Max Schaaf

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Biography

Arrived NYC at 5 yrs. old two weeks prior to WW I with brother Fred and mother Bertha Werner Schaaf from Rotterdam. Naturalized citizen around 18 years old. His father came several months earlier with other men in an extended family all from the Ruhr Valley. The last name was originally Dutch in origin and Max had relatives on his mothers side from Alsace Lorrain who spoke German but considered themselves as French. The Schaaf name had been Van Schaaf but in the 18 hundreds the Van was dropped to make it sound more German

Sources

• As told to me by my father Max when I was in High School and was confirmed by his sister Eleanor Schaaf Jacaruso some 20 years later. Eleanor was born 13 years after Max in Germany and later brought back to America.