The "No Need To Spit In A Tube On This Homestead" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Talking to a friend about one of my Christmas gifts I received a few years ago.  My wife gave me a chance to visit my ancestors by spitting in a tube and sending it to Ancestry.com.  Sounded pretty neat so I spit and waited; and waited.  After a month or so I emailed the e-address I was given and was told I would be getting the results soon.  What I received was telling me my ancestors were Scotch-Irish.  Big deal!  I already knew that since my grandmother had told me that when I was a youngster.  I thought maybe I would find out I had some romantic or adventurous background, but I guess that just wasn't me.  The "Woods" name is rather hard to research and Ancestry.com wasn't a bit of help in my case.  Not so for those living in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and have the name of Stoltzfus.  Seems that of the 550,000 people who live in Lancaster County, nearly 10,000 of them have the surname of Stoltzfus.  The majority of them live in the Amish settlement of Lancaster County, which includes parts of Chester and York counties.  Most of these people can trace their relatives to one couple, Nicholas and Anna Elizabeth Stoltzfus, who were the only Stoltzfuses to emigrate to America in 1766.  They traveled west and settled in what has become known as the Stoltzfus Homestead along the Tulpehocken Creek in Wyomissing, Berks County.  Christian, one of their sons, moved back to Lancaster County in 1800.  His homestead still remains south of Leola along Stumptown Road.  The Amish settlement in the area is now approximately 25% Stoltzfus.  Over time some have forsaken the Amish culture and have become "English", thus there will be many more "English" Stoltzfuses living in Lancaster County in the future.  All this information was found in the book "German Lutherans to Pennsylvania Amish: The Stoltzfus Family Story" which was written by Nic Stoltzfus (who else would have written it!).  The book tells the story of six generations of the family spanning over 200 years as they find a path forward from one faith to another, through many different countries and cultures, during times of war and peace, and through love and loss.  

Stoltzfus Homestead as shown in the Stoltzfus' new book.

Elam Stoltzfus, Nic's father, has taken many of the photos for the book which add to the interest of the book.  At one time the Pennsyl- vania Department of Transportation was planning to demolish the Stoltzfus homestead for new roads, but petitioners kept the house from being demolished.  If you want an interesting read, pick up a copy of the book and you will see whom I get to see every day of my life while living in Lancaster County.  What's really neat is that all those Stoltzfuses will never have to spit in a tube and send it off to find out about their heritage as I did.  Should have saved the spit so I could have spit on the sidewalk as my grandmother told me never to do!  She would yell at me if she caught me spitting when I was a young boy...matter of fact, she also did that when I was a grown man.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.