Hunting For Hepzibah - The Harvey Shreeve Shepard Spoonemore descent

HUNTING FOR HEPZIBAH  - HEPZIBAH HARVEY SHREEVE 1813? – 1855?

When I began “Hunting for Hepzibah”  the only family history I had was that my great grandmother Emily Shreeve Shepard’s first child was named “Happy” for her grandmother. 

Happy was apparently an only child of wealthy parents who ‘ran away with the coachman’, John Shreeve.  We didn’t have a surname for Happy but my Aunt Hazel thought it might be Harvey.  The family story, limited as it was, stated Happy was:  "Lady Happy Harvey of Thornton Hall".

John and Happy emigrated to Canada from England in the early 1800s and settled ‘somewhere’ because obviously we ended up in BC. 

The female line of descent being: Happy Harvey Shreeve - 1813-1855 (?), Emilia Shreeve Shepard (1851-1887), Mary Ellen Shepard Spoonemore (1887- 1965), Mildred Anna Spoonemore Johnston (1919 - 2002).

 My mother, Mildred Anna Spoonemore, great granddaughter to Happy, knew only of one other child of John and Happy besides her grandmother, Emilia (Shreeve) Shepard. This was Uncle Jim whom Mary Ellen had fond memories of and always credited him with 'saving' her from an unpleasant adoption: Emilia having died when Mary Ellen was born.

James Shreeve (Uncle Jim) was born in New York, USA, or York, England; who knew?  No one apparently.  But another scrap of story  said he remembered his grandparents riding past in a coach and four and not acknowledging his mother.  So, where to look?  York?  Jim's death certificate was unclear.

Add the death cert !!! for Uncle Jim.

I presumed from this that John and Happy must have married in England so the first place I looked was at the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints (LDS) on Kincaid Street in Burnaby.  There, I found the marriage in Norfolk.  Not anywhere near York.  Note that Elizabeth has been crossed out and Hepzibath written clearly and Harvey is her surname.  Also she signs her name as “Happy”.  The witness is William Shreeve – relationship to John not stated and the other witness is Rebecca Harvey.  

Add scan of marriage certificate:

1831 February 1st. Marriage Certificate No 83.  This is the first official record of Hepzibath/Happy Harvey. Her name is definitely Hepzibath as Elizabeth was originally written and then crossed out and Hepzibath written in. Both Hepzibath Harvey, Spinster and John Shreeve, Bachelor, are of the parish of Rollesby, Norfolk.  No ages are given.  Witnesses are William Shreeve and Rebecca Harvey.

1812-1814 Birthdates for Happy are from the 1841 Census for Norfolk in England and 1851 Census of Haldimand County in Canada West (Ontario).


THE OTHER HEPIZABAH  HARVEY(S)

    

Hepzibah/Happy/Keren Happock's parentage is still unknown.  A parish record of birth or baptism is required to determine who her parents were.  It is possible she is the only child of William Hervey Esq. and Dorothea Arabella Primrose, daughter of the Earl of Roseberry.  There is no record to date of William and Dorothea having any children.  However, Hepzibah supposedly married beneath her - six years after Dorothea died and was therefore cut off from the family.  Her father likely married again but that, also has not been proven.

Note 1:  The Hephzebah Harvey born to John and Rebecca Harvey, 25 March 1811 in Stoke Green, Ipswich, Suffolk cannot be our Happy as she is found on the 1861 Ipswich Census living with her widowed father, John Harvey, age 89, formerly Corn Chandler, born Essex, Great Bentley.  Hepzibah Harvey is Daughter, Unmarried, age 60, Dress Maker, born Ipswich, Suffolk.  This information, found in 2009, eliminates this family from our family tree.

Note 2: FHL File #2262644.  Births and Baptisms:   Hepzibah Harvey born to Richard Harvey and Elizabeth Neech, born 13 June 1808, baptized 19 June 1808 in Seethng, Norfolk, England was the youngest of 9 children.  Deaths in Seething:  Hepzibah Harvey, daughter of Richard & Elizabeth, late Neech, died December 1, 1824, Buried December 4 - age 17.  This young woman cannot be our Hepzibah.

My Introduction to Genealogy - the Spoonemore & Johnston Families

Hello:  This is my first post.  I began this process because I have been encouraging my husband to begin a blog where he can post his many opinions on current affairs.  In order to help him begin I have had to research how to set up a blog.  Therefore it seemed reasonable to have a blog for myself.

My Introduction to Genealogy:

Genealogy, or more specifically, family history, has been of interest to me from a very young age.  My parents would frequently talk about our personal family history at the dinner table.  This was not a structured conversation but one that centred around the current activities of various members of both their families.  As they were each the seventh child of a family of eight many names and relationships were discussed. Talk often extended into how a given member of the family was connected to grandparents, aunts,  uncles and  cousins.  Members of the towns in which we lived, being small communities, often also came into the conversation by being connected to someone in the family either through a personal relationship or by their occupations.

When I was fourteen my maternal (Spoonemore) grandmother was visited by distant relations from Oregon, US.  Our Canadian  family was referred to as "The Lost Spoonemores" by dint of my  grandparents and their  children immigrating north from Washington State into British Columbia, Canada.  Apparently, more distant relations did not know or perhaps did not remember where this branch of the family had gone to.

This title caught my imagination as to how these families were connected.  It was made more intriguing by a triple set of marriages where two brothers married sisters and the brother's sister married the sister's brother.  Well, how to figure out this relationship.  My grandmother and the visitors did not know how to work this out, nor did I, but the problem stayed with me.

In the early 1970s another distant branch of the family came to BC to interview the descendants of the "Lost Spoonemores".  The result was the book Sponheimer Kindred by Eunice Cook Konold and Hazel Brown Kennedy, published in 1975 by  Sunlight Press, Inc., Lakeside, California 92040.

Sponheimer Kindred is a one-name study of the various branches of the original immigrants from the Palatinate in  Germany in the 1700s.  It is a considerable tome with over 650 pages of genealogy and accompanying photos and stories; beautifully bound in a maroon hard cover with the title in gold lettering.  A copy now resides in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Library in Salt Lake City in Utah.

My mother ordered three copies for our family.  One for myself, one or my sister and one for herself.  My mother's copy is now in the keeping of my brother and will eventually pass on to his niece, the daughter of my other brother.  Other members of the Spoonemore family also own copies.

This book was my first introduction to a structured genealogical format and has been invaluable.

Over the years I had attempted to research my father's side of the family (Johnston McCarthy) with little success.  When my son entered high school I felt it was my time to take up genealogy in earnest. I now have multi binders of family history for many branches of the family, both Spoonemore and Johnston.

I am now in the process of compiling a book on my computer for the Johnson/Johnston/Johnstones in much the same manner as my mother's Sponheimer Kindred book.

Some of the stories and connections I have discovered will be posted as time permits.

Judith (Spoonemore Johnston) Ueland
February 16, 2019