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