I'm got a Hessian defector as well on my dad's side that always interested me. Seems like he massively over compensated to show how American he was after the revolution as all of his kids were named after founding fathers. Funny about the Germans inventing everything. my grandmother was a german from the hill country, when ever she would praise us for some accomplishment as kids it was never because we were smart, worked hard, etc., it was always "because we're German".
True about the german's keeping their language/customs, grandma was 4th generation american but german was her first language (and nothings scarier to a little kid who doesn't speak much of the language than to be scolded in German-just sounds meaner) and the copy of her birth certificate that I have is in German, my mother's generation was the first in our family that didn't speak german as a first language.
