GROFF MISCELLANEOUS INFO

My GROFF line goes back to "Swamp John GRAF of Martic".  I greatly admire people such as Clyde and Walter GROFF and Jane Evans BEST who spent years, money, and probably frustration trying to separate and organize the GRAF/GROFF/GROVE/GRAEFF lines of Lancaster County into a reasonable pattern. I have both Vol 1 and 2 of the GROFF Book.  

I understand there are some mistakes, and disagreements with exactly who some of the people are and how they are related. It is certainly not a project I would want to take on. If nothing else, these books give a rational foundation and starting place for anyone searching for GROFF roots in Lancaster County, PA.

According to the GROFF Book Vol. 1 (pg. 1): the GRAF family was recorded as living in Bettswil, Switzerland in 1469. 

Source: iStock

In 1541 there are three GRAF families listed as living there.  I have seen previous articles that the GRAF and BARR/BEAR/BAHR/BARE families were from the same area and very interconnected, even to the point of traveling to colonial America on the same ships.  I do not claim to have done any research on the family prior to their arrival in colonial America and to date have depended on other people who have more time and financial resources than I do.

They may have converted to the Mennonite faith in 1525  when a traveling Anabaptist named Konrad GREBEL preached in the town church. The GRAF men are listed as teachers in the town documents.

 In 1651, a Jagli GRAF moved from Bettswil with his wife and seven children to Sinsheim in the Palatinate. With Jagli GRAF went Hans Jagli GRAF (brother??) and his wife and one child. Along with them went another man named Hans GRAF.

In 1656  a document naming an Anabaptist,  Jacob GROFF, a resident of Steinfurt in the domain of the Pfalz.

Source: Free Images

On 2 March 1661 a group of Anabaptists attended an illegal meeting at Steinfurt near Sinsheim in the Kraichgau area of (now) Germany. According to the GROFF Book Vol. 1, there is no known surviving record that completely ties these GRAF's to those who later turned up in Lancaster County, but the same last names appear over and over again together in various documents. On the list for fines in regard to attending the above illegal meeting are found these Grafs:

Hans Jacob GRAFF of Venningen- church grounds keeper - with his wife and servant
Jacob GROFF of Steinfurt - five in all

Source for above: GROFF Book Volume 1 by Clyde GROFF, Walter GROFF, and Jane Evans BEST 1985

PLEASE NOTE: 
ALL PHOTOS AND WRITTEN CONTENT ARE MY OWN UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED.