After landing in New York, Louis ultimately stayed in that city.  John and Philip continued south.  John made his way down to Richmond, Virginia and there met and married Caroline Hetzer, a daughter of German immigrants.  I don’t know whether Philip made the trip to Virginia, but he ultimately ended up in Philadelphia in the late 1800’s.  John also moved back to Philadelphia and stayed for a time working as a factory manager but eventually moved the family to Camden, New Jersey, where they remained. 

I have yet to find any trace of Philip beyond a reference to him being a waiter in Philadelphia in 1883.  But unless he had any descendants, the Sauer surname from this particular branch, like many surnames, was only around for a brief period.  With the passing of Richard Henry Sauer in October, 2010 there are no more male descendants from this line.

To see who’s who in the photo, please navigate to the “Genealogy Photos” under the “Media” tab and search for Sauer.  There is also a photo taken at the same time of the Sauer’s with their respective spouses.

Yet the family has been around the US for a while.  The earliest record I have found to date is the subscription for the purchase of a book in 1794 by Daniel Sawn.  He was listed in the book “Some account of the city of Philadelphia, the capital of Pennsylvania, and seat of the Federal Congress; of its civil and religious institutions, population, trade, and government; interspersed with occasional observations” by Benjamin Davies as on of the subscribers for “The Plan of Philadelphia”.  He also appeared as a subscriber to a book by William Guthrie titled  “New System of Modern Geography”, published in 1795.  Next, Daniel shows up in the 1800 census in Roxborough Township in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  Henry and Susannah Sawn, who most likely were living with Daniel during the time of the 1800 census first appear in Camden, New Jersey in 1809 as members of the first class of the Third Street Methodist Episcopal Church.

It is from these two gentleman that the majority of Sawn’s currently living in the US descend.  There is one other Sawn family.  These are descendants of an individual from Germany named Frederick  Zahn (b 1875), whose son William (b 1845) legally changed his name to Sawn in 1871 while a resident of Michigan. 

So chances are, if you’re a Sawn living in the US, you’re related to someone in this tree.

Welcome to the Sawn Family Genealogy blog…

I created this blog to add depth to all the “data” that you’ll find on the website.  It’s intended to share information, stories, documents, and pictures that I have uncovered while researching my ancestry and related families. 

I started researching about six years ago for no other reason than to simply discover “where we came from”.    I thought a couple of quick phone calls and I’d be done.  Rather, those phone calls exposed a void of how little any of us knew about our family’s history.  So, armed with my subscription to Ancestry.com, I set out to find the answers.  What has evolved is a work in progress delving into the lives and histories of my ancestors and so this blog becomes a narrative of that research.

Please feel to leave comments or contact me with questions and ideas at any time.  I also hope that those of you who find this website and are researching similar family lines will be encouraged to get in touch with me and share research, etc.

Enjoy,

George