This compilation includes all of Francis Wayland Shepardson's leaflets - including his ACTUAL first leaflet from 1906, John Eaton Shepardson's history on Zephaniah Shepardson's line (published with FWS leaflets), Dr. W.K. Shepardson's history on Newell Alonzo Shepardson's line, Della Mae Shepardson Dewey's history on Alfred Waldo Shepardson's line, Daniel Shepardson's website of the History of the Shepardsons in Royalston, MA, Grace Clark Shepardson's history on the lines of Ancel Shepardson & his son, Joel Almerin, leading down to my family, my history filling out the 10th (my father's generation) & 11th (mIne, my brother's, & our cousins' generation) generations, AND adding the 12th generation (my son & his cousins), & information from several Wikipedia articles.

I have indicated the source(s) where the information on each person comes from in the compilation.

For the Francis Wayland Shepardson history leaflets, where a later leaflet contained additions & corrections to information from a previous leaflet, I have made those additions & corrections for this compilation. This actually caused a MAJOR change for my family's line along with some other lines due to information in leaflets #6 & #7. Where a history had numbers before or after people's names to indicate where to find them in that history, I have removed those numbers as they are unnecessary on a website.

Since the majority of the information in the compilation comes from Francis Wayland Shepardson's leaflets, I am using his convention (superscript number after the name) for showing the lineage back to the 1st Daniel. I changed the date format throughout the compilation to Month DD, YYYY from the DD MMM, YYYY format used by Francis W.

Given the problem of identity theft, etc. that can happen when nefarious people have personal information, for people who are still living, I am only putting what YEAR they were born, not their entire birthdate. Yes, I know that information is available if you dig for it. But the majority of the people (if not all) looking to steal someones's identity aren't willing to do that kind of hard work. :-)

The compilation is split into multiple pages. This is because by the time you get to the 6th generation, there are so many people in each generation, that having all 12 generations on one page would've meant a ridiculous amount of scrolling! The first five generations are on one page, then each of the succeeding generation has its own page. It's quite possible that as I get farther into the compilation, I might have to split some of the later generations into multiple pages.

My family's line is highlighted in BOLD & RED beginning with the sons of DANIEL², which is where the family lines began diverging.

Since all of the Shepardson histories I've found link back to Francis Wayland Shepardson's first leaflet in 1907, I'm beginning the compilation with the opening paragraphs of that.

THE SHEPARDSON FAMILY: A RECORD OF THE EARLY GENERATIONS IN AMERICA by FRANCIS WAYLAND SHEPARDSON
Sometime in the year 1628-9, from what ship no record remains to tell, Daniel Shepardson¹ landed at Salem, Mass., being one of a numerous company who sought homes in America at that period of English history. A tradition indicates that he was accompanied by his brother, John, who soon died of lockjaw as a result of a dispute in which a spade was thrown at him by his adversary. Some of the immigrants moved to Charlestown² where Daniel Shepardson³ is recorded as a citizen in 1632. He was not one of the wealthy members of the Puritan body, but was a craftsman, a blacksmith by trade.

"Since the birth of time, throughout all ages and nations,
Has the craft of the smith been held in repute by the people."

The place of his origin is not known, but members of the family are to be found in Yorkshire, England, now (1907), and, as the name indicates a Scandinavian ancestry, he may have been from that part of the country.

He was not an educated man, but he had so much company in that plight among the early Americans, that it is not specially to his discredit that his will is acknowledged by a cross, with "the marke of Daniell Sheopardson" beneath it. Like most of the Puritans he was intensely superstitious, a believer in signs and omens, and when one day, as he was working at his forge, a stone fell from it and crumbled into powder, he recognized the evil portent and gave to his wife the nails which he was just making, saying, "They will come in handy some day." The nails were kept, and when he died, in Maiden, Mass., 26 July 1644, they were used in the making of his coffin. He had a comfortable home with three acres of ground around it, his blacksmith shop, and fifty acres of pasture and meadow land, scattered here and there, so that his widow, Joanna, who had the use of the property during her lifetime, was quite well fixed for a woman of the day. His family comprised a son, Daniel, and two daughters, Lydia⁴ and Joanna.

When the children were ready to marry, Daniel married Elizabeth Call; his sister, Lydia, married Elizabeth's brother, Thomas Call, Jr.; and after the death of their father, their mother, Joanna Shepardson, married the father of the Call children, Thomas Call, Sr., so that the relationship became a little mixed.

An abstract of the will and the inventory of the estate of this pioneer Shepardson have been printed as well as certain orders of the General Court about his property. [In N. E. Gen. Hist. Soc. Reg.]

The second Daniel followed the trade of his father, making his home at Maiden, Mass., for some years. His name appears as one of a number who signed a petition to Sir William Phipps, 17 October 1694, praying to be permitted to establish a settlement at Attleboro, Mass. He seems to have owned land there as early as 1660. He took a prominent part in the town affairs. With this removal from Malden the Shepardson family found its home in a tract of land called "Rehoboth North Purchase", which included what later became the towns of Cumberland, Rhode Island, and Attleboro, Norton, and Mansfield, Mass., places in which the family has been represented almost continuously for more than two hundred years.

The early records of Attleboro, Rehoboth, and Cumberland seem faulty and there is considerable confusion in the first few generations, but there is every indication that all Americans named Shepardson may be traced back to Attleboro, except a few recent immigrants from England.

The genealogical details so far as known follow:
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