Nimrod and Gemima appear in the 1850-60-70 censuses of Whitley co., KY. He appears in the 11830 and 1840 censuses also. Gemima is not named in those pre-1850 censuses but the age is consistent. He is listed as born in either NC or VA and his and her ages change between the 1860 and 1870 censuses so that they are 5 years older than expected from the earlier censuses.
According to the following messages, he is not the son of Elizabeth HIGHSMITH:
Top of Form 1
Uriah Shepherd, early constable of Knox County, Ky; brother Nimrod Shepherd, etc Posted by: david travillion bunton (ID *****4571)Date: February 23, 2003 at 01:41:15of 561 Bottom of Form 1
David T Bunton
613 S Commerce Ave
Russellville, AR 72801
Hello,
I have seen much faulty information on the internet concerning Thomas Shepherd and Elizabeth Highsmith being the parents of my ancestor Uriah Shepherd, his brother Nimrod Shepherd, Sampson Shepherd, William Shepherd, James Shepherd, etc. This is incorrect information, and any references to this Thomas Shepherd and Elizabeth Highsmith should be discarded. This misinformation was based on the assumption by a past researcher that a Sampson Shepherd in Halifax County, NC would be linked to our family because we had a Sampson Shepherd in our family, and also because Thomas' wife was named Elizabeth. It is possible there could be some link to the Shepherd family in Halifax County, NC, but the immediate ancestors of these lines are NOT Thomas Shepherd and Elizabeth Highsmith.
My research findings show the parents of Uriah Shepherd and his brothers (and his sisters Rebecca Shepherd, wife of Zachariah Wells, and Martha Shepherd, wife of George Blanton) to be William and Elizabeth Shepherd. William Shepherd is found in the 1782 Montgomery County, Va tax list. (He was living in the Grayson/Wythe County area). By 1790 he was dead and his widow enumerated as Betty Shepard (should ready Betsy Shepherd) was listed in the 10th company of the 1790 Wilkes County, NC census along with her older sons James and William Shepherd (jr).
Elizabeth "Betty" (Betsy) Shepard's family consisted of two young males who were Nimrod Shepherd and his brother Uriah Shepherd, and three females, which were Betsy the mother, and her daughters Martha and Rebecca.
The families listed in the 10th company lived in what later became Ashe County, NC. William Shepherd (jr) is listed there in the 1800 census, but by that time Elizabeth and her children had moved on to Lee County, Va where her son William(jr)did come later.
Uriah Shepherd married Elizabeth Smith, daughter of James Smith and Nancy Mulkey, a full blood Cherokee Indian. Her sister Jemima Smith married Nimrod Shepherd, who was Uriah's brother. Uriah was a constable in Knox County, Ky and the family can be found in Knox County, Ky records. Nimrod lived in the area which later became Whitley County, Ky.
Another error which I have seen on the internet is that Uriah's name had the name John or Jack or Old Jack in it. This was not his name or nickname. All extant contemporary records state his name as simply Uriah Shepherd.
I have researched the Shepherd family for several decades and wrote a thesis on the family and their migration from Alabama to Arkansas Territory, which has been published and is available through me. It concerns the Uriah Shepherd line.
I have worked for many years on a larger volume of the broader Shepherd family and ancestry, which also includes many families who settled on Frog Bayou, Crawford County, Arkansas. The base of this includes my research as well as info from documents gathered from a previous 100 years of research on the Shepherd family. Should someone like to have their lineage included, please contact me. I do not have any of my information in any computerized format such as gedcom, etc. Because I had gathered several thousand pages BEFORE computers became readily accessible, 99 percent is still uncomputerized.
I hope this posting will help some researchers delete faulty Thomas Shepherd-Elizabeth Highsmith information from their internet trees. I welcome any information on early ancestors as well as receiving updates on some of the current generations, book or general inquiries. Since I do not have a computerized database, I will generally not know some of the recent Shepherd connections, since my focus has been on pre-1900 Shepherd research (this is also why I appreciate any updates of the recent Shepherd and allied family lines).
Cordially,
David Travillion Bunton
613 South Commerce Ave
Russellville, AR 72801
-------------------------------------
From Shepard Family Lines of Ashe Co., NC:
http://www.danielprophecy.com/shepherd_lines.html
1. Shepherd Info provided by David Travillion Bunton, travillion@hotmail.com
In the 1790 NC census, 10th company (which later became Ashe Co) is the enumeration for James Shepherd, William Shepherd, and Betty (sic, Betsy) Shepherd.
This James is the one with wife Rachel (maiden name said to be Gault but I believe was really Vaught)
This William is the one with wife Elvira Lewis.
The Betsy Shepherd has two males in her household who were Uriah and Nimrod Shepherd (her younger sons) and daughters Rebecca and Martha. Rebecca later married Zachariah Wells and her sister Martha married George Blanton. Uriah Shepherd married Elizabeth Smith, daughter of James Smith and Nancy Mulkey. Nimrod Shepherd married Jemima Smith.
