Bensalem, Bucks County, Pennsylvania in 1726, but migrated southward beyond Washington, D.C. into Virginia. Israel died in 1749; Martha died in 1774. They are both buried at Cub Creek Cemetery in Charlotte County, southwest of Richmond,Va. (see picture of the cemetery - photo by Cathy Powers).

Here then is a lineage that traces our immigrant ancestors George and Lydia Davis to the present.

George Davis married Lydia Emory, 
their daughter Martha Davis married Israel Sidney Pickens, 
their daughter Anna Pickens married Matthew Gillespie, 
their daughter Mary Gillespie married Andrew Pickens, 
their daughter Anna Pickens married David McKnight Shannon, 
their son David Reid Shannon married Peggy Ann Gray, 
their son Samuel Pickens Shannon married Finetta Dearien, 
their daughter Nola Shannon married Leroy Gower, 
their daughter Maida Gower married Eugene Shepard, 
their son Steve Shepard married Cindy Harris, 
their son Nathan Shepard married Chenda Sou, 
and their younger son is William Quincy Shepard (b. 2012)

Over the next few weeks Cindy and I, with our friends, will be at sea, or traveling around Europe, but I plan to continue these blog posts with information about our Irish heritage. There are still some remarkable family stories to share!
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Steve Shepard