I couldn't resist this 1868 photograph that I spotted on e-bay today ...
Frosty morn, so let's have a little dig ..
This should be easy. Well, it wasn't.
Like so many German Jewish families, they changed their name, not once but several times.
Clint is 21 years old here. And he should know how to spell his own name, yes? And he says he is Clinton Benjamin SCHWER. Born 18 September 1847. Son of Bavarian immigrant labourer Mathias Schwer and his Pennsylvanian wife Julia/Julie/Julianne née GLATFALLTER ..
Clint became a lifelong shoemaker. He married Hannah Elizabeth née Kline. Or Cline. With their name varying from SCHWIER to SCHWEIER to SCHWEIRS to SWOYER et al, they moved to Scranton where Clint plied his trade and produced a vigorous supply of babies: Annie (26 August 1871), Ma(r)y, James Albert (6 January 1875) , Edith R (18 August 1878), Edwin Everhart (19 May 1880), Grace Gertrude (31 March 1882), Lillie Logan (11 January 1884), Florence Isabella (9 April 1889), Cornelia Wells (7 March 1887)... and who is F Harold Schwiers living with the widowed Hannah, Florence and Lillie at 1335 Adams, Scranton in 1908? I see they lost one child in 1896 ...
Anyway, I guess Clint had given up the horn! Oh. I see in 1898 that he was a janitor ...
I've followed up one or two of the daughters. Cornelia became Mrs Elmer A Fenne, Grace became Mrs Snyder, Florence became Mrs Cooper and then Mrs something else, Lillie became Mrs Smith, Annie seems to have been Mrs David F Walton and a multiple mother, James wed and bred and died in 1957 .. but the variants of the surname defeated any further efforts.
Clint died 30 November 1905. Hannah 20 June 1921 ...
I've posted this photo on findagrave ... maybe a descendant will see it.
Christine Bennett turned up this splendid 1869 chart ...
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