Ann's Ancestors: The Siffords

The Sifford family of Rowan County, North Carolina, goes back to Stephan Seyfried of Switzerland, and has been researched for several decades by Harry T. Sifford. Early, while the family was still in Germany, the Seyfried /Siefert / Sifford family intermarried twice with the Edelmann Family, which is also represented here. My great great grandfather, Henry Edleman Sifford, is my branch of the Sifford clan.

In the late 1700's, five Sifford men, brothers and cousins, left for the west. They settled for some time in Kentucky, and then moved on to Cape Girardeau and then Stoddard County, Missouri where, apparently, they were taking advantage of patents awarded for service in the War of 1812. It is not clear when in their travels they were in the military.

Here the story becomes somewhat confused. Because of living on the frontier, these pioneers lacked education and could not read or write. They left no letters or diaries. Then, in 1848, the plague swept through Stoddard County, taking several Siffords with it. The orphans and widows from this epidemic were taken into the remaining families. From then on, it is almost impossible to sort out one family from the other, to know who were the parents of whom.

Shortly after this time, several members of the family moved on, some to Arkansas, some to California. My ancestor, Henry Edleman Sifford, took his small family and traveled by ox cart to the west. The trip is described in an article about William Hezekiah Sifford, son of Henry Edleman Sifford.