My mother was a very quiet, shy, modest woman, and for this reason I could not persuade her to tell me much about the ancestors on her side of the family. She also comes from a fairly well-off farming family that has always lived in Harscheid. As well as the usual farm work her father also bred and sold horses. My mother often told us how she used to play with the young horses as a child. She must have had a happy childhood.

My grandparents on my father's side had five children -
three sons and two daughters:
 
1.

Christian Simon

, married, who lived in the
    village of Eichen where he managed a farm;
 
2.

Anna Katharina

, married to a man called
    

Adolphs

, who stayed on the farm Zum Hoff;
 
3.

Kaspar Heinrich Simon

, my father;
 
4.

Ferdinand Simon

, unmarried, who died young;
 
5.

Louise Simon

, married to the farmer
    Wilhelm

Schuhmacher

, who lived in Lützingen.
Her descendants still live there.

I found the following dates, concerning the Simon family, in the church register in Waldbröl:
 
1.

Johann Thomas Simons

,
   date of birth unknown

(probably about 1690;
  ­it is likely that he was a son of Henrich and
  Gertrud Simonis, born 1660 resp. 1662, who
  are mentioned in the inscription of the
  

)

 
2.

Johannes Bertram Simons

,
   born Sept.15th 1720 *,
   married to

Anna Catharina Adolphs
 

3.

Johann Bertram Simon

, born 1748 *
   (from 1748, the final "s" is dropped)
 
4.

Johann Bertram Simon

, born 1783 *,
   my grandfather,

  married to

Anna Margarete Schuhmacher
 

5.

Kaspar Heinrich Simon

, my father,
   born May 13th 1818,
   married to

Elisabeth Dax

,
   born October 28th, 1814.
 
 

* These dates could not be confirmed, yet.

As a result of a quarrel between my mother's father, Johannes Dax (born 1772), and a French soldier, my grandfather fled from home in 1806 and lived unknown somewhere else until 1812.

My mother's brothers and sisters were:
 
1.

Johannes Dax

, farmer in Harscheid;
 
2.

Johann Friedrich Dax

, farmer in Harscheid;
 
3.

Anna Catharina Dax

, married to a man
    called

Otto

, who lived in Harscheid;
 
4.

Elisabeth Dax

, my mother;
 
5.a girl whose name I do not know, married to
    a farmer called

Becker

, who lived in Harscheid
 
6.

Wilhelmine Dax

, married to a farmer
    called

Löltgen

, who lived in Langenbach.

written by Wilhelm Simon in 1927