This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Shaffer Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/3hGBAEB/396.453.460.572.1.1 Message Board Post: Thanks for the info about Shaffers. I found out from my MIL before she died at age 90 in 2000, that her grandfather Conrad Shaffer was illegitimate and we don't know who his father was and just where he got the name Shaffer, his maternal grandfather, I am assuming. His older "sister" might have really been his birth mother; later she was the only one who knew the identity of his father and she absolutely refused to tell anyone. We know nothing prior to his name. His son was Frank Shaffer married to a Mossie Williams in 1906. Their daugher was my husband's mother Mildred Adele Shaffer Schairer. 1910 to 2000. Frank had a bunch of brothers, I think or a couple and some sisters. Not sure if a brother or cousin might have been named Fred or not. How old is Fred now? Sandy