5 February 26

Today (5 February) marks the 343rd birthday of my sixth-great-grandfather Johann Christoph Klöppinger, who lived in Pfungstadt, Germany. His son Johann Georg, who was born on 25 January 1707, emigrated from Pfungstadt to the Philadelphia area in 1737, and became the forefather of (almost) every Kleppinger, Klepinger and Clippinger in the United States. The only exception known to me is Renate Kloppinger, of Tuscon, AZ, who grew up in Pfungstadt! Renate is one of my many seventh cousins, sharing our lineage back to Johann Christoph! I think this tie looks like "heraldry," and the tie clip holds the script K from my mother's jewelry.