If you check New York you will Find:
1. Who were the parents, spouses, children, and other siblings of the German (brothers?), Michael & John PAFF of New York City? For 13 years, 1789-1802, John Jacob ASTOR of 81 Queen Street, in NY City, sold musical instruments and pianos made in London by his brother George Peter Astor. By 1802 J. J. Astor had decided to concentrate his energies in the fur trade and sold his NY music business to (brothers?) Michael & John PAFF, who succeeded him in that branch of his business, and who also may earlier have been his business associates or partners in London & NYC, circa 1781-83-1802.
2. A probable direct descendant of this PAFF family was Eliza "POFF" (b. ca 1795 in NY; d. after 1850 Census in IL) who in 1835 emigrated with her NY City merchant husband, Israel PINKNEY (b. ca 1785 in NY; d. after 1850 Census in Peoria, IL) & family to Peoria County, IL. In the Peoria, IL, biographic sketch of their son, Andrew William PINKNEY, he stated that his "maternal ancestors lived in Germany. Grandfather POFF, on his mother's side, came to America with John Jacob Astor."
3. John Jacob Astor (1763-1848) was b. in the small village of Waldorf, Baden-Wurtemburg, Germany, 3d son of a butcher. Just before his 17th birthday, ca 1780, he followed his older brother, George, to London, and worked with him there, in the flute and piano factory of their uncle, of the firm Astor and Broadwood. Two years later, late in 1782, he decided to journey from London to New York City, where another brother, Henry Astor, already was working. We know that John Jacob Astor came first to Baltimore with $50 and seven flutes that he was to sell on consignment, and that he arrived in NY City in 1783, just before the British evacuation, after the Revolution. Astor first worked for a Quaker furrier and then opened his own shop on Water Street.
After getting established in NY, he returned to London and arranged to work as the NY agent of Astor & Broadwood in America. He then returned to NY and opened a "wareroom for the sale of musical instruments, becoming the first regular dealer in such articles in the U.S."
4. If the account of Eliza Poff Pinkney's son, Andrew, is accurate, then "Grandfather POFF," who may have been Eliza's father/Andrew's grandfather (or possibly Eliza POFF's grandfather) would have journeyed "to America with John Jacob Astor" circa 1782-83. In other words, the 1802 sale of Astor's NY City music business to Michael and John PAFF may possibly have followed an earlier association that dated back, perhaps, to 1782 or so, perhaps to London, or earlier still, possibly back to Germany, ca 1780. In any event, Astor was in NYC by 1783, married in 1785, and opened a shop in 1786, where he sold musical instruments from his brother, George Astor, in London. We know from the 1850 IL Census that Eliza Poff Pinkney was born in NY ca 1795, but we do not yet know who her parents were.
5. On 28 July 1796 the firm of "Kirner & Paff" at 245 Water Street, NYC, ran an advertisement