My Siffrinn family has been one of my biggest brick walls for information. My gg grandparents Louis Siffrinn and Caroline Everhardt Siffrinn have been a tough line to follow. The going is slow but progress has been made lately, once again thanks to more and more documentation being added on line. My sources are coming from both ancestry.com and familysearch.org. For even more help I joined “the Conservatory” group on Facebook for direction on the spelling of the name.
From the Conservatory I learned that the name could be spelled Siffermann and that my gg grandmother’s name Everhardt might be spelled Eberhard. I have wondered all along if the names had been Americanized once they came to the states and just how much change had been made.
Family search turned up even more information. From marriage records to her second husband and his second marriage I was able to determine a good deal of information. Caroline’s second marriage application to William Siffirinn, her brother-in-law, revealed that her husband, Louis Siffrinn had died October of 1888. This was the first time that I saw her maiden name of Everhardt and her father’s first name, Louis. It also had the names of her in-laws, John and Christina Siffrinn. Their marriage record also showed me that they were still living in Norristown, Pennsylvania in 1890. The record also proved the family relationship of both her husbands.
From William Siffrinn’s second marriage record I found the March 1911 death date of Caroline. It also contained the maiden name of William’s mother that I read as Ronen.
With a clearer idea of how long the family had stayed in Norristown, Pennsylvania, I went back to the ancestry search and entered Siffrinn and Norristown and set the search to be specific to those 2 elements. My results had several Siffrinns in Norristown in the late 1800s city directory. I found a Sophia/Sophie, Lena, Augusta, Mary and William. Some of the entries were for Siffrinn and others spelled Siffrin. Ancestry search was not turning up all of the listings for Norristown in all of the available directories no matter how I entered information into the fields. To make sure I wasn’t missing anything, I continued the search by going through each directory one page at a time, through the “S” listings. From 1888 – 1908 I found listings for the family including one for my g grandfather Peter L Siffrinn. Sophia, Augusta, and Mary were all daughters of Louis and Caroline. William was her brother-in-law/husband and Lena was Caroline’s nickname.
In the 1888 directory Caroline, listed as “Lena,” had listed herself as the widow of Louis. From the marriage records I knew that Louis had died in 1888. I selected the Norristown directory for 1886 and hand searched the “S” listings to see if they were in the city at that time. I found Louis Seffren, glassblower, listed. I would not have found this entry without hand searching this directory. I could not find the family in the 1884 Norristown directory. My missing years are now from 1879 – 1886.
With the information I now had I went back to family search to see if I could find anything in the German records. My first discovery was what I believe to be the birth record for William Siffrinn. The documentation has his name spelled Wilhelm Sifrin, father, Johann Sifrin, and mother Christina Raven. He was christened on May 21, 1864 at Buesbach, Rheinland, Prussia. I had misread Christina’s maiden name once I double checked the marriage certificate for William.
Also listed as a child of Johann Siffrin and Christina Raven is Helena Siffrin, christened Feb 11, 1867, Buesbach, Rheinland, Prussia.
As I continued to adjust the search fields I found the marriage information for Louis and Caroline in Germany. The document information dated August 30, 1872, was for Ludwig Sifrin and Carolina Eberhad at Evangelisch, Weitten, Westfalen, Prussia. A second document information is listed for Ludwig Siefrin and Caroline Eberhard, dated September 1, 1872 at Katholisch, Witten, Westfalen, Prussia.
The christening of two of Ludwig and Caroline’s children also were listed. Louis Siefrin, christened April 8, 1873 at Katholisch, Witten, Westfalen, Prussia and Sophia Carolina Siefrin, christened April 2, 1874, at Buesbach, Rheinland, Prussia. I didn’t have Louis in my family listing and had just discovered Sophia in the directories for Norristown, Pennsylvania.
I am still missing the immigration records for Louis, Caroline and family and more detailed information on their German roots but I have come a long way.