1 From the evidence I have found and accumulated here, I have come to the following tentative conclusions, which vary from what is found in many published genealogies of the Stalnakers. I have attempted to include only those facts which are proven, and indicate speculation as such. I would like to hear from anyone who has additional evidence for, against, or in addition to my reconstruction of the family. You can e-mail me at
[email protected]. Last updated June 29, 2006. Briefly, it appears that there were four Stalnakers (Samuel, Adam, George, Jacob), who first appear in the records together on the frontier in southwestern Virginia, from 1745 to 1756. After this, the beginning of the French and Indian War, they appear to have moved north for the duration of the war. The Pennsylvania Stahlneckers are descended from George, the West Virginia Stalnakers from Jacob, and the South Carolina (later Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi) family from Samuel's sons Samuel and (probably) Adam. Nancy Stalnaker, who married James Booth and eventually lived in Monongalia County, West Virginia, may have been a sister. Dreisbach researchers believe that Maria Dorothea Deiss, wife of Simon Driesbach, Jr., of Allen County, Pennsylvania, was the daughter of a Peter Theiss and an Elizabeth Stalnecker, born about 1710. I have been unable to find supporting records, but Elizabeth would be the right age to be another sister. A George Stahlnecker owned land in Upper Milford Township, Pennsylvania, from 1743 until his death in 1787. No record has been found that he was physically present in Pennsylvania during the brief period (1750?-1755?) when George Stalnaker appears in the southwest Virginia records, and the two are likely the same person.