The Shepherds of Killamarsh.
My interest started in researching my family ancestry when my wife started doing our family trees, we started gathering information together, by visiting relatives, and collecting as many old photos of members of our families as we could lay our hands on, and with Shepherd family we came across a photo in our collection which will be 100 years old on the 22nd November this year (2008), of my Grandparent’s wedding, they were William Shepherd born 1887 & Annie Amelia Johnson born 25/12/1889, and they married 22/11/1908.
We also have their original marriage certificate which verifies this date, and also tells us they were married at Killamarsh Parish Church, the photo looks as though it was taken outside in the church grounds, so looking at the photo it made us interested in who the people were in it, because basically we only know who the bride and groom are, from finding the photo we then started our hunt for the Shepherd’s ancestors.
We found out from my cousin Margaret that my Great Grandmother was called Emma Jane Pelucie, of Italian descent, and further research told us her father (my Great Great Grandfather) was called William Pelucie, and Emma was born in West Bromwich, my Great Grandfather was called Albert Shepherd, whose father (my Great Great Grandfather) was called John Shepherd from Killamarsh.
Margaret also told us that my Great Grandparents might have been buried in Killamarsh Parish Church cemetery, so from that information we set off, from our home in Harworth, on our trip to Killamarsh Parish Church. Once we arrived we started looking at the old headstones in the churchyard, and to our amazement we found the grave we were searching for, but what we didn’t expect, was to find that they shared the grave with two of their sons, one of them to my surprise being my Grandfather William Shepherd who is on the wedding photo, I was surprised because I thought that he was buried in France where he died 22nd October 1917 during W.W.1 a war hero attaining the Military Medal, he was only 30 years of age , my father who was also named William was only 18 months old at the time of his father’s death, their other son who was buried with them was Albert who died in 1918 aged 33 years old, sadly both sons died before their parents.
After that visit we decided to go there again, and take some flowers to the grave, only to discover after speaking to John Hall (Reader) and Chris Lambley (Church Warden) inside the church that there was another grave at the side of my Great Grandparents grave belonging to another one of their sons called Fred who died in 1960 aged 65 years old, John Hall then told us that there was another grave for a George and Ethel Shepherd, and suggested they could also be my relatives. We knew straight away that they were, as we had found out through our research that my Grandfather William had four brothers, George born .c.1880, Albert born .c. 1885, Tom born .c.1891, and Fred born .c.1895.
When we were shown where George and Ethel’s grave was, once again we were amazed as we found that Ethel was 6 months past her 100th birthday when she died, and George died on the 9th May 1941 just 10 days before I was born, so we found all my Grandfather’s brothers except for Tom, now the search is on for him.
What we did find when we visited the graves that flowers or wreaths had been put on them, probably last Christmas by the look of the ribbon that was on the wreath on George and Ethel’s grave. It would be nice to get in touch with any other member of the Shepherd family from Killamarsh, they may even have photo of my Grandparents wedding, and be able to shed some light on who the other people on the photo are, I’d be very interested to find out as one of the men looks very much like me, and I would love to know who it is that I look like.
If anyone is related to the Shepherd Family of Killamarsh or recognises the photo they can get in touch by e-mailing me at :-
melvinshepherd22@yahoo.co.uk
Written by Melvin Shepherd. (October 2008)
melvinshepherd22@yahoo.co.uk
Edited and Published by Chris Lambley
Chris@StGiles-Killamarsh.org
Church Warden
St Giles Parish Church, Killamarsh
www.StGiles-Killamarsh.org