I probably could search out more if I wanted to take the time but others in the family group have and ran into a brick wall on the German side. Both my grandmother's maiden surname and my grandfather's are prominent names that I've often wondered if there were a relationship but for all I know they could be as common as Smith or Jones. My uncle's wife's background was interesting. Her family history goes back to early settlers of upper NYS. Her daughter documented what she found through the genealogy sites. She turned up a tie to both a woman accused and allegedly burned as a witch as well as a woman captured by Indians whom she killed. There is a statue erected of her. Whether folklore or factual there is another story about her great-grandfather that was told in the family and was somewhat confirmed and written about in what I recall as Holiday magazine in an article about lost treasures. As related, he went up into the mountains in search of a lost cow and became lost himself until dark. In trying to find his way home, he stumbled into a hole or crevice and found a stash of gold coins. Too heavy to take, he took a few coins and intended to go back in the daylight. The coins he took with him proof of his tale. However, although he searched for years, it was never found again. Now this part of the state was still primarily wilderness even up through my young years so finding gold coins seems ludicrous. He lived in the Fort Ticonderoga area, prominent during the French and Indian war, the family theory is that the gold might have been secreted out of the Fort and hidden while they were under attack or about to be and those who secreted it killed or couldn't find it again either.

In earlier days, I might have pointed out the Holiday? lost treasure story on the Internet but subsequent attempts I've made have been fruitless.