Analysis. Parents of John Sifers (1)

Chet Seifers, a descendant of John Sifers (1), has speculated that John's father was Francis Scypeart/Cypeart, and that he came to America before 1745. If that's correct than son John would seem to have been born in America, rather than Germany. Chet may have been referring to Francis Scypeart of Orange/Chatham County NC, whose family history is apparently given in "Southern Kinsmen" by Grace Morrow Bryan. According to some genealogists

Francis Scypeart married Charity Townsend in Lancaster Co., Pennsylvania, where at least two children were born. About 1750, Francis moved his family to Orange Co., North Carolina. They are found later in the portion of Orange County that became Chatham Co., North Carolina. Francis, Sr. died near New Hope Creek in Chatham Co., NC, where his farm was located. Records indicate that the Cypert family were Quakers for many years. The family attended meetings at Cane Creek Meeting House in Orange County (Chatham County). Many family members were married at the meeting house and several family members are buried in the meeting house cemetery.

None of the (few) lineages for him on Ancestry World Trees (as of 30 November 2011) indicate a son "John", and it would seem strange that Eve, dau of John Sifers, would have been married in a Lutheran Church (Zion Evangelical, outside of Wytheville, Va), if John's family had been Quaker. However, the presence of Francis in Orange County/Chatham County in the 1750's is not inconsistent with the presence of John Sifers in Wythe County in the 1780's. A German community that included members with the surname Sifers (or spelling variants) was present in Orange County, NC. The minister of the Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church (ZELC) outside of Wytheville (The Rev. John Stanger) officiated at the marriage of Eve Sifers, daughter of John Sifers, when she married Abner Willis in 1804). Reverend Stangers answered a "call" from the ZELC in the 1770's. At the time he was a minister at a similarily named Lutheran Church in Orange County. This may indicate a connection between members of the church communities in the two areas. That in turn raises the possibility that John Sifers came to the Wythe County area from Orange County, NC, and that he may in fact have been related to Francis Scypeart. Additional work is need to see if Scypeart lived in the same area as the Orange County Zion Lutheran Church.

On the other hand, there is a Francis Scyphers who settled on Goose Creek in modern Montgomery County at a very early date.

German, Ulster, and English settlers from Pennsylvania, the Valley of Virginia, and the east streamed into the region and settled on land in the hope of eventually securing title. By the mid-1750s the best tracts of land in the county had been claimed. John Elswick (and later his widow) grazed horses on Crab Creek. William Ingles, near Ellett, Tobias Bright, near Lusters Gate, and Francis Cyphers were the principal inhabitants of the upper North Fork of the Roanoke River.

See:[http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NRHP/Text/64500684.pdf NPS Prehistoric and Historic Resources of Montgomery County.

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Category: Sifers Tapestry