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Joyce Ruth SHECKLER Southern Baptist Missionary d/o Lula Myrtle DOWNEY and Arthur Ray SHECKLER grd/o Walter Bert SHECKLER Author: SHECKLER GENEALOGY BOOK Married 13, June 1947 .................................................................................................................................................. Donald Raymond HEISS Southern Baptist Minister; Missionary s/o Anna May CONLEY and George Joseph HEISS Reference: p. 292 in Sheckler Biography Donald and
Joyce were appointed Missionaries to Japan in 1957
in Richmond Va.They sailed from the Port of San Francisco on
SS President Hoover, and arrived at the Port of Yokohama, Japan, Photo
at left shows the family just before sailing.
Two times they crossed the Pacific from San Francisco to Yokohama on
SS
President Hoover and
SS President
Cleveland (2).
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and Joyce
spent two years in language study in Tokyo and moved to Aomori in
northern Japan, where they spent 20 years helping strengthen Japanese
churches and begin new ones. ......................................................................................................................................................................... Joyce taught all their own children their elementary school at home. They lived in a dormitory in tokyo (500 miles from home) for junior and senior high school before going to America for college. They spent one year in Kyoto at the Baptist Hospital where Don was assistant chaplain and Joyce helped in the new baby nursery. The other years they were in Tokyo strengthening and beginning churches. In 1987 Donald and Joyce celebrated their 60th birthdays, 40 years of marriage and their 30th year in Japan. They took their final furlough in
April 1990 and settled in Jefferson
City, TN. Joyce began about
1975 to search for Sheckler ancestors. Joyce published
her "SHECKLER" book in
1988 and dedicated to her father. The book introduction
explains how she
compiled and had to work to obtain the information. The introduction
also lists thanks to all the persons who helped and contributed to the
book.
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Joyce's
words: "(There are not
many people named Sheckler), How many
times have you heard that statement? Since it was going to be easy to
locate those few Shecklers, fifteen years ago I began searching
for the 'few' in my family. This the result of that search. Any
additional information or corrections will be appreciated." Joyce's email to Vern 8-7-2006: "Thanks for continuing to let me know about Shecklers you find. I have nearly as much 'After the Book' material as I have in the book, so if you find a particular Sheckler you are interested in, I may or may not have additional information. Ask me. (You can't imagine the number of people who sent information after the book was finishaed, but wouldn't send anything before it went to press.) I began referring to my 'After the Book' information to disinguish it from the book". "The purpose of the book is to share the information I have found about some of the Shecklers in America. At first I began collecting this material because I wanted to have a book of my own family genealogy for my children and grandchildren. But as I accumulated informations and sorted my family from it, I began to realize what a vast amount of other Sheckler informations I was getting. Those 'few' already numbered more than 1000. About this same time my husband asked me to consider compiling a book so other Sheckler descendants could use the material I had discovered. The idea did not appeal to me at first, but the longer I considered it the more I wanted to see a Sheckler book on the library shelves and listed with the Library of Congress." "You will notice, from the very beginning, that the book is not complete. Much work is left to be done., this is only a beginning. some of the Shecklers will have nothing more than a name, some will have a limited amount, but others will have several pages of information. I was not able to include all my materials, but whenever possible I have put essential items from public records. where records were not available, I used information from family members. Some Sheckler families have been very cooperative in giving information about their families, and I could not use all they sent. Other families, for various reasons, have been extremely cautious, so what ever I found about their families took much hard work, and in a few cases I hired a genealogical records searcher." "When I was a little girl I used to sit on the floor near my grandfather's chair as he told stories about his childhood, his father and grandfather, about life in the "big woods" in northern Ohio, and I almost visualized the events as he related them. Even today I can almost see the children being escorted to school by two fathers, and the little boy stepping off the path into the woods, where later only his boots were found. A 'panther'!" "My father was also a story teller. He told many tales about his early life. One was how he learned to drive a car on a race track, not a road. His instructor was none other than the famous Barney Oldfield, 'the first man to drive 60 mph on a circular track, and to break the mile speed record in 1910.' Daddy was a lover of history. He made a photograph album of the Sheckler family with a family sheet for each. Shortly before his death in 1970, he gave this album to me and my genealogical interest had its start. all those unrecorded stories and legends left big questions in my mind. Who were the other two brothers who came from Bedford, PA to OH in 1847, with Hugh? Was the old 'grandfather Sheckler' really Frederick from Heidelburg, German? Who was 'Uncle Dan', how was he related, and where was his Civil War grave?" "My husband has been my source of encouragement when I wondered if I could actually finish a book from Japan with such little free time, or if it was really worth it. He helped me dig through court house records and walked with me through wet cemeteries in search of an ancestor. With such support and patience, how could I do do less than finish the book?" |
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