Our Skermer ancestors have lived in England since, at least, the early part of the 18th Century.  The earliest record I could locate was the marriage of John Skermer to Mary Tansur on 13 August 1753 in Belton, Leicester, England. John and Mary had a small family of two children, Sarah and John.

The Skermer men were traditionally farmers. As was the custom in those days, they named their first son after the father; so we have many John Skermers’ in our family.

John and Mary’s son, John, was christened on 11 January1760 in Belton, Leicester, England. He married Hannah Chester on 24 July 1781. They had six children, the oldest son was named John.

John married Elizabeth Ironmonger on 28 September 1803 and they had six daughters and one son whom they named John.  A little more is know of this John Skermer. He was a very prosperous farmer in Belton, Leicester, England with 23 acres of land.  He married Elizabeth (last name unknown) in the year 1842. They had ten children in their family.

John and Elizabeth died when they were quite young. At the time of their deaths they had three of their children still living at home. Ellen, Maria and Elizabeth. After their parents died the girls went to live with their father’s sister, Eleanor Palmer and he husband, William Richard Palmer.

John and Elizabeth’s oldest daughter was named Elizabeth Skermer, my Great Grandmother. On 03 February 1871 Elizabeth married Hypolite Eperthener in the Register Office in the District of Aston in the County of Warwick.  They moved to the United States the same year they were married. 

After moving to the United States they lived in Morristown, Pennsylvania, Albany, Indiana and then they settled in New Castle, Pennsylvania. Elizabeth and Hypolite had six children, Elizabeth (Lizzie), Hypolite (Poole), Leanore, Augustine, John and Joseph (Dory). Elizabeth died in 1882 the same year that Joseph was born.

Leanore Eperthener was my Grandmother. She was born in New Albany, Indiana in 1874. She was a school teacher in New Castle from 1893 until she married William Henry Gillespie in 1901. They had four children: Imogene, Gertrude, Donald Jay and William Henry.