Week 6 - Nimrod Shepherd, My Favorite Name

Nimrod Shepherd is my favorite name. He is my husband's 5th great-grandfather.

Nimrod was born during 1782 in North Carolina. He married Gemima Smith about 1808. They had 10 children. He was enumerated in Georgia for the 1820 census but had moved to Kentucky by the 1830 census. He spent the rest of his life in Kentucky and died in 1874.

I wondered why anyone would name their child Nimrod. The only definition of that word I knew meant they were dull or dimwitted. A quick Google search showed me a better reason to use that name - Nimrod was the great-grandson of Noah. The name itself translates to skillful hunter. You can learn more about the Biblical Nimrod at Wikipedia.

The bottom of the Wikipedia article states that the first recorded usage of nimrod to mean slow or dimwitted was by Bugs Bunny in 1932. He called Elmer Fudd "nimrod" ironically referring to him as a "skilled hunter." Further internet research show that this may not be entirely accurate. I did find a snip where Daffy Ducks uses the term in 1948. I did find this 4 second clip from 1942 when Daffy Duck uses the word . . .

Invite to Dinner - Andrew Millslagle

Picking only one ancestor to invite to dinner was not easy but I think that sitting down and talking to Andrew³ Millslagle (son of George², Andrew¹ the immigrant) would be very interesting. He would remember the stories his grandfather told of the "old county" and of his journey to America. He lived to be at least 78 so he would be able to tell his of own adventures of pioneering the "West." I also hope he would be able to fill the missing pieces about his life.

He was born sometime before 1782 in Hampshire County, Virginia. This part of Virginia is right on the line the state would split during the Civil War. He died between 1860 and 1870 probably in Iowa. He had two wives. The name of his first wife is not known. They had at least 4 children: Rachel, Nancy, Samuel, and Andrew J. All of these children were born between 1808-1815. Andrew moved his family to Noble Township in Morgan County, Ohio.  He served in the War of 1812 - from Aug 1813 to Dec 1813. The family appears on the 1820 and 1830 censuses in Noble Township.

Andrew's first wife died and Andrew married Sarah Keith on 6 Aug 1839 in Morgan County, Ohio. They had 3 known children: Eliza and Jane, both born in Ohio, and Peter Andrew, born in Iowa. About 1845, the family moved to Johnson County, Iowa and later moved to Hardin County. By 1860, Andrew and Sarah were living in Cedar County.


Here are some of the questions I would ask:

1. When and where were you born?
2. Describe the house you grew up on. 
3. Why did you move to Ohio? What made you keep wanting to move once you were in Iowa
4. What was your first wife's name?
5. Did you ever encounter "Indians?" What was the encounter like?
6. What exactly are all the relationships between the Wickhams, Keiths, and Ackleys? I know the families intermarried but what kept the families together and do I have all the relationships correct?
7. What do you think was the biggest change to the country in your lifetime?

Which ancestor would you invite to dinner? What would you ask?

Beginnings - Johann Andreas Mühlschlägel, immigrant ancestor

Beginnings - Johann Andreas Mühlschlägel, immigrant ancestor

I decided to write about the Millslagle Family's earliest American progenitor - Johann Andreas Mühlschlägel since this blog is dedicated to all his descendants. I have not conducted primary research of the family before 1800. Most of this information was taken from Grace Kelso Garner's book, Earliest Settlers of Western Frederick-Eastern Hampshire Counties (self published, 1978, pages 172-215) which another researcher was kind enough to share with me.

Andreas was born 15 Apr 1730 in Lachen-Speyerdorf which is now incorporated into Neustadt an der Weinstraße, which is part of the Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany. A couple of records point to his father being a school teacher and that he also was a school teacher. He received permission on 26 May 1750 to move to Pennsylvania but had to pay a tax of 300 florins. He boarded the ship Patience which landed in Philadelphia 11 August 1750. Before he was allowed to disembark, he had to sign an Oath of Allegiance which swore fealty to the King of England and stated he was not Catholic. Below is a copy of his signature on this document:

Kelso Gardner states that all he had was his bible, violin and his dreams. Whether or not this is true, it conjured a pictures in my head. A young, 20-year old, with the wind blowing in his dark hair, standing on the railing as Philadelphia comes into view; an older gentleman working the land; sitting around the fire on a wintery evening, playing his violin for the family. What I wouldn't give to be able to sit down to dinner with him!

Andrew Millslagle, as he was known in America, settled outside Philadelphia in Berks County and married Anna Maria Emmitt about 1752.  He is found on the 1768 Berks County, PA tax lists. He owned 70 acres of land, 25 acres of it has been cleared. He has 1 horse, 1 mare, 2 cows, and 3 sheep. Kelso-Gardner asserts that the family moved to Emmittsburg, Frederick County, Maryland about 1768 but I have not been able to find any proof they lived there and she didn't cite where she got this information.

Andrew moved his family to Hampshire County, Virginia. He purchased 160 acres on 7 Nov 1774 and purchased an additional 421 acres in 1793. He and Mary died sometime between 1813 and 1820.

The known children of Andrew and Mary are listed below, all born in Berks County, Pennsylvania.

1. Georg Henrich (b. 3 May 1753, d. between 1810 and 1820) m. Maria "Catherine" Loy (b. 1769, d. aft 1820)
2. Anna "Christina" (b. 24 Apr 1757) m. Daniel Loy 
3. Maria Catharine "Mary" (b. 22 Aug 1759) m. John Park
4. Anna "Barbara" (b. 14 Mar 1762) 
5. Anna Maria (b. 22 Jan 1765)
6. Johann "Jacob" (b. 24 Feb 1767) m. Elizabeth Cooper (b. 1772)
7. Anna Margretha (b. 3 Jul 1769
8. Hanna (b. 11 Nov 1771)

Family History - Beginnings

I'm Carol Lea MILLSLAGLE Macke, the 5th great-granddaughter of Johann Andreas Mühlschlägel, one of my immigrant ancestors. This blog is dedicated to all of the Millslagles (Milslagle, Millslagel and other variations) in America. To keep things simple, I will use Millslagle to group all of the spelling variants together unless a particular individual used one of the other spellings. Many believe we all come from Andreas but there have been some Mühlschlägels in the US that do not appear to descend from him. There will be more about these unconnected Millslagles  at some point in the future.

My family history journey began with the death of my paternal grandmother, Bernadine Mae DONAKER Millslagle. She had called me the day before to wish my youngest daughter happy 1 year birthday. I had hundreds of questions about my grandmother that I never thought about when she was alive. So, I started researching her life. This was right about the time that census images were starting to come online. I was hooked on learning more and more about my family.

As I was researching, I started to stumble on Millslagles that I couldn't fit into my line. My curiosity led me to start the Millslagle One Name Study. For now, I've limited the project to Millslagles in America. 

I had an older website of Millslagle Genealogy on Rootsweb but haven't been able to update it for at least 10 years. My plan is to create a new website over the next year. Until then, feel free to ask me questions or to pass on information for me to include.

Check back on Thursday, January 18, for a post about the grandparent that started it all.