Hey! So Glad You're Here.

Welcome to The Beehive. Here you will find a mix of family stories, historical adventures, genealogical research, and related ephemera. I created The Beehive to share family history dating as far back as the 1500s in Europe.

I am Bonnie Schepers, a family history researcher living in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. I have devoted the past twenty years to chasing family stories and look forward to sharing them here. Another of my interests is creating illustrations. You can find my work in a recently published children's book titled, "The Spirit of Schokland - A Dutch Legend." The 'My Drawings' page on this site includes some of my recent sketches.

Why The Beehive? The original Beehive is a three volume, one thousand page commonplace book begun in 1696 by Francis Daniel Pastorius, my 7x great grandfather. Of interest to Pastorius descendants is the section of genealogical materials and added entries recording births and deaths in the Pastorius family to 1865. The manuscript is currently held in the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts at the University of Pennsylvania, the gift of Charles Sharpless Pastorius (1866-1950), and has recently been digitized and made available to the public at Penn in Hand: Selected Manuscripts.

In 2008, while visiting Philadelphia, I had an unexpected invitation to view the original manuscript in person. Turning the pages of this remarkable historical record was an emotional experience and one that convinced me to continue researching and sharing our family history.

So please join me and enjoy!