Dear Geraldine, eh, Jeri Schindler; I assume that Arrah (Jim) Spohn wrote to you direct, he most certainly wanted to help you, and he does know where his Hessian soldier came from. I tried to help you too, after all, I put your first mail to me over this mail list. I did mention that we have to know a few more details, because there are too many of the same name who stayed in America, as Bob Brooks found out when he tried to help with a Christian Schaeffer of the Ansbach-Bayreuth troops. Did somebody else pointing you in the same direction? Well now, in a posting of yours last week, you mentioned that your Christian SCHAEFER was from Bad Nauheim, and that information, if true, opens a whole new possibility. Mind you as far as the age of 15 at time of capture is concerned, I am not sure, I can't check that out anymore, but I am 991/2 % sure, he was the Hessen-Hanau soldier of the Regiment Erbprinz, who sold himself on 11. Sep. 1782 at Reading, PA, and he was a comrade of Henrich SPAHN, Jim Spohn's ancestor, and of Gottfried WESTPHAL, who is connected to my wife's line in Germany, and Peggy's, distant cousin to my wife :--) You (or someone who has that volume) can check this out in Hetrina VI, and in Clifford Neal Smith's Monograph No.5, where you can find many entries for Christian, under the name Schaefer and Scheeffer. So forget about Trenton, forget about Yorktown, he was captured at Saratoga in October 1777, and was a member of the Convention Army. Hey, how about that. here we find a comrade of Spahn and Westphal, they all went through the same adventures. Somebody should write a book about those guys. Greetings, John Helmut Merz retired (I have to tell me that all the time) ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jeri Schindler" <2shins@charter.net> To: <AMREV-HESSIANS-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Friday, June 03, 2005 3:37 PM Subject: [HESSIAN] Schaffer at Reading > Arrah (Jim) > > >How did you find out so much about... > > >From cousins and other researchers of Schaffer,and tax records, cemetery records, census, Berks County PA Historical Society, this list, the Family History Library at Salt Lake. I bought books: Dohla's diary, C.N. Smith's "British and German Deserters...", POW List from J.S.H.A. Some of these at least provided negative info--so I look somewhere else. > > Really, Jim, I'm very new to genealogical searching, so I just stumble around and stab here and there--sometimes with the good fortune to meet some really knowledgeable genealogists. The nearest I found for your Kaspar Spohn is from <SNIP - in order not to confuse Jim and other readers) >

This is of interest to me not just because of the possibility of being a comrade of Gottlieb Westphal/ Westfall, but also because one of my mother's sisters married a Schaeffer whose family was in Berks Co. for a long time. And they spelled the name with all the letters - Schaeffer. My cousin sent all of his papers to the F&M library NOT to the JSHS. My last contact, several years ago, with F&M indicated that they had not done anything with this material. If I am able to find anything further on what they have done by way of a listing or cataloging I will notify the list. Peggy Lyte Tyrrell, desc, of Gottlieb Westfall/Westphal and a distant cuz of John's wife. john wrote: >Dear Geraldine, eh, Jeri Schindler; > >I assume that Arrah (Jim) Spohn wrote to you direct, >he most certainly wanted to help you, and he does know >where his Hessian soldier came from. > >I tried to help you too, after all, I put your first mail to me >over this mail list. I did mention that we have to know a few >more details, because there are too many of the same name >who stayed in America, as Bob Brooks found out when he >tried to help with a Christian Schaeffer of the Ansbach-Bayreuth >troops. Did somebody else pointing you in the same direction? > >Well now, in a posting of yours last week, you mentioned that >your Christian SCHAEFER was from Bad Nauheim, and that >information, if true, opens a whole new possibility. Mind you >as far as the age of 15 at time of capture is concerned, I am >not sure, I can't check that out anymore, but I am 991/2 % sure, >he was the Hessen-Hanau soldier of the Regiment Erbprinz, >who sold himself on 11. Sep. 1782 at Reading, PA, and he was >a comrade of Henrich SPAHN, Jim Spohn's ancestor, and of >Gottfried WESTPHAL, who is connected to my wife's line >in Germany, and Peggy's, distant cousin to my wife :--) > >You (or someone who has that volume) can check this out in >Hetrina VI, and in Clifford Neal Smith's Monograph No.5, >where you can find many entries for Christian, under the name >Schaefer and Scheeffer. So forget about Trenton, forget about >Yorktown, he was captured at Saratoga in October 1777, and >was a member of the Convention Army. > >Hey, how about that. here we find a comrade of Spahn and >Westphal, they all went through the same adventures. >Somebody should write a book about those guys. > >Greetings, >John Helmut Merz >retired (I have to tell me that all the time) > > >----- Original Message ----- >From: "Jeri Schindler" <2shins@charter.net> >To: <AMREV-HESSIANS-L@rootsweb.com> >Sent: Friday, June 03, 2005 3:37 PM >Subject: [HESSIAN] Schaffer at Reading > > > > >>Arrah (Jim) >> >> >> >>>How did you find out so much about... >>> >>> >>>From cousins and other researchers of Schaffer,and tax records, cemetery >> >> >records, census, Berks County PA Historical Society, this list, the Family >History Library at Salt Lake. I bought books: Dohla's diary, C.N. Smith's >"British and German Deserters...", POW List from J.S.H.A. Some of these at >least provided negative info--so I look somewhere else. > > >>Really, Jim, I'm very new to genealogical searching, so I just stumble >> >> >around and stab here and there--sometimes with the good fortune to meet some >really knowledgeable genealogists. The nearest I found for your Kaspar >Spohn is from <SNIP - in order not to confuse Jim and other readers) > > > > > >