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For at least ten years, I have wanted to trace my family back to the "Old Country." When I traveled through the Black Forest and visited Heidelberg in 1985, I was curious to know if any of my ancestors had lived in, or journeyed through, the area. When I helped my son with a "family roots" assignment in junior high school, I was frustrated by how little we knew of our ancestry. I collected as much information as I could at that time from my mother and other living relatives. In the past few years, most of them have passed away. It made me realize just how difficult the task would be to make the connections to the past. I thought at the time that the project would have to wait until my retirement. During the past year, however, I have been delighted to discover distant relatives living in other parts of the United States who have been working on the Dofflemyer/ Tafelmeyer family for many years. Most of these contacts were made using the Internet. These folks have been wonderful in providing information to help me develop this narrative.
A person named Hans Tafelmayer, a carpenter, was buried in Oberlenningen, in the state of Württemberg, in the Holy Roman Empire in 1679. It is possible that he is the father of the first documented ancestor, David, listed below. It may be very difficult, if not impossible, however, to establish a connection.
It would be interesting to trace the lineage between the earliest documented ancestor, David, and people living in Germany today to see if common ancestors can be identified or located. Ulrike Christofori, a native of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany and currently a linguistics and German instructor at San Joaquin Delta College in Stockton, recently did a telephone search in Germany for the name "Tafelmeier" (and similar spellings). The search turned up over 250 people, almost all of them living in the southern part of Germany. It is almost certain that many of them are related to early descendants of the family. I hope to go to Germany in 2000 and try to locate an ancestor. The documented ancestors are as follows:
First Generation--David Tafelmeyer (1639-1713)
OBERLENNINGEN, WÜRTTEMBERG
Second Generation--Andreas Taffelmayer (1673-?)
MOVED TO NECKARBISCHOFSHEIM, BADEN
Third Generation--Johannes Taffelmeyer (1709-?)
IMMIGRANT TO ENGLISH AMERICA
Fourth Generation--Michael Tofflemire (1744-1830s)
MOVED TO COLONY OF VIRGINIA
Fifth Generation--Henry Dofflemyer (1782-1861)
MOVED TO IOWA TERRITORY
Sixth Generation--Isaac Dofflemyer (1821-1889)
MOVED TO THE OREGON TERRITORY
Seventh Generation--Cyrus William Dofflemyer (1858-1918)
MOVED TO STATE OF OREGON
Eighth Generation--Lewis Earl Dofflemyer (1895-1972)
MOVED TO STATE OF CALIFORNIA
Ninth Generation--(THIS IS ME) William Earl Dofflemyer
(1936- )STOCKTON, CALIFORNIA
Any help with information about any of the above listed people, or the family in general would be appreciated. I am especially interested in making a connection in Germany.
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