A letter from Johann Henrich Hoffman of "Oranien Caunti" (Orange County) to Johannes Steinseifer in Eisern has interesting bits of history in it. Hoffman had written to Steinseifer asking him to collect money that was due to Hoffman. Actually what we have are two documents, the letter and a "notarization" of the payment of the money.
Hoffman had moved to America in 1743, but, before going, had sold some goods to Henrich Jung of Eissern (Eisern). The debt had not been paid probably because of the physical difficulty of doing so. Knowing that Steinseifer was coming to America (in 1749), Hoffman asked him to collect and bring the money. Jung wanted an official record that he had paid so that he could show in the future that he had paid. They went to the City Hall in Siegen to have it recorded officially that he had paid. For this reason, the document has been preserved.
Why did Hoffman know that Steinseifer was coming to America? Our clue, which is incomplete, is that both of the men married women surnamed Schuster. No records have been found which show any relationship between the Schuster women, but it would seem that there would be some. We would generally think they were sisters.
The recording was done on the 10th of May in 1749. Steinseifer must have left Germany shortly after this, for he arrived in Philadelphia 19 September 1749, a time of four months or about 17 weeks. The trip on the ocean from Rotterdam to Philadelphia probably took 10 weeks and the other 7 weeks were probably taken with departure delays, the time to Rotterdam, and a delay in Rotterdam.
Johannes Steinseifer has 9 children in the Church Records at Roedgen, the nearest Protestant church to Eisern. The eldest son of Johannes, who was 24, did not come with this parents, though he did come 4 years later. Two of the sons were named Johannes Henrich and Johann Heinrich. The will of John Steinseifer was probated in 1757 and his four sons are named as John the Elder, Henrecus, John the Younger, and Henry. So one must be careful in distinguishing the boys. The witnesses to the will were Johannes Hoffman and John Towles. His neighbors in the will were Michael Smith, John Kains, Major William Roan, Henry Hoffman (who had requested that Steinseifer bring the money), and Jacob Manspile. This general area is on the eastern edge of the Robinson River Valley Germans.
These very interesting comments were published in "
Beyond Germanna
", on page 583, and were due to the efforts of several people: Ryan Stansifer, Mary Doyle Johnson, Friedhelm Menk, and Margret Menn.
(11 Aug 05)
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.