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906 Thistle Lane
West Chester, PA 19380
2-2-79
Dear Joan, My brother Leo of New York City passed along to me for reply your
letter to him of December 25 last.
We have indeed researched passenger lists and have established that in:
Sept 1838 - a family by the name Stimmler departed the port of Le Havre for New York There was an earlier sailing from Rotterdam to Philadelphia in 1748. (This
would explain the existence of Stimmlers in the Phila city directories and New York City directories prior to the
arrival of the group above.)
We have established that our great-great Grandpa
Johann Stimmler 1791-1870 was on the Hampshire and that he settled in Manayunk
around December of 1838. Manayunk now a port of Philadelphia was at that time a suburb of rural character. He built
a farmhouse there on the corner of Shurs Lane and Tower St.
which still stands.
The earliest reference to Stimmler was located in the N.Y. public library by Leo.
It seems that Tobias Stimmer of Schaffhause had charge of the paintings for the clock face of the cathedral of Strasburg.
This work on the clock was completed in 1534. Strasburg is past 18 miles from Wilwisheim, the town from which
Johan Stimmler, his wife, Mary Magdalene (née Schmitt)
and their 7 children departed for America in 1838.
Around 7 years ago my brother Frank then living in New York as well,
lunched with a fellow Jerome Stimmler who was featured in TIME magazine highlighting his elecronics business. Jerome
remarked that he understood that his forebears had come from Germany. They were of Jewish ethnic heritage. Perhaps this
is the Owingen group to which you refer. Possibly they came over in the 1748 sailing from Rotterdam.
We have some photos of your great-great grand-dad,
your great granddad Franz Anton and family, whose daughter Bertha
is your grandmother Dingmann. We'd be happy to make you copies or answer any other questions.
Best wishes in 1979
Paul Stimmler
P.S. Reference the first page in ship sailings. These were researched in Europe,
as all New York immigrant records prior to 1895 were destroyed in a warehouse fire there. Leo went through the National Archives
back to 1800 for Philadelphia with no Stimmlers. This was before we learned of the Rotterdam sailing in 1748.
We have not researched Revolutionary War records yet. Might be an interesting
project.
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