The John Steinseifer, who lived next to Henry Hoffman in the Robinson River Valley, came to Virginia in 1749. Whether he was closely related to the Tillman Steinseif(f)er who started to make the trip in 1738 is doubtful. Tillman Steinseifer was one of the unfortunate passengers on the ship Oliver who died during the crossing. This Tillman was on the Freudenberg pastor's list of emigrants and he lived west of Siegen. The John Steinseifer who came in 1749 was from Eisern, the home of the Hoffmanns, which is south of Siegen.
John Henry Hoffman and John Steinseifer both married women whose maiden names were Schuster, though they were not sisters; but, as a consequence of the relationship, John Steinseiffer and Henry Hoffman were in contact with each other and Hoffman knew that Steinseifer was coming to Virginia in 1749. Henry asked John to collect some money that was due to him and to bring it with him to Virginia. John was able to do this. The monetary information is recorded in a document in the archive at Siegen.
By the time that he emigrated, Steinseifer's family was probably complete, though we cannot be sure. (His first child had been born in 1724, and the last in 1748, when his wife was 43.) Altogether there were nine children, one of whom is known to have died in Germany as an infant. The eldest son in the family, John Henry, did not come with the family in 1749, but arrived later in 1753. The children, in the sequence of their birth, were:
John Henry 1 ,
Elisabeth (died in Germany),
John Henry 2 ,
Elisabeth,
Agnes Catherina,
Henricus,
Maria Agnesa,
Johannes, and
Anna Margartha.
In the father's will (probated in 1757), the four sons are named as:
John the Elder (John Henry 1 ),
John the Younger (John Henry 2 ),
Henerecus (Henricus), and
Henry (Johannes).(The daughters were not named.)
John Steinseifer had been born 6 July 1698 at Eiserfeld, the third son of Johann Steinseifer and Anna Gehla Grebe. He married Elisabeth Schuster (born 1705) of Eisern, the daughter of Henry Schuster.
In modern Germany, the name is usually spelled as Steinseifer with only one " f ". The name is very much centered on the Siegen region. In America, the spelling is varied.
The information in this note comes from Ryan Stansifer, a descendant. He thanks Mary Doyle Johnson, Friedhelm Menk, and Margret Menn for assistance. Ryan had an article in the last issue of Beyond Germanna which recaps the information.
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.