>Since the roll call went so well, I'd like to ask where >all our Yoder cousins > >Where are you located? Greetings from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada from Don Kauffman (dkauffma@planet.eon.net) We are about 300 miles from the Montana border in "Central Alberta" - I often think right on the edge of the world - but the air is pure and the water relatively clean so it's not too bad! My paternal great-grands were part of the "first wave" of Amish-Mennonite immigration to America. Kauffmans in 1737, probably, and Yoders in 1742. Berks Co. PA, then on to Somerset Co. Skipped on to Holmes Co. Ohio, over to Iowa, and in 1912 great-grandfather, Levi Yoder moved his family to Tofield, Alberta. My maternal great-grands were part of the "second wave of Amish-Mennonite immigration to America. Stalters in 1857,probably, and Stauffers in 1866. The Stauffers would have come sooner, but the American Civil War was on and so they waited in Altkirk, Alsace. Actually, they were trapped. If they stayed their sons would be drafted into Napoloen's army, if they came they would be right in the middle of another war. As soon as they could, they sailed to America (they had to "adjust" the ages of their oldest sons slightly in order to get past the authorities), settling in Illinois, then on to Nebraska when that territory opened up. My great grandfather John L. Stauffer was one of the leaders in the movement from Nebraska to Tofield, Alberta in 1910. Sources: AAMG, DJH, DBH, SSK, KCL, etc. - I have about 8 feet of library shelves filed with history and family history type books, including the Elias Kauffman Family Bible! And now - the World Wide Web. It has been very interesting discovering the resources that are available from the comfort of my own computer chair. I just wish that the Goshen archives would put their entire collection of obituaries and other goodies on-line! ginseng said, "No, don't be brief". But really I must stop. ******************************************************************** Researching: Kauffman, Stalter, Yoder, Swartzendruber, Stauffer, Roth Don Kauffman --------------- dkauffma@planet.eon.net Kauffman Homepage ---------- http://www.genealogy.org/~kauffman *********************************************************************