It seems like I'm always working on the Traphagen family, or at least keeping my eyes open for the name everywhere I go. Scanning the Internet has been a good way to pick up tidbits and leads. There are Genealogy Databases online but I seem to find more just browsing for the name, looking for e-mail or other addresses and in the articles. I see the names of many Traphagens and Traphagans I've written to but have never responded. I'm sure they are very busy, but one thing I have found is that they tend to be skeptical of other peoples intentions. Hopefully this homepage will help alleviate some of that skepticism.

        I'm getting ready to send out another newsletter in Spring, 1999. It may be out before I get this Page on the Internet. It's basically the same, it gives a little info on me and what I'm looking for. I also tell of my visit from Friedrich Traphagen of Bissendorf, Germany as well as other Traphagens I've heard from over the last couple of years.

        I continue researching the family in Germany. Working with Freidrich Traphagen, Christoph Traphagen of Munich and Manfred Weiss, an architect at Hannover, we are having the records of the church at Luthe searched for all Traphagen listings. Most of the Traphagens in Germany today descend from the branch that left Lemgo and went to settle at Luthe. This is also the line of the Traphagen emmigrants that settled in Chicago, New Orleans, and Perry County, Indiana. We hope this will give us much information to straighten out some confused family areas.

        Lillian Wardlow of Lincoln, Nebraska published a book on her branch of the Traphagen family. Her mother in law was a Traphagan, but they pronounce the name Traffagan with the ph pronounced as an f. She traces the Nebraska Traphagans back to Willem Jansen Traphagen, but focuses on the descendants of Robert Isaac Traphagan of Vinton County, Ohio and Red Willow County, Nebraska. It's a large family and the book has over 400 pages. She ran a limited printing that is sold out and doesn't plan a second printing.

        Thanks to the Internet I made contact with Christine Sancton in St John, New Brunswick. Henry Traphagen was a Loyalist in the Revolution, living in New York City. At the end of the war he took his family into exile in Canada. She is helping me trace any desendants he may have had in Canada, some of whom may have returned to the United States. One daughter married a Sancton and has numerous descendants in New Brunswick.

        I found mention in an old German Lexicon that the village of Trophagen south of Lemgo was first mentioned in records as early as 1406. I sent this to Christoph Traphagen and he was able to find the original document in the Stadt Archiv at Detmold. He sent me a copy and Friedrich provided a partial translation and we found it was not about the village at all but two Trophagen brothers. At Lemgo in February 1406 two brothers, Rotgert and Cordt Traphagen were granted a lease for five years from the Count of Lippe for several fishing lakes in the southern area of Lippe near modern Schlangen. This shows that the family name of Trophagen or Traphagen goes back until at least 1406 in that area. Previous to this document, the earliest Traphagens found were in a 1511 Tax list at Lemgo

        One of the reasons for this Home Page is to encourage anyone with a Traphagen ancestry to contact me. As you can see this is an on going project that will eventually end in the publication of a volume or two on Traphagens in the world. I have leads that Traphagens went to England and Australia, so here are new avenues to pursue. Still much of the information I am searching for is on Traphagens since the turn of the 20th Century down to the present. If you can supply information back to 1900 then I can possibly supply your ancestors back several generations. But first you have to contact me!

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