More family history

I don't know a lot about the family, mostly because all the people who could tell the stories have passed on. But I can tell what I know - and I'm doing this because folks have started to contact me who want more information on the family.

That's great! I am going to try and get the family trees scanned - if I could make them available as an on line resource I am sure it would be very helpful to researchers.

Meanwhile - here's where I sit in the world:

My father, Philipa Anthony Sheppard, married (don't know who first time round) and then married my mother (picture above - 3 friends, then 'Bones' Long, Sally's father, then Sally, then Anthony, then Peeps, then Peeps' Mother - Granny Arthur). He had one sister, Angela, who had one son, Nick.

So my family was Mum, Dad, Auntie Angela, Cousin Nick and my brother, Phil. When I was very small there were Lance and Emmie - I will have to track them down in the family history book, can't quite work out where they came from. Cousins? Second cousins? Not sure.

My father's parents were Elsa May Sinclair and Philip Neville Freme Sheppard. I know there was some controversy over Philip marrying a singer/actress (can you imagine? An Edwardian gentleman marrying a stage performer?!) but also some mention of her being divorced as well. I don't know who she was married to first time round either.

And I don't know if the first marriages - my father's or my grandmother's - had any offspring.

If you think that's starting to get complicated - my mother's side of the family is even more complex with two sets of step parents: Charles Keller, from a German family and an amazing history, but all I have left is a 1st world war Military Dress Sword; and Primrose (Mary) Long - known as 'Peeps'. She was one of the founding members of the Church of Scientology but she got fed up with Ron L Hubbard and left. I have her scientology bracelet - weird what hierlooms get handed down, eh? A sword and a bracelet. Sounds like a bad fantasy book plot coming up, eh?

Enough! There is a reason for this post which, I hope, I will be able to elicudate on further in the near future. Meanwhile if you want to contact me about the Sheppard family history, you can email me at

cjcauston at yahoo dot co dot uk