My west coast brother has informed me that today is "Ancestor Appreciation Day." Of course we all appreciate our ancestors, after all, where would we be without them?
But today I will write about one particular ancestor, because this is a story I have always enjoyed. My aunt, my mother's older sister, wanted to join the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR). Sixty years ago, when she was doing the research, it wasn't as easy as it is now, but she persisted and came up with a link to Phillip Von Steinmetz, also listed as Johann Philips Steinmetz. The family story, as my aunt recorded it, said that Phillip came to America before the Revolutionary War, fought in the war on the American side, survived, married, fathered 9 children and lived to a ripe old age.
The reason why he came to America wasn't exactly honorable, although there may have been extenuating circumstances. Maybe he was hungry? He was caught poaching (he killed the king's deer) and was going to be hung, but managed to escape and get on a ship to the new world. Since sailors were always in demand, he may have worked his way across the Atlantic. I'm just guessing at that, but it makes sense to me.
Gathering information now is easier than sixty years ago and I have been able to add some facts to the family legend.
Phillip Steinmetz was born in 1730, baptized in 1733, and was living in America before 1776. At age 37 (1767) he married Maria Magdalena (Schlauch) and they had one son.
He married Catherine Ann (Geiss) in 1780 at age 49, and they had seven children.
He then married Margeretha (Gertraund) and they had one child.
Life was not easy or necessarily long for wives in those days. Phillip died at 76 and is buried in Pennsylvania, where my mother's family comes from.
So there you have it. The life and legend of an ancestor whom I appreciate.
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