My Shepard & John Ancestors

Here I present my ancestors. With the caveat that future research could change 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 emigrate to America arrived on a steamship from Germany in 1873.

Our ancestry is definitely a melting pot of cultures covering: Irish, Scottish, English, German, Prussian, French, Norwegian, Welsh, Walloon, and Dutch. No doubt, further back in time it is even more diverse. I have found murderers, soldiers, farmers, royalty, slavers, merchants, carpenters, doctors, thieves and bigamists. All of which makes for fascinating and sometimes very eye-opening research.

So come on in and explore!

(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. The original is black and white, this has been colorized at MyHeritage.)

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 greedily hidden and hoarded in boxes in the closet.

Another benefit to digitizing these images is the 'in case of disaster' scenario, something that will, cross your fingers, never happen. I am also hoping that distant cousins will help identify people in the images--and this has actually happened a few times! These photos can be found at my FLICKR site. They are all high resolution and free for anyone to download (just be sure to let folks know where you found them).

VIDEOS -- You can also check out any family related videos, which pop up from time to time, at my YouTube channel. (This is very much 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, HAMM and CAIN DNA surname projects at FamilyTreeDNA. This effort has resulted in our finding the origin of the Shepard line. I have also uploaded the same DNA to LivingDNA, MyHeritage, GEDMatch, and Ancestry. This has helped immensely in confirming some of my research and in pointing me in the proper direction for a few other lines.

BLOG -- Because it is easier to post about my research than to try and publish family history "books", I have a BLOG, otherwise folks would be waiting literally forever for any sort of book publication.