Hello Geraldine, thanks for your good wishes, I am trying to stay calm and collected and am looking forward to a great time. Well, SCHAEFER with one F or two is really a bummer - as bad as SChmidt and Mueller. In my 'Guide' I listed a few, and then I wrote "over twenty of these Schaefer's discharged in Canada alone, not even counting the one's discharged or deserted in the U.S.A. Your only help has to come from little details in American records for age, place of birth, possible relatives, friends and comrades who stuck with him. No use to look for in German military records before having some background. btw. I think the plaque is still available at http://www.crbronzeworks.com/hessian Last year I bought five of them at once and got a better deal. I am taking the last one with me to Germany, we found a worthy place for it and I will talk about on the list when I come back end of June. Cheers, and good luck to you on your search for your Hessian. John Helmut Merz, ----- Original Message ----- From: Jeri Schindler To: jmerz@cogeco.ca Sent: Monday, May 16, 2005 1:39 PM Subject: plaque photos Hello John, Since this message is one from a stranger to you, may I say by way of introduction-- My grandparents on both sides of my family were Germans. It is my father's gggrandfather, (George) Christian Schaeffer, who was the Hessian soldier in the Amer Rev War. There is confusion about just what happened to him One of his gggrandaughters wrote that he was taken prisoner at Trenton. But from information in Doehla's diary and Seidel's list of POWs who deserted or remained here, it appears that he didn't arrive until well after that battle. Bob Brooks says he was in Major von Stain's company in the Ansbach Regiment. But I haven't found any info on von Stain or troop movements of that company so far. And though it seems possible, I don't know whether he was actually in the Ansbach-Bayreuth Regiment. Perhaps there were Schaeffers from other units who stayed behind? I just don't know where to look. So be it. What I do know is that he was born in Germany in 1755 (where unknown), married in Philadelphia at the German Reformed Church in 1788, settled in Berks County, Pennsylvania (where he is buried), had 3 farms in that county (I've found some of the tax records for one), had 8 children (I have names and birthdates for all but one--my gggrandfather), and the same cousin who thought he was a POW at Trenton says he established a grist mill in PA (I have found no record of it to date). As a Johnny-come-lately (Hessian-descendant-come-lately?)--anyway new to the search for my recently discovered Hessian, I'd gladly put a plaque at his grave in Pennsylvania and send you a picture of it--if such plaques were still available! Sorry I can't do that, but I hope you have a wonderful and fruitful trip to Germany. I think you'll be welcomed as a German who has come back home. Sincerely, Jeri (Geraldine) Schindler Klamath Falls, Oregon