Like all genealogy research, there are errors in this family tree. I only wish I knew where they were! I'm also sure there are assumptions and speculations that may prove to be incorrect. If you have corrections, suggestions, additions, or comments please contact me. I can be reached through the "Contact Us" page of my web site. This site, which includes a discussion forum, is dedicated to Hans Stauffer, the original Stauffer immigrant from 1710.
http://stauffer1710.com
I first became interested in genealogy as a teenager, after Richard E. Stauffer came knocking at my older (married) brother's door one Saturday morning; he claimed to be driving by and saw the Stauffer name on the mailbox. At this time Richard was doing research for his not-yet-published 1977 book, Stauffer Stouffer Stover and Related Families. Since Richard lived in Pennsylvania and my brother (and I, my parents and my siblings) lived in Connecticut, I've always found the "just driving by" claim to be dubious and thought it more likely that Richard found the Stauffer name in the phone book and drove by with the intention of determining the lineage of this Stauffer family. They quickly determined that Richard had already documented our branch of the family as he had visited my Uncle Henry Stauffer in Pennsylvania the previous year.
The book was published several years later and my father bought a copy. I remember reading the information provided by my uncle, amazed that he and my father was mentioned in a book! More amazing yet, this book showed how my father's grandfather, Leonard (which was far back as Uncle Henry knew about), was descended directly from Hans Stauffer, the immigrant who arrived in Pennsylvania in 1710.
Many years passed before I saw that book again, after Mom and Pop were both gone and my siblings and I were cleaning out the home we had grown up in. And we found many other things(some that we knew existed; some we knew nothing about) that revived my interest in genealogy:
A family Bible printed in Germantown, PA in 1776 (in German) that had been passed from father to son. The tradition was it went to the old son who himslef had sons;
The letter Pop had written during the Depression, responding to a job advertisement in an agricultural magazine, that caused him to move away from his PA Dutch Mennonite parents and 8 siblings to work in an apple orchard in Guilford, CT.;
A box of newspaper clippings, dating back to the turn of the 20th century, of births, marriages, and deaths of family members and friends.
Home movies made by Pop in the 1930's.
And, of course, many old family photos.
This revived my interest in genealogy, and I quickly discovered the PC and the Internet had revolutionized genealogy research since Richard E Stauffer was researching his book in the 1960's and 1970's.
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