Arconti-King Family Tree

Book, Stonesifer Genealogy:

John Daniel Stonesifer, the immigrant ancestor of most of the persons of that name and blood descent in Maryland snd Pennsylvania, was born on Dec. 1, 1731 in Seelbach, Germany.

His parents nales are not known. However, the name of Stonesifer is a very old one, and it is said to Dean stone polisher. Some variations of its spelling -are Steinseifer, Steinseiffert Stonesifer, Stonecypher, and Stonecipher. Some recent infomaation indicates that his father was twice narried, and that John Daniel was the child of the second marriage. It is said that while he was still quite young, his father moved the family to a home in nearby Eiserfeld, and it was here that he grew up. This very old town is located about 70 miles east south-east of the famous old cathedral city of Cologne beside the Rhine River. Eiserfeld is thought to be the place where John Daniel's father was born - being one of 4 brothers. One of these four brothers is thought to be Johannes (John) Steinseifer who came to America in 1749. This area where our Stonesifer family ancestors lived is a very historic one, and in earlier days was known as the Principality of Nassau. Our home town of Eiserfeld was located in Nassau-Siegen, one of the five counties then comprisins this ancient principality. The house John Daniel grew up in was apparently built about 1561 and existed till 1961 when it was taken down because of its age.

Our John Daniel Stonesifer came to America on the Ship Halifax, captained by a Thomas Coatam. The ship had sailed from Rotterdam, Holland, the main port of emigration for Germans coming here, stopped off briefly in the English port of Cowes, and after a long sea voyage landed in Philadelphia on Friday, September 22, 1752. Historians tell us that such voyages lasted anywhere from seven to twelve weeks - & some even longer. All persons entering the port for settlement here, who were male & sixteen years of age or older, were required to sign an oath of allegiance to the British Crown. This our ancestor did , signing his name on a list in the State House (later Independence Hall) in Philadelphia as Johann Danniel Steinseiffer. He was 21 years old at the time. This information is from a three volume set of books by Strassburger and Hinke entitled Pennsylvania German Pioneers, and which has a wealth of material regarding arrivals in the city of Philadelphia between 1727 to about 1808.

John Daniel settled in the general area of Silver Run, not too far from Uniontown, Carroll Co., Md., but which in his day was Frederick Co., Md. In the History of Western Maryland by JD Thomas Scharf, Vo1.2, page 851, the author lists the names of some of the early pioneer settlers of the Uniontown area, and one of them is Stonesifer. It is our belief that he came to America because a half brother or cousin, Johannes Eberhardt Steinseifer, was a1ready living here. On Nov. 4, 1753 the Rev. Jacob Lischy, a traveling German Reformed minister, recorded that our John Daniel and an Anna Maria Sterner (also Steiner in those days) were the sponsors at the baptism of John Daniel, the new born son of Johannes Eberhardt and Anna Maria Steinseifer.

John Daniel was supposed to have been an only child, and it was handed down that he left a considerable fortune hehind him in Germany when he came here. It is probable that he left his native land for the same reason so many others had done so - repeated wars in Europe which usually used Germany as a battle ground, leaving the people there helpless and hopeless. Tradition credits him with being a school teacher, a qood singer, and one who often officiated as preacher in the absence of a pastor by conductinq catachetical classes, deliverinf funeral sermons, etc. He was a devoted member of the German Refomed Church, and helped to establish St. Mary's Union Church in Silver Run where Lutheran and reformed people worshiped together.

He was also a successful farmer in his time, and accumulated considerable real estate. ...

John Daniel and Maria Elizabeth Stonesifer became quite prosperous in their later years. This led to their often helping out children , close relatives, and neighbors when such persons needed a helping hand. On April 20, 1805 they sold to their son, Abraham Stonesifer, a tract of land of 108 acres for 500 pounds. ...

The transition from the unsettled conditions of Europe to frontier America was a very successful one for our great grandfather. (The term great grandfather in all cases should have another two or three greats preceding it, depending on the degree of descent of the reader, but the shortened form has been used for the sake of brevity and ease of usage). Undoubtedly there was a great deal of hard work involved in carving out "plantationa", as farms and home sites were then called, from the natural state of the land. Yet in most cases our first family prospered, eventually consisting of fourteen children - eight sons and six daughters.