My ancestor Jacob Scheitz, who changed him name to Sheets in America, arrived from Heidelberg to settle in Dansville/Sparta, NY about 1790. I'm hoping someone can tell me how to find out about Jacob Scheitz in Heidelberg, born about 1770.

baden-wurttemberg@rootsweb.com writes: >My ancestor Jacob Scheitz, who changed him name to Sheets in America, >arrived from Heidelberg to settle in Dansville/Sparta, NY about >1790. I'm hoping someone can tell me how to find out about Jacob >Scheitz in Heidelberg, born about 1770. Is this a common last name and is the spelling change common? I have Sheets relatives in Delaware/Maryland area. Funny how until now it never occurred to me to think it was a German surname. Kathleen

Taloskie@astound.net> Bcc: "Paul Rands" <paulrands@hotmail.com> References: <0B35C43E-EF0A-443B-8B3E-F189469C0B02@astound.net> X-Unsent: 1 Subject: Re: [BW] SCHEITZ/SHEETZ/SHEETS from Heidelberg Date: Sun, 19 Oct 2008 15:14:49 -0700 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1"; reply-type=original Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal Importance: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Windows Live Mail 12.0.1606 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V12.0.1606 Using Geogen and on-line German phone book, I see current listings for Schietz (rhymes with Sheets) is exactly one. There are 104 Scheitz (rhymes with bites) including a few around Heidelberg. There are 185 Schitz (rhymes with, never mind) with a minor concentration in Odenwaldkreis (county) which is not too far from Heidelberg. Thinking about this name, I think it possible that it was Schütz in Germany. It rhymes with shoots only more like sheewwtz but no dipthong. There are more than 12,500 Schütz in the modern German phone book. I can see how Schütz could become Scheitz (as spelled by an American) and easily how it could become Sheets although it would more likely evolve into Schutz (Shoots). So, the water gets muddier, hopefully on its way to getting clearer. Paul -------------------------------------------------- From: "The Smetzers" <kaloskie@astound.net> Sent: Thursday, October 16, 2008 5:55 PM To: <BADEN-WURTTEMBERG@rootsweb.com> Subject: [BW] SCHEITZ/SHEETZ/SHEETS from Heidelberg > My ancestor Jacob Scheitz, who changed him name to Sheets in America, > arrived from Heidelberg to settle in Dansville/Sparta, NY about > 1790. I'm hoping someone can tell me how to find out about Jacob > Scheitz in Heidelberg, born about 1770. > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > BADEN-WURTTEMBERG-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without > the quotes in the subject and the body of the message >