Family For Whom I Am Grateful, November 21, 2012

The Pilgrims made seven times 

more graves than huts. 

No Americans have been more impoverished 

than these who, nevertheless, 

set aside a day of thanksgiving.

~H.U. Westermayer

Hello Family and Friends,

Greetings to all of you on this day before Thanksgiving.

My Cousin Kim Clark. I am thankful for many things today. For one, I am thankful that my cousin Kim Clark is doing better after her cancer surgery last month. She lives in Blue Springs, Missouri with her husband Jeff and family. The first picture shows Kim and Jeff in a picture that was taken earlier this year.

Kim wrote to me recently: I am healing well. Still sleep a lot but down to ibuprofen for pain med.  I'm still restricted to no lifting or house work :( lol.  Such a relief to be cancer free. That was scary there for a while.

Best wishes to Kim for good health and a continued speedy recovery.

The Nitpickers Among Us. I am also grateful for people who read this blog, in particular those who read it with a keen eye.

My son Nathan pointed out to me an error in my last post. I got the date wrong on one of the wives of our ancestor Arent Isaacsen van Hoeck (1623-1697) who I wrote about in my last blog entry. Arent was a 17th century Dutch immigrant to New York who had, over the course of his lifetime, 6 different wives. He married his third wife in New York in 1660. I wrote that he married her in 1860, which was an obwious misteak. The marvel is that Nate would even find it! (And my aunt Thelma thought she was the only nitpicker among us!)

Those Who Have Given So Much. I am also thankful for ancestors I have never met, like my 9x Ggrandparents Arent Isaaczsen van Hoeck and his wife Styntie Laurens. Despite great hardship, they and others like them, boldly immigrated to this country from places like The Netherlands and began families that we are now part of, all these generations later. 

The quote at the top regarding pilgrims who built 7 times more graves than huts, puts the efforts of our earliest ancestors in perspective. Arent and Styntie weren't pilgrims, but they lived at about the same time. Their willingness to help settle this new world required more from them than they ever could have imagined. Thank God for them! 

I am also grateful for more recent family members who lived through the dust bowl days of the 1930s in Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas and Colorado. I mention this because this past week the new Ken Burns' TV documentary on the dust bowl appeared on PBS stations around the country. Did you see it? If not, look for it to be shown again some time. The dust bowl was devastating for many of our kinfolk and was one of the reasons some of our family, including my grandparents, moved to the West Coast in the 1930s and 40s.

The second picture, which was handed down to me from my father, shows an approaching dust storm. On the back of the picture is written, "April, 1935, Two Buttes, Colorado." Select this link to read a previous blog entry about the dust bowl and the personal memories of some family members.
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Steve

"Call Upon God to Give a Sign", Tuesday, November 14, 2012

He who has no fools, knaves, 

or beggars in his family 

was begot by a flash of lightning.

~Old English proverb

Hello Family and Friends,

Greetings to all of you from San Diego where Cindy and I have recently returned after a few weeks away. One of the places we visited was Egypt. The first picture shows Cindy and I in front of the famous Sphinx and the Pyramid of Giza, near Cairo, Egypt. Select this link to see other pictures of our trip.

John Pouty Williams. This Friday is the 206th anniversary of the birthday of John Pouty Williams (1806- 1898), a most interesting person in our family tree. He is the  great grandfather of my grand mother Bura Davis Shepard (1896-1986). The lives of John Williams and my grandmother Bura overlapped by a mere 2 years, just long enough for him to bounce her on his knee near the end of his life, a life which spanned almost the entire 19th century. 

He was a transition person in our family tree. Born in Spencer County, Kentucky in 1806, his father died in 1813. His widowed mother soon thereafter took John and her other children and moved westward and settled near the town of Spencer in Owen County, Indiana. Here is a blog entry where you can read more about John Pouty Williams and his family. The second picture shows John Pouty's grave in Pleasant Grove Cemetery near Spencer, Indiana.

I have encountered quite a number of people who are descendants of his during my online family research. One such person who I have recently begun corresponding with is Cherie Harris of North Carolina, a GGgrandchild of Matilda Jane Williams, the sister of John Pouty. She has also done research into our Williams kinfolk and has traced our ancestry through John Pouty's maternal grandmother Elizabeth van Hook Warford. 

Arent Isaacszen Van Hoeck. According to Cherie, the van Hook family line in America goes back to Arent Isaacszen Van Hoeck (1623-1697), who migrated with his wife Geertje Everts to New Amsterdam (New York), from Amsterdam, Netherlands in the spring of 1655 or 1656.

Genealogical records in New York document Arent's penchant for having wives who died. His first wife Sara died in The Netherlands in 1652. His second wife Geertje who had migrated with him to New Amsterdam, died in an Indian raid (or so it was rumored). He married a third time around 1660, but this wife also died (her name and fate remain unknown). 

Call Upon God to Give a Sign. Records indicate that in 1665 in New York, New York, at the Old Dutch Reformed Church, Arent married Styntie Laurens (my 9x Ggrandmother). In 1682, Styntie (wife #4) after having given Arent 5 children, died very suddenly. As a result the local constable, two magistrates and two doctors went to their home to examine her body. There was nothing obvious to indicate foul play by Arent or anybody else. Arent was, however, ordered to place his hand on her chest and call upon God Almighty to give a sign if he were guilty of his wife's death. When nothing happened, Arent was declared innocent. (Dutch Court Records of Kingston cited in New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, 70 (1939): 365). 

9x Grandpa Arent's marrying days were still not finished. In 1685 he married Elizabeth Stevens in New York, New York. Her fate remains unknown. Finally he married Maria Van Hobocken in 1695 or 1696, also in New York, New York. About 1697, Arent Isaacszen van Hoeck died, in his mid 70's, having had 6 different wives, most of whom met untimely deaths while married to him.

It is hard to know what to make of Grandpa Arent and his many wives. After 315 years it is impossible to know anything more than what the record states. Nonetheless, thanks to cousin Cherie Harris for this information about our common ancestor Arent Isaacszen van Hoeck, a colorful character to be sure, and one more immigrant in our family tree.

The following is the lineage of my youngest grandchild William Quincy Shepard through John Pouty Williams, to Dutch immigrant Arent and his wife Styntie Laurens van Hoeck: 

• Arent Isaacszen van Hoeck (1623-1697), who married Styntie Laurens, the parents of
• Laurens van Hook (1670-1724), who married Johanna Smith, parents of
• Hendrick van Hook (1700-1750), who married Deborah Parent, parents of
• Benjamin van Hook (1726-?), who married Lydia ?, parents of
• Elizabeth van Hook (1746-1805), who married Henry Warford, the parents of
• Lydia Warford (1782-1829), who married John Williams, the parents of
• John Pouty Williams (1806-1898), who married Sara Richardson, the parents of
• Margaret Frances Williams (1845-1904), who married William Spear, the parents of
• Caroline Matilda Spear (1861-1951), who married James Brooks Davis, the parents of
• Bura Davis Shepard (1896-1986), who married William Shepard, the parents of
• Eugene William Shepard (1921-2003), who married Maida Imogene Gower, the parents of
• Steven Dale Shepard (b. 1948), who married Cindy Harris, the parents of
• Nathan William Shepard (b. 1977), who married Chenda Sou, the parents of
• William Quincy Shepard (b. 2012)

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Steve