Greenup, Kentucky Brown/Shepard help needed.

Question

I need help to find the family of my grandfather, Mr. Carman Shepard born about 1900 and died in Michigan about 1922. I cannot get past this wall!!

Thank you, Kathie Hoover-Hutter

Answer 1

You may want to examine the possibility that what your mother was told about her father wasn't entirely true.

I have found one possibility for Carman, but he did not die in 1922.

He was born Rufus Carman Shepherd in Greenup County, Kentucky (1905). He died in Scioto County, Ohio in 1970. He married Ruby Rowe in 1924 and they had a number of children together.

I have just found three aunts that didn't know my mother existed or that my grandfather had ever been married to my grandmother. He abandoned my mother, and later his other children, but their mother never told them that he had another daughter. Things we don't think twice about today people often found shameful and hid to protect both themselves and their family.

I'm not saying that is the case here, but don't discard the possibility. A DNA test might help you narrow your search.

Comments

Carmen R Shepard

United States Census, 1930

Name	Carmen R Shepard
Event Type	Census
Event Date	1930
Event Place	Clay, Scioto, Ohio, United States
Gender	Male
Age	26
Marital Status	Married
Race	White
Race (Original)	White
Relationship to Head of Household	Head
Relationship to Head of Household (Original)	Head
Birth Year (Estimated)	1904
Birthplace	Kentucky
Father's Birthplace	Kentucky
Mother's Birthplace	Kentucky
Sheet Letter	A
Sheet Number	2

Household	Role	Sex	Age	Birthplace
Carmen R Shepard	Head	M	26	Kentucky
Ruby Shepard	Wife	F	28	Kentucky
Ilean Shepard	Daughter	F	5	Ohio
Raymond E Shepard	Son	M	3	Ohio

Citing this Record

"United States Census, 1930," database with images, FamilySearch(https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X4CD-WBC : accessed 23 August 2018), Carmen R Shepard, Clay, Scioto, Ohio, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 8, sheet 2A, line 43, family 36, NARA microfilm publication T626 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2002), roll 1867; FHL microfilm 2,341,601.

View the original document. The original may contain more information than was indexed.

United States Census, 1930

---

Thank you so much ! !  What I have been afraid of is he is a fiction of some sort and my mother was a product of incest of some kind.  My DNA does not indicate the incest, but has not given a clue as to whom her father might be.  Am hoping for DNA matches, but none so far.  Thank you so much for your response.  yes, I have seen Rufus and his family, however, there is a Carman Shepard in the 1916 census from Canada, but he did not die in 1922 either.

Thank you again, Kathie

---

It looks like Carmon Rufus Shepard is Ann Brown's first cousin, perhaps.

It looks like his dad Wilson and her mom Cynthia were both the children of Bryson Shepard and Elizabeth Jane Hale.

Check out this profile at FamilySearch:

Rufus Carmon Shepard.

If he's the father of Viola, it's not surprising that the family might not have pointed it out. He and Anna were about the same age - he might have come up to Michigan and stayed with them for awhile.

I have relatives from Kentucky (who moved to Michigan at that) and I know some "couples" were rather closely related.

---

Scioto is just on the other side of the river from Greenup, so there's a pretty good chance that's him.

---

I hope you find your family. My mother always knew she had two sisters from her father's second marriage but their mother was the daughter of a minister and embarrassed that she had married a divorced man so she never told them about my mother. I searched for many years for her siblings, I even spoke to their mother by telephone twice asking for information about them.to no avail. DNA brought us together but it was bittersweet because it came too late for my mom who died in January. After finding a first cousin I also found another sister none of us knew about from his fourth marriage. He was married at least seven times, maybe more, but we think he topped out at four daughters. He was a piece of work. lol

---

That Anna Brown and  Rufus Carman Shepherd were first cousins seems just too much of a coincidence.

---

Thank you Thomas  ! !   That is the best explanation I have seen in all the years I have been searching.  It is the only one that makes sense.  Anna and her family were north in mainland Michigan were a lot of saw mill work was being done and I bet your analysis is correct!!!  Thank you so much.  I will add him to my family search and ancestry trees.  If inspiration counts, I think that is the correct answer!!  Kathie

---

The problem probably wasn't so much that they were cousins but that they were young and unmarried. My GF was from around there, and he had a similar tale, though in his case he really did die in 1935. It's actually pretty likely that my GF would have known Carman Shepherd. All their "people" used to live in the Greenup-Portsmouth axis. After they built the first bridge in 1885, Portsmouth tended to slurp up a lot of underemployed Eastern Kentuckians. Clay township is basically the NW side of Portsmouth.

---

You're very welcome. It's fun to be able to help someone else out. Beats banging my head against the same old brick walls in my own family tree.