Stumpf is my wife's grandmother Brown's maiden name. Her name was Mary Marie (STUMPF) Brown, and my wife was named after her, as Marion is a derivative of Mary and can mean "little Mary." It has been said that "Stumpf" or "Stump" (and other variants) refers to someone who is short in stature and "like a tree stump." This comes from a report written by the Halbert Company of Bath, Ohio, so it may or may not be true. But this really does seem to be the case in my wife's family. All the Stumpfs in my wife's family are short in stature and rather broad in their build. My wife's Grandma Brown was like this, and she also takes after her side of the family, as Marion is only 5 ft. 1 in. tall.

According to Dr. Torsten Stumpf of the United Kingdom, the word Stumpf is a German name which means "blunt." In essence this means about the same as the definition given above, but is more accurate as to how it pertains to the STUMPF spelling of the name. Thanks, Dr. Stumpf, for this definition.

Grandma Mary Brown was born on the Atlantic Ocean on the way over from Russia, so we can't go back very far on her line, although I have found Stumpfs who lived in Warenburg (also known as Privalnoe), Russia around 1900 who surely are related to us. I found an article, "Attestation Issued in Warenburg" from September 9, 1891 which is signed by 174 householders of the community. (Clues: Journal of the AHSGR, Vol. 4, part 1 [1981], pp. 52-55.) The Stumpfs listed in this document are: W. Stumpf, Negal Stumpf, Freidrich Stumpf, Jacob Stumpf, K. Stumpf, Georg Stumpf, and Conrad Stumpf. It appears that the K. Stumpf would be Karl Jacob Stumpf. He would have been 67 years old at that time. There is also a Georg Heinrich Hubert listed as well as some Klamm and Trippel families who intermarried with the Stumpf family.

One story I have heard about my wife's grandmother is that she had 5 or more middle names, and that she was named after the ship's captain for the boat that the Stumpfs and Huberts came over on to the U.S.

As yet, I have not found the name of the ship or the captain, and I only recently was able to discover Grandma's middle name of Marie. She always signed her name as "Mary M. Brown." She never used her middle name, and my father-in-law (her son) was positive that she only had a middle initial and no middle name at all. There may be some truth to what he says, because "Marie" is actually the German spelling of "Mary" so she may have used the names interchangeably, and only in later years decided to use Marie as a middle name because that was probably her birth name. I'd still like to find out if she had other middle names besides Marie.

The Stumpfs kind of gypsied around after they arrived in the U.S. They lived in Wisconsin for awhile and then moved to the West Coast. It seems that many of the Hubert and Stumpf kids were born in a different town or state. They eventually ended up in the Fresno and San Bernardino area of Southern California. My wife was born in San Bernardino, and many of the Stumpf relatives still live in that vicinity. Another Stumpf researcher in my wife's line is Ronnie Stumpf of California. He is my father-in-law, Bill Brown's first cousin. He also has found records of this Stumpf name, but has no more information than what we do. Another cousin in Nevada is George Patterson, son of my wife's Aunt Esther (Stumpf) Patterson-Dew. I interviewed him on cassette tape a few years concerning his knowledge of the Stumpfs. He shared some interesting things he had heard from his grandparents regarding the family back in Russia, etc.

There was a Stumpf family Bible which was maintained by Johann Phillip STUMPF, Jr. and his wife, Marie Catherine HUBERT. It was in the possession of Anna (Stumpf) Christiansen (now deceased). Her husband, Fred Christiansen (now age 95), or her daughter, Betty, no doubt has this Bible at present. It would be nice to get a copy of the family record found in the Bible. Also, last summer the Stumpf family held a reunion at the home of George and Eileen Patterson of Apple Valley, California. We did not get to attend, but presumably all who attended had a great time. Maybe next time we can attend.

I have been placing updated information on the STUMPF family from Warenburg, Russia on the WorldConnect site with Rootsweb. It includes the basic information on every family member traced (except I have omitted birth and marriage dates on living family members, for privacy reasons.). The Stumpf family from Warenburg, Russia database on WorldConnect can be accessed at: http://worldconnect.genealogy.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?db=g-stumpf

Here is my wife's STUMPF lineage as far as can be proven:

1. Conrad STUMPF, b. ca. 1800 Warenburg, Russia, d. Warenburg, Russia; md. ca. 1822 Warenburg, Russia to Anna Marie __________, b. ca. 1800 Russia, d. Warenburg, Russia
2. Karl Jacob STUMPF, b. 1824, Warenburg, Russia, d. aft. 1891 Warenburg, Russia; md, Susanna Anna KRUSER, b. 1824, possibly Laub, Russia, d. Warenburg, Russia
3. Johann Phillip STUMPF, b. 1861 Warenburg, Russia; md. ca. 1886 Warenburg, Russia to Catherina Elizabeth SCHUMANN, b. ca. 1865 Warenburg, Russia, d. Warenburg, Russia
4. Johann Phillip STUMPF, b. 8 July 1888 Warenburg, Russia, d. 11 Feb. 1970 San Bernardino, San Bernardino Co., CA; md. 5 Feb. 1906 Warenburg, Russia to Marie Catherine HUBERT, b. 7 Dec. 1887 Warenburg, Russia, d. 22 Jan. 1976 San Bernardino, San Bernardino Co., CA
5. Mary Marie STUMPF, b. 8 June 1907 at sea (Atlantic Ocean), d. 7 June 1975 San Bernardino, San Bernardino Co., CA; md. 12 July 1927 Riverside, Riverside Co., CA to Walter P. BROWN, b. 9 July 1903 Greenville, Greene Co., TN, d. 1 Nov. 1955 Home Gardens, Riverside Co., CA *These are my wife's grandparents.