52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks--Jumping in on Week #2

WEEK #2--FAVORITE PHOTO

Well I've decided to jump on the bandwagon and join Amy Johnson Crow's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge again this year!  Last year was not a good year for writing about my family history as life got in the way and I was only able to get two blog posts completed.  This year the goal is to do as many as I can and not beat myself up if I miss one or two weeks or like last year 50!!

Hester Lee (Junken) Schneider, Charles Howard Schneider, 

Marcia Coffman Page Hicks, Harry Raymond "Shorty" Schneider, Gregory Coffman

This family photo was taken at my grandparents home in Phoenix, Maricopa Co, AZ in the summer of 1958-1959 as the photo is unmarked.  The reason it is my favorite photo is that it is the only known photo of me and my Grandpa "Shorty".  He is holding me in his arms and I am approximately 2-3 years old.  My grandpa would be gone before my 4th birthday.

Harry Raymond Schneider was born 27 August 1897 in Milwaukie, Milwaukie, WI to Philip Schneider and Daisy Irene (Manhardt) Schneider.  Tragedy struck the Schneider household when his mother died when he was 13 and he went to live with an uncle soon after.  Harry enlisted into the US Army on 3 Feb 1915, six months prior to his 18th birthday!  He served with General Pershing both in the US and abroad during WWI and earned a Purple Heart for being injured in action.  

He married Hester Lee Junken on 23 July 1930 in Phoenix, Maricopa, AZ.  At the time he was working as a Cab/Limousine driver in the city of Phoenix.  They had two children, Charles Howard Schneider, b .July 1931 and Helen Lorraine Schneider b. Sept 1932.

Growing up I always heard stories about my grandfather that he was a cab driver and that all his friends called him "Shorty" as he only stood 5'6" tall.  He enjoyed the outdoors and went hunting and fishing with my uncle Charlie frequently.  

Fate would have it that my grandfather did not have a long life.  He died on 21 Oct 1959

chronic kidney disease.  I am sorry that I never got the opportunity of knowing him.  I have the feeling we would have been great friends!!

What Do We Think of When We Hear The Word: CHALLENGE?

The Cambridge Dictionary defines the word challenge as: "The situation of being faced with something that needs great mental or physical effort in order to be done successfully and therefore tests a person's ability".1 

When I started researching my family history approximately 10 years ago or so, I knew some of the names of my ancestors, but as I dug deeper, the "hunt" became much more challenging and therefore more interesting.  Some lines "opened" up and flowed more easily and the next thing I knew I was back in the "old country" in the early 1600's and on other lines, I had barely made it out of the 1900's and I found myself smack up against the proverbial "brick wall".  With the discoveries I was making, the door to discovery was opening and I was "hooked" as they say on genealogy!  

As I shared some of these finding with family members, I found myself facing another "challenge"-one of indifference.  I was finding out all of these interesting people in our family and they were like, "so what, these people are all dead and they have nothing to do with us"!  "Why are you spending SO much time researching these people"!!  I couldn't understand why they were not interested in our relatives!!  So I had to come to terms with the fact that I was the only "genealogist" in the family and move on.

When I discovered that I might be eligible to join the Daughters of the American Revolution, I was over the moon!  I suspected that we might have an ancestor who fought in the Revolution when I discovered that many of my paternal ancestors settled in Massachusetts in the late 1600's and early 1700's.  Having early New England ancestors usually indicates that you have Revolutionary ancestors and the challenge would be to prove it.  I embarked on the challenge to find my Revolutionary ancestor.  It just so happened that a cousin emailed me when she came across an enquiry that I had sent to the library that she was volunteering for.  I had requested an obituary for one of our shared ancestors.  Well thru our correspondence we discovered that we shared a common ancestor that was a Revolutionary War Veteran!!  Talk about serendipity!  Yes, genealogy can be challenging, but it can be really fun!!  It turned out that I had already found my initial Revolutionary War Veteran, but this cousin had found another ancestor who fought in the war.  So far I have found 12 ancestors who fought in the war!!

Every time  I sit down to work on my genealogy I am challenged.  It is part of the fun.  If it was not challenging, I don't think I would do it.  It's the challenge that makes it interesting!!

SOURCES

1.  The Cambridge Dictionary Online, https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/challenge, accessed 1-8-2019.

