A map of Somerset Co., Pennsylvania and northwestern Allegany Co., Maryland
in 1857. The highlighted rectangle shows the area where the Levi Shockey
and Edward Shockey families were living: Elk Lick, Mt. Savage and
Wellersburg (which would be right next to Southampton).

This site is a collation of descendants of Johan Christoph Shäcke of Germany.

The information comes from various Shockey descendants, both in my line and others.

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My great-great-grandmother, Ellen Shockey, was a bit of a mystery for some time. She appears quite plainly on the 1870 Census, newly wed to J.B. Deffler, but I couldn't find her before that. There were no Ellen Shockeys living alone or with an Edward Shockey (her father's name from her death certificate). There were no family stories about her and the only thing I knew of in the family memorabilia was a fragment of paper mentioning a brother, Frederick, and another mentioning a brother-in-law, Fred Herps.

The 1860 Census of Pennsylvania had a Jane Shockey and a couple of Ellen Schocks and Schochs, but none none had a Frederick in the family and they weren't close to either Somerset or Westmoreland Counties, where Ellen would reside. There was an Ellen Hockey in Ohio of the correct age with a brother named Frederick, but she was located on the far western side of the state...again, geographically not ideal. There were a few Herps families, but none even remotely close in names.

It would turn out that brother Frederick was a red herring — it was apparently someone mistaking her brother-in-law — but the "Herps" connection would prove fruitful. It wasn't until I thought to ask why both Ellen and her husband were buried in Newmans Creek Cemetery in North Lawrence, Ohio that things began to make some sense. Going through the entries for that cemetery, we come across Frederick Herbst buried there. The dates indicate he is too young, but it occurred to me that he could be a son named after a father. Further looking finds an entry for Amanda S. Herbst buried there and someone has annotated the entry to say "Amanda S. Shockey Herbst". Sure enough, a Frederick and Amanda are easily traced back through the censuses until we get to 1870 and find them living in Northampton, Somerset Co., Pennsylvania. This is the same town in which J.B. and Ellen live. Further, Frederick and Amanda have a Theodore Shockey living with them at that time, of an age to be Amanda's brother. Looking backward for Amanda and Theodore as siblings, we find the family of Edward Shockey living in Maryland in 1860.

As I mentioned above, there is no Ellen Jane recorded on any census with this Edward's family. However, she would have been one year old in 1850 and there was an Almira Shockey in the family of that age. Almira does not appear with the family in 1860 but an Elmira Shockey, age 11, appears in the family of Levi Shockey in Pennsylvania. Levi is 63 years old and his wife is 59, which makes it more than possible that they are the grandparents of Elmira, not her parents. The family history written by Elijah Fuller, grandson of Christian Shockey, references documents showing a Levi Shockey of Somerset Co., born in 1797 (the same year as Levi on the census), married to Barbara (also matching the census). Later additions to that descent in the form of applications to lineage societies state that Levi had a son, Edward, of Somerset Co., born in 1820, which is consistent with most census records for the Edward we've found.

Further, if we look at Edward in 1850, he is married to Catherine. However, in 1860 and later he is married to Roseann. My opinion is that Catherine died shortly after the 1850 Census and Edward, having no children old enough to deal with a baby or toddler, sent her to live with her grandparents. This places her near Northampton to meet J.B.. The name change to Ellen by 1870 must have been a personal choice of my great-great-grandmother.