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Week 25: Groups - Palatine Germans - Schaffer, Seibel, Beringer, Stahl

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Week 25: Groups - Palantine Germans -  Schaffer, Seibel, Beringer, Stahl Let me begin my story by describing my ethnicity: 39% Scotland, 35% England and Northwestern Europe, 17% Ireland, 7% Sweden, and 2% Germanic Europe. I believe I have, at long last, discovered the origins of my 2% Germanic Europe.   A recent (though not fully proven) connection in my family tree has led me to discover a fascinating group: the Palatine Germans. According to records, in the summer of 1710, a group numbering 2,227 souls arrived in New York harbor on ten British ships and after several months of quarantine on Nutten Island (present day Governors Island), they were shipped north and located in five villages on either side of the Hudson. The villages on the west side were designated as West Camp, and those upon the east, as East Camp. A census of the villages taken in 1711 showed 583 persons on the west side and 1193 on the east side. This group of immigrants had lost at least 600 of the...
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Week 24 - Father's Day - His Homes Through 99 1/2 Years

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  Week 24: Father’s Day – His Homes Through 99 ½ Years   My dad was born on April 18 th , 1908. He lived a very long and fulfilling life of 99 years, 4 months, 17 days, passing away quietly of old age, in his own home, on September 4 th , 2007. I was extremely fortunate to have been his son for 67 of those years. I have hundreds of pictures of Dad at all ages, but this is one of the earliest pictures I have of him and me out together. Yes, car seats were flimsy back in 1941 My dad studied music, art, photography, and architecture and spent his working years as an innovative interior decorator and skilled machinist. He used to laugh and say, “I wanted to be a musician more than anything else, but just couldn’t put food on the table playing the cello.” Today, when I think about my dad, I always think about the nine houses he called home. After his family, these homes were the objects of his affection and craftsmanship. Fortunately for me, I have pictures of them all. ...
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Week 23: Bridge - My Family and the First Three Bridges of New York City

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  Week 23: Bridge – My Family and the First Three Bridges of New York City   Sometimes all that can be found out about an ancestor is a birth date, marriage date, and death date, the bare bones of that ancestor. However, in cases like that, I ask myself, “What were the environmental influences that affected their day-to-day lives and the decisions they made?” When I can learn something about the types of homes and communities they lived in, their educational opportunities, who their neighbors were, and the types of jobs available, I can begin to understand a little bit more about them. Sometimes, even why they learned a specific trade or married a particular man or woman. The families of three of my four grandparents (McLaughlin, Ford, and Layton) came to New York City from Northern Ireland or England during the 1800s and stayed put. The only reason I can give for their remaining in one area is that my relatives were not interested in acquiring land . They were not fa...
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