Some Background, as if you really wanted to know, but you might

And so it begins. Here is my mother and Daddy with me as a baby

When I was younger, we lived with my grandparents. One of my favorite things to do on a boring rainy Sunday afternoon when my grandmother had a free moment, was to sit down next to her looking at her pictures. She would tell me who everyone was and tidbits of history associated with them. I swore at the time I would never forget. After all she was the most special person in the world to me and how could I ever forget what she told me? Right? Hence 40
years later I realize I should have written it down. She passed away in 1982. A little over 8 months after my Opa died. I really thought I would have more time with her. When death comes, it doesn't usually come when it is convenient or when you are ready.


I have been trying to research my relatives for decades now. Ever since we got online service with the dial up modem in 1995, I have been searching . With my grandparents last name being Stapf, I thought for sure this would be easy. It is not a common last name , but yet I have not been able to pin point where the ancestors are in the digital world. Apparently there are no actual links to the persons that are on internet as far as Genealogy goes

 Onward to my grandmother.....I thought for sure I would be able to find something on her and her family. After all, her father was a Count. Their last name was Von Brand. But no links that I can find there either.

Problems in this thinking is that I only read and speak English. My German is minimal at best.  I know enough to sift through some articles or web sites. I now know that Brand translated to English is fire. Type in Brand and there are lots of pictures of fires.

That is only my mothers side of the family.

As far as my Fathers side. I have two. There is the one who fertilized the egg and then there is Mr. Wade aka Daddy. As far as Genealogy goes, I think I got somewhere with Daddy's, and his stories that he told kind of match up to what I found. I found a picture of some Field Marshall in England, who favors my father a lot. That was exciting!

As for the one who made my mother pregnant, he was one of the children of the families in El Salvador who sent his son to school in the US during the late 50's , early 60's. One of the 17 or 20 families who ran the country. I have a name, I have an old address and needless to say, no knowledge of the language there either. Figures I took French due to my grandfather insisting it was the language to learn. I didn't like it and gave it up after 2 years. I could find some things on the internet but there again nothing concrete. I even tried looking him up on Facebook and sent a message, but with no results on my end. I have no idea if he is still living or what on earth he looked liked. I have tried looking at several online yearbooks in the Washington DC area as far as colleges go, and always a brick wall.

It's as if no one really existed. I am sure as time goes on everything will be available to a point on the internet, but until then I have to sit and wait for it to happen. This is my contribution to making it happen.