Tonight on Who Do You Think You Are on TLC, Katey Sagal was the featured guest.

Last week I wrote a post titled Genealogy Shows where I shared the fact that she would be on the show and that they would feature her Amish Ancestry.

The show started out talking about her mother who was a singer. She had performed with the USO and they shared some of the history of the organization. Katey was able to meet someone who performed with her.

The show then started to follow the ancestry of her maternal grandfather Daniel Zwilling.

The show followed Katey’s ancestry back to Christian Stutzman and Barbara Hochstedler who are also my ancestors. My grandfather Richard J. Yoder and Katey’s grandfather Daniel Frederick Zwilling were 5th cousins through this line.

We also have a connection that is one generation closer as we are both descendants of Peter Miller and Mary Stutzman.

All of the family information is in Descendants of Barbara Hochstedler and Christian Stutzman.

See my post Amish Genealogy Resources for other books about Amish Genealogy.

On the show Ervin Stutzman had Katey read several passages from Descendants of Jacob Hochstetler about the history of the family and the Northkill Massacre. In family tradition the Northkill Indian attack is know as the Northkill Massacre.

Picture by Paul Crumlish. From The Historical Marker Database – HMdb.org

The Northkill Creek Amish settlement was the First Amish Settlement and my Hochstetler, Kauffman, Miller,  Stutzman and Yoder immigrant ancestors all lived there.

The Northkill Indian attack took place in 1757 during the French and Indian War and three members of Jacob Hochstetler’s family were killed. Jacob and two of his sons were taken captive by the Indians. Jacob escaped the following year, but it was not until after the war that his two sons were returned.

Our family story is very similar to the story told in The Light in the Forest by Conrad Richter.

The Light in the Forest tells the story about a boy captured by the Leni Lenape Indians and who was later adopted by them.

In the post that I wrote about The Light in the Forest four years ago I compare the two stories. As I look back over what I wrote it is very similar to what Ervin Stutzman shared with Katey as they talked about the incident.

It was wonderful to finally see a genealogy show share information about the Amish. It was also nice to see the site of the Hochstetler homestead. I have seen a few pictures, but it was interesting to see the reaction of a descendant who was learning about her family heritage for the first time.

My whole perspective of Katey Sagal has changed. I only knew her as her role of Peggy Bundy, but am glad to now think of her as a cousin.

Welcome to the family Katey!

Steven