roots

on friday i went to my boss's father's funeral. his eulogy spoke of him coming over from germany when he was 16 to escape the horrors of a nazi regime. wow!

it got me to thinking.. where am i from anyway??

dad always said he was german, making up words that sounded somewhat german, and mom never really knew, so i decided to get the free trial at ancestry.com and see what i could find out.

i trace my mom's side first. i don't get far with her dad's name, so i follow her grandma's maiden name: belden. turns out my people really do not like to move around much. i keep linking through sets of parents..

1900s - Kansas.

1800 - Kansas.. but wait! they moved from Pennsylvania! oh yeah, last time I checked Pennsylvania is not that exciting. but it's East Coast right? that means we're traveling across the ocean soon.

nope, the 1700s bring Connecticut.

1600s? yep, Connecticut. ok, what year was America discovered? good lord. and then it happens..

in 1591 my great-x10-grandfather was born in.. England! Richard Belding (no, not this Richard Belding) was born in Yorkshire and arrived in Connecticut in 1634. He was one of the first settlers from England, and the son of a Knight, Sir Francis George Baildon. ok, now we're getting somewhere.

other branches on my mom's side led to a few more from England, a couple from Ireland, and a whole pocket of Swedes. pretty cool that most were original settlers to New England.

along the way there's a bit of incestuousness, but it was just her step-brother so i guess we'll let it slide? so the tree didn't fork with old Polly Lynch.

ok, now on to the mother (or father) load. dad always said we were German. now let's find out. again with hundreds of years in Missouri and Tennessee.

seriously, we love the midwest.

then.. Canada?? no wait. that can't be right. before that they came from.. the Netherlands! i'm Dutch?! hm, not what i always imagined growing up, but dad also told me that i was born with a tail and they had to cut it off. in other words, he was full of a lot of stories. can't fib an old fibber, he'd always say.

but best that i can tell, Johann Heinrich Stophel was born in 1718 in Europe. he would be my great x4 grandfather. i think he also went by J. Henry Stoffel, who came to Pennsylvania on the ship Halifax on Sept 28, 1753. i first thought he was born in Rotterdam, Netherlands, but that appears to be just where the ship originated from. the more i think about it, it is likely that he was born in Germany and migrated through the Netherlands. so maybe dad was right after all!

the chain after Johann goes: Jacob Stoffle (1776-MD - also listed as an Ontario, Canada settler), Owen Morgan Stoffle (1819-TN), Daniel C Stoffle (1864-MO), Jewell Jesse Stoffle (1894-MO), and then dad, William Jewell Stoffle (1923-MO).

i'm not sure how accurate everything is, but it's safe to say i come from a long line of colonial settlers turned farmers.

and once we land in a spot, we like to put down roots.