My gg-grandfather, Simon SCHERMER, immigrated to Charleston from Amsterdam about 1835, when the import-export firm he worked for in Amsterdam went broke. He was born August 2, 1804, in Wormerveer, North Holland. His first job in Charleston was supposedly as a supervisor for the railroad out of Charleston. He later supposedly worked in an office for a "Mr. King." He eventually started his own cotton and cheese import-export business, and bought house #54 on Saint Philip Sreet on January 7, 1847. The house was demolished about 1949, and the Simons Fine Arts Center of the College of Charleston now stands on the site. Simon SCHERMER married Anna Dorothea GRAWE about 1846. She was born EMPTING in 1812 at Westbevern, Westphalia, Prussia [Germany]. She immigrated to Charleston about 1840, but lost her first husband, "Mr. GRAWE" (GREVE?, GRAVE?, pronounced "grave") and only child about 1841 during a yellow fever epidemic in Charleston. Simon and Dorothea SCHERMER had two children while living at #54 Saint Philip St. -- Josephine, October 26, 1848 (my g-grandmother), and Simon, Jr., April 20, 1850. Simon, Sr., became quite wealthy before he died in 1854 (yellow fever?). Dorothea traveled to Amsterdam to settle his estate, lived for a couple more years with her children in Charleston, and then moved to New Vienna, Dubuque County, Iowa, to escape "the unbearable heat and dangerous fevers of Charleston." She married a third time, and also outlived her third husband. But, that is another story. I have never been able to find a marriage record for Simon and Dorothea, birth/baptismal records for their children, or death/burial records for Simon (or Dorothea's first husband and only child). These people were Catholic. I have corresponded with St. Patrick's parish on Saint Philip Street., St. Mary's, and with the Charleston Diocese (St. John the Baptist) but they have no records of these SCHERMERs. I have not been able to find these SCHERMERs in the 1850 Federal Census Index. The only Charleston record I have been able to find for these people is the name "Simon SCHERMER" in Holcomb's (1985) SOUTH CAROLINA NATURALIZATION (1785-1850). Simon SCHERMER filed notice for naturalization December 28, 1844, Charleston. The names of Dorothea and her two children appear on a passenger list coming into New York City on October 9, 1854, after traveling to Amsterdam to settle her late husband's estate. There are plenty of records for Simon SCHERMER in Holland, but I have been unable to find anything else in Charleston. I will be looking in Hagy's books of Charleston city directories next. Our Wisconsin Historical Society has recently acquired them. And, someday I will try to find Simon SCHERMER in the Charleston probate records. Daniel Daniel J. Kortenkamp, Ph.D. dkortenk@uwsp.edu Dept. of Psychology University of Wisconsin fax: 715 346-2778 Stevens Point, WI 54481 http://www.uwsp.edu/acad/psych/dk/danielpg.htm