UPDATED 20 July 2024
For many genealogists it is reasonably easy to trace their ancestry back to Augustin Steel who died in Amherst County, Virginia in 1790. The book AUGUSTINE STAHL (STEELE) GERMANY TO AMERICA AND SOME OF HIS DESCENDANTS by Willard Israel takes that one step further by asserting that Augustin Steel is the same person as Augustine Stahl who came to America aboard the Duke of Wirtenburg in 1752 and initially settled in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
Unfortunately this assertion is incorrect. In 1785 Dauphin County was created from part of Lancaster County. Augustin Stahl (actually Augustinus Stahl) and his wife Elizabeth Nufer continued living in Dauphin County until he died in 1815. That was 25 years after Augustin Steel died. You can find that Augustinus Stahl's will was probated there. So, unfortunately, Augustin Steel and Augustine Stahl are two different people which a large number of genealogists have combined into a single family in their own genealogies. In addition, it appears that there have been some additional incorrect children added to Augustin Steel which I have not yet tried to resolve.
The heirs named in Augustin Steel's will, which was probated in Amherst County, Virginia, are as follows:
- daughter, Mary Harris
- grandson, John Harris (son of Mary Harris)
- daughter, Barbary Williams
- son, John Steel
- daughter, Catherine Wood
- daughter, Betsey Steel
- daughter, Sally Steel
- youngest son, George Steele
- child, Abraham Steel
- child, Nancy Steel
How do you know if you are affected? If your genealogy traces back to Augustin (or Augustine) Steel (or Steele or Stahl) who was married to Elizabeth (or Mary Elizabeth) Nufer and your line goes through any of the above listed heirs, then it is almost certain that you are affected.
So who is the Augustin Steel who died in Amherst County, Virginia? There were a lot of Steel(e)s in that region of Virginia prior to and during that period. Many were Scot-Irish. Perhaps so was Augustin. I wish I knew the answer. If anyone has information about Augustin Steel, please contact me. A link is at the bottom of this page.
There seem to be no records that give a clue about where Augustin Steel came from. So I moved to using Y-DNA testing to provide clues. Y-DNA testing is great for doing deep ancestry research but it can only trace paternal lines. Note, the only place to do this test is on Family Tree DNA.
Possible people to do a Y-DNA test are:
- You, if you are a male with the Steel or Steele surname and believe you are a descendant of Augustin Steel who died in Amherst County, VA, in 1790.
- Someone in your tree who is a paternal descendant of Augustin Steel.
- Someone in your tree who is a paternal descendant of a Steel or Steele that lived in western or southwestern Virginia in the 1700's.
- You have an autosomal DNA match on Ancestry, MyHeritage or other DNA testing company with someone who has the Steel or Steele surname.
- I can help you with other options for finding someone who may be able to do a Y-DNA test.
- NOTE: The person has to be a male with the Steel or Steele surname.
- NOTE: My goal is to find at least one descendant of each son of Augustin Steel to do a Y-DNA test.
Feel free to contact me for more information, questions or concerns.
I suggest contacting me if you are considering doing a Y-DNA test so that I can let you know if someone in your branch is already doing this test.
Please contact me if you do a Y-DNA test so that I can be looking for the results and work with you on the interpreting the results.
Thanks,
Dick Horner