Thursday, January 14, 2010

Huffman-Hoffman Family Treasures

A dear friend reminded me of some Heirloom items I have. They are on and part of a Currier and Ives Chart that my Great Great Great Great Great Great Grandfather filled out for his family in the 1870's. Mom has the original and I have a copy though it is in black and white not the colored in the frame.

Henry Huffman later with his changing of last name to Hoffman wrote this document for his family. I also understood that each child received a copy. Though I have not heard from two of the descendant lines the other lines recalled seeing it in their family.
It was my first major error in genealogy. Mom requested I fill in the blanks that data was not in the document. I added one date then said to MOM but this is the original the data should go on a copy not this page. She was afraid the data would be lost but I did not add more to it. I took it to town and copied it then added to my black and white working copy and filed the black and white original copy with my error.

I also have a original copy of the letter he wrote stating why he was changing his last name. It states with five Henry Huffman's in his neighborhood he was getting tired of walking mail over hill or down stream to the correct one. Seems a child came home from school and had learned that HUFFMAN name did not exist at that time in
Germany and it was originally HOFFMAN. So he changed his name back to what he said he was told was the correct spelling of the name and did not have to take mail to cousins, nephews etc to disperse it to the correct person.

I have signatures of many of his children and grandchildren. I would not of thought of it but had started collecting them when the Currier and Ive's Document was found in
Mom's possession.

She had received many different things over the years and had forgotten she had it.
I believe I am a signature of my direct line down to myself. I have to check but may even have a signature of his father. Have not located docuements regarding his grandfather but other family members said they did have them. His father was Henry Huffman dcd 1811-2 Dec Jan . Will probated Jan 1812. Nor have I found his grave.
I do know where his land was at and suspect his body somewhere on those grounds.
His grandfather would be JOHN HUFFMAN/ HOFFMAN we beleive both were used .

So I have autographs of my direct ancestor's back to Henry Huffman HOFFMAN of Greene Co PA.

No comments:

Post a Comment