My Shepard & John Ancestors

Here I present my ancestors, with the caveat that future research could make changes to what is currently thought to be true. The majority of our ancestral history in America goes back to its very early colonization by Europeans. (I have yet to find a Mayflower ancestor though.) Our last emigrant to come to America arrived in 1873 from Germany, on a steamship. Certainly a quicker and more luxurious manner than those who had arrived before him.

Our ancestry is a very mixed bag of cultures covering: Irish, Scottish, English, German, Prussian, French, Norwegian, Welsh, Walloon, and Dutch. I have found murderers, soldiers, farmers, royalty, slavers, merchants, carpenters, doctors, thieves and adulterers. All of which makes for fascinating and sometimes very eye-opening research.

(The image above is a Shepard family reunion from our family photos. All the older Shepard siblings are in the middle surrounded by their spouses, kids, grandkids, etc.)

PICTURES -- Along with my genealogical research I am also endeavoring to properly preserve and share all the family's photographs. This project is very important to me, because I believe that we are only the caretakers of these artifacts, and they should be shared with everyone, not hidden in boxes in the closet. Another benefit to digitizing these images is the 'in case of disaster' scenario, something that will, hopefully, never happen. I am also hoping that distant cousins will help identify people in the images--this has actually netted a few results. These photos can be found at my FLICKR site. They are all high resolution and downloadable. For a 'pic hit' a day see my instagram account "jenbumann" #jensancestors.

VIDEOS -- You can also check out any family related videos, which pop up from time to time, at my YouTube channel. (This is a work in progress.)

DNA -- In an effort to keep up with modern genealogical research techniques, I have managed to coerce several family members into donating their spit for DNA research. We are currently members of the JOHN, SHEPARD, and CAIN DNA surname projects at FamilyTreeDNA. This effort has resulted in our finding the probable origin of the Shepard line.

BLOG -- Because it is easier to journal my research progress than to try and publish family history "books", I have a BLOG, otherwise folks would be waiting forever between book publications.