Hello Sharp Family!
It's been a while since I posted an update but I have finally found the Sharps in Germany and am ready to share that information with you.
First, the German name for Sharp is Scherb and Sarah Eve Diffanie is actually Sarah Eve Diffenbach. I took a course called Germanology Unlocked and they steered me to a site called Archion where you can search the original German Churchbooks, which is where all the German records on families are kept. I will give a brief outline of the family but if anyone wants a more detailed explanation or copies of the German documents, I am happy to either email it to you or if you have an Ancestry.com account, I have made my tree shareable. I am waiting on a couple of original documents in the next week, but then I am going to send the entire file to Livingston County, MO library so that others can research the information.
Adam Sharp (born Georg Adam Scherb), 1797–1874 — His Life in Germany
Birth and Baptism
Adam Sharp was born Georg Adam Scherb on 12 Apr 1797 in Höpfigheim, Württemberg, Germany. He was baptized in the local Lutheran parish, where his family had lived for generations.
Parents
Adam was the son of:
Johann Peter Scherb (born 1765 in Höpfigheim)
Helena Dorothea Trautwein (born 1773 in Steinheim)
Both parents lived their entire lives in Württemberg. Neither emigrated to America. Peter was a Bürger und Weingartner or citizen and vineyard gardener, which could have been he grew grapes, managed plot of vines, or he sold grapes or wine locally.
Siblings
Adam had several siblings, all documented in the Höpfigheim Familienregister. Only Adam and his brother Johann Jakob Scherb eventually emigrated, with Jacob settling in Franklin County, PA. The sisters, Margaretha Dorothea and Christina Barbara remained in Württemberg, marrying and raising families in nearby towns such as Aalen.
Grandparents
Adam’s grandparents on the Scherb side were:
Johann Michael Scherb (the younger) — born 1709
Maria Barbara Pfeiffer — born 1713
Johann Michael was a Bürger und Zingler (citizen and twiner), a trade involving twisting fibers for rope or cord. This occupation appears repeatedly in the Scherb family.
On the Trautwein side, Adam’s grandparents were:
Johann Georg Trautwein
Anna Barbara (surname varies by record)
The Trautwein family also lived in Höpfigheim and surrounding villages for generations.
Great‑Grandparents
Adam’s great‑grandparents on the Scherb line were:
Johann Michael Scherb (the elder) — born ca. 1680–1710
Anna Maria (maiden name not yet confirmed)
This couple appears in the earlier Höpfigheim family tables. They are the origin of the two “Johann Michaels” that required careful distinction in your research.
The Scherb Family in Württemberg
The Scherb family lived in Höpfigheim for over 150 years before Adam’s birth. They appear consistently in:
baptism records, marriage registers, death entries, the Familienregister (family book) and local occupation lists
The surname appears in several spellings:
Scherb, Scherp, Scherpp, Scherpf
All refer to the same family.
Adam’s Emigration
Adam applied to emigrate in 1817, at age 20. His emigration application included his parents and his siblings and his intention to leave Württemberg for North America.
He arrived in Philadelphia by December 1819, where he opened a bank account under the name Adam Sharp — the Americanized form of Scherb.
Life in America
Adam settled first in Pennsylvania, then moved west with his wife and children, eventually reaching Livingston County, Missouri, where he died in 1874. His will, written May 3, 1858, lists his wife and children and confirms his identity as the same man born in Höpfigheim. Some Ancestry trees list Adam and his siblings living with a Pfister family in 1808, but this is not the actual Scherb Familienregister. The real Familienregister on Archion shows Adam's parents, Johann Peter Scherb and Helena Dorothea Trautwein, with 10 children. The Pfister Familienregister (the one misinterpreted on Ancestry) includes the note "all other children died young" and shows Adam and his brother Jakob as the only two children who emigrated to America. The 1817 emigration application lists Peter and Dorothea Scherb and their four living children, which matches the Archion Familienregister. Because the parents were preparing to emigrate, it is likely that the children were temporarily listed in the Pfister household for parish registration purposes - a common practice when families were transitioning between residences or preparing for departure.
Tomorrow I will upload another blog on what I have on Sarah Eve Diffenbach Sharp.
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