The "First" To Come to America From Mom's Family

As we start this new year, I am challenged to be a part of the "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge" that Amy Johnson Crow is doing again this year.  This first weeks challenge is "First".  I am highlighting the first immigrant ancestors on my maternal side of the family.  This side of the family tree has been a challenge to say the least, whereas I have come up against several brick walls in my research, but I keep chipping away at the mortar hoping to get at the nuggets! 


I can only imagine what my 2 times great grandparents must have felt like coming to a country they were totally unfamiliar with with maybe only a few possessions (my 2X great grandfather's obituary said he only had $2 to his pocket!) and just their hopes for a better future for their family.  This is what I know (so far) of their story.

Their names are Michael and Catherine Schneider.1  Michael Schneider was born in Drachenbrun,

The small red region shows the Alsace/Lorraine region of France circa: 1837.

Alsace-Lorraine, France in 1837.2   Catherine was born in Neiderretteren, Alsace-Lorraine, France in 1832.  They were married in Drachenbronn, Alsace-Lorraine, France in 1865.  

In July of 1870 the Franco-Prussian war between France and Germany began with France being defeated in May of 1871.  With 90% of Alsace and 1/4 of the Lorraine region being ceded to the Germans, the "new Imperial territory of Alsace-Lorraine was under the sole authority of the Kaiser, administered directly by the imperial government in Berlin". Between 100.000and 130,000 people chose to remain French and to leave Alsace-Lorraine rather than become German, and Michael and Catherine were two who decided to emigrate to America.3      

Michael and Catherine arrived in the United States aboard the ship 

SS Palmyra-Cunard Line Steamship

S S Palmyra in Boston, Massachusetts, on 20 November 1871, with their daughter Catherine, age 8, and their two sons, Phillip, age 5 (my great-grandfather) and his younger brother Charles, age 3.3 With the war having ended in May 1871 and the family arriving in November,  Michael didn't waste any time getting his family out of what was now Germany.  The trip could have taken anywhere from 6-14 weeks depending on the weather conditions during the voyage.  The family traveled in steerage as this was the most economical for a family of five at this time and place. The manifest shows my 2 time great-grandfather as being a mechanic as his occupation,4 but it was known that his occupation was actually a tailor.  This is documented on his wedding certificate and in other family documents. 

By 1880 they have found themselves in Dorr, McHenry Co., Illinois with fourth child George has joined the family, shown being born 1871.5 It is entirely possible that Catherine was pregnant with George during the journey across the Atlantic, but since I don't have an exact birth date for George, we can only surmise.6  Tragedy had struck the family earlier as George was listed in the 1880 Federal Census as idiotic.  Upon further research I discovered that he was listed as George Snyder (spelled phonetically) in the 1880 Schedule of Defective, Dependent and Delinquent Classes.7  The description under his name stated that George fell on a stone and sustained a head injury-no date was entered as to when the injury occurred.  George died at the age of 18.9

Michael and Catherine lived their entire lives in and around Dorr and Woodstock, McHenry, Illinois.  Michael worked as a tailor8 all of his life and they were active in the German Presbyterian Church in Woodstock, Illinois.9

SOURCES

1.  The National Archives at Washington, D.C.; Washington, D.C.; Series Title: Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at Boston, Massachusetts, 1820-1891; Record Group Title: Records of the U.S. Customs Service; Record Group Number: 36, Ancestry.com, 2006, Provo, UT, USA, accessed 11/12/2016.

2.  Birth Certificate for Michael Schneider

3. Wikipedia contributors, "History of Alsace," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia,https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php? =History_of_Alsace&oldid=856077932 (accessed January 1, 2019).

4.  Ibid: Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at Boston, Massachusetts, 1820-1891

5.  1880; Census Place: Dorr, McHenry, Illinois; Roll: 228; Family History Film: 1254228;    Page: 102A; Enumeration District: 135; Image: 0458

6.  Ibid: 1880 Federal Census 

7.  U.S. Federal Census - 1880 Schedules of Defective, Dependent, and Delinquent        Classes

8. 1900; Census Place: Dorr, McHenry, Illinois; Roll: 321; Page: 8A; Enumeration District: 0153; FHL microfilm: 1240321

9.  Obituary for Michael Schneider, The Woodstock American, Woodstock, IL, p.3, col. 4-5, 17 Jan 1919