If you look at all the neighbors of the 1790 census and then go back and look at the families on the 1782 Montgomery Co, Va taxlist you will find William Shepherd with two tithes (males aged 16 or above). One of course was the head of household William Shepherd and the other was his eldest son.
Sometime between about 1784 and 1789 this William Shepherd died leaving a widow Elizabeth Shepherd.
The above are what the records show from taxlists, deeds, etc.
Now what the family said. A son of Mrs Elizabeth Shepherd, named Uriah Shepherd (who appears with his mother Mrs. Elizabeth Shepherd in Lee Co, VA taxlists) had several children and his two oldest were James Shepherd born in 1805 in Lee Co, Va and William Silas Shepherd born ca 1807 in Alabama Territory, born very soon after the family had left Knox Co, Ky.
These two sons were said to be named after grandfathers. Since I know that the father in law of Uriah Shepherd was James Smith, I have assumed that by elimination, the paternal grandfather of the two boys would be named William Shepherd. This seems to match with the info found in the early Montgomery Co, VA records. However, there are other accounts (albeit somewhat garbled) from the Nimrod Shepherd family which indicate that the grandfather would have been James Shepherd. I am very sure that the husband of Mrs. Elizabeth Shepherd (of the 1790 Wilkes Co, NC census and later of Lee Co, VA) was named either William Shepherd or James Shepherd, and I lean toward William Shepherd. There were some other old letters written in our family way back which would tell us definitively, but so far I have not found the originals. However, I can prove by written accounts from Uriah's children that their maternal grandfather was James Smith who married Nancy Mulkey. Since the children were born in the early 1800s (all before 1820) I would expect that they did know their grandparents and this would be accurate.
So, in summary, if one takes the tradition of the family, one has the husband of Mrs Elizabeth Shepherd being either James Shepherd or William Shepherd.
If one looks at available records, the taxlists show William Shepherd. Taken together it all narrows down to William Shepherd, although I admit there is a possibility that it could be James Shepherd, or maybe William James Shepherd. Uriah's son James Shepherd born ca 1805 is said to have gotten a powder horn from his grandfather Shepherd which was used in the Revolutionary War. A possibility is that he got it because he was a namesake of an earlier James Shepherd, but that would be speculation on my part, and I have tried to be very cautious in any of my assumptions concerning all this. Return
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http://boards.rootsweb.com/surnames.mulkey/1.2.5.11/mb.ashx
Nancy Mulkey Info (long)
Chris Houghton (View posts)
Posted: 3 Aug 1999 7:43AM GMT
From "The Mulkeys of America" by Philip Hunt, p 807:
"Here is the genealogical data we have on this family from Frieda L. Friddle Kellie...
Nancy Mulkey m. ...Smith
Elizabeth Smith m. John Shepherd
William Shepherd m. Sally Peters
Elizabeth Shepherd m. Henderson C. Rankin
Thomas Rankin m. Martha Strong
Sarah E. Rankin m. Bert Friddle
Howard Friddle m. Vaneda Mullens
Frieda Friddle m. James Kellie
...
My direct ancestor is Nancy Mulkey, a full-blooded Cherokee, from either Virginia or North Carolina. I estimate that Nancy was born somewhere around 1765. I can't prove any of this, however.
...
Thomas' [Thomas J. Rankin] parents were Henderson Clark Rankin and Elizabeth Shepherd, born in 1822, in Murrey County, Tenn., and in 1826 in either Alabama or Arkansas. They were married before 1856. She died in 1863, shortly after childbirth. They had five or more children. She is buried near Alma, Ark., what is known as Frog Bayou.
...
Elizabeth's parents were William and Sarah Peters Shepherd, born 1807, Alabama, and 1810, in Tennessee. They married in the 1820s perhaps and had 12 children. I have no other information on Sarah's family. William Shepherd was a minister and was killed by bushwackers in 1862. He and many members of the family are buried in the Bidville, Ark., Cemetery on Shepherd Mountain of the Boston Range. His father was John Shepherd, known as "Old Jack." He was born about late 1780 and married Elizabeth Smith. They were married around 1800 and had four children that there are records of.
Now, Elizabeth's mother was Nancy Mulkey and the researcher stated that she was a full-blooded Cherokee. But, as of this date, I have never received proof of this. It is believed that this is a fact passed down via oral history. Old Jack brought his sons and daughter from Alabama about 1828. They came by flatboat up the Tennessee, Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, to the Arkansas River and poled their way up that river to Frog Bayou. Their younger children went back to Alabama before 1830, as they are listed in the U.S. Census of Madison County of that year. They came from Jackson County, Alabama, from an area north of Marshall County. This area was given to Marshall County when it was formed in 1836.
About 1840 Old Jack Shepherd with other family members settled near Mountainburg, Arkansas. Parts of Shepherds land is now Lake Fort Smith. However, many of his descendants still live on Shepherds Mountain, Crawford County, and in other areas of the county."
[NB] An mtDNA descendant of Sarah Mulkey Smith has tested and is mtDNA haplogroup T2, a European haplogroup. While Sarah may have had Native American ancestry, it was not in her direct female line (added by Steven C Perkins, 30 Nov 2017)