Saturday, March 20, 2010

Surname Saturday - SCHWYHART

Surname Saturday - SCHWYHART

On previous Saturdays, we have reported all of the known ancestor lineage surnames through  the great-great grandparent surnames (see earlier Saturday Surname posts in the left column, scroll down - back into 2009) and we have started on the next batch.

Looking ahead, from the "round of thirty-two" (scroll down a bit...) - 3rd great-grandparents - We know and will have reported on 9 of the sixteen Male lines (four are from Denmark) we know and will be reporting on nine new female surname lines of the possible sixteen: VESTERSTROM, SPRANG, LORD, KIMMERLING, FIRESTONE, SCHWYHART, LEE, JONES, and KIRK.

Today, we will look briefly at SCHWYHART, a very distinctive name. As mentioned earlier, actually my very first Surname Saturday post, back on 25 Oct 2009; here is a quote:
"Jacob Swineheart and Joseph Swineheart were brothers who married sisters Sarah and Elizabeth Zimmerman. It is the fifteen children of these two marriages that adopted the surname Schwyhart as young adults." ... then: "One of the fifteen children was my 3rd great-grandmother."

To the best of our knowledge, and some considerable research has been done on the surname, anyone with this surname descends from these fifteen children. Actually, it is only the descendants of the males in this group, nine of them - and only seven had male descendants to carry on the surname!

It has been a pleasure to do this research.

Susan (Susanna) SCHWYHART (1809-1884) married Walter W. KINNICK (1810-1853) in about 1835 in Belmont County, OH. Details of marriage still sought. Susan was the oldest child of Joseph SWINEHEART (1786-1871) and Elizabeth ZIMMERMAN (1787-1876).


Families are Forever!  ;-)

4 comments:

  1. Awesome post! I love it when someone can research a name and take it back to a specific group of siblings!

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  2. I really enjoyed your post. Do you have an idea of the reason for the name change? I recently came across a group of 3rd cousins who have added an "e" to the end our common last name. I can't wait to meet them to ask, why?

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  3. Only speculation, but one opinion (mine) is that the two Zimmerman sister did not want their children to grow up with the SWINEHEART name - kids in school making fun of their kids, etc. !?!!? ;-)

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  4. Hi Dr. Bill,
    Names changes always interest me. My husband's grandmother used the name O'Dell, so they naturally thought she must have been of Irish descent. However, I discovered that her father's last name was legally Odle, the origins of which may actually be the English Woodall. For whatever reason, a few of the Odle brothers decided to change the spelling and pronunciation to O'Dell. I don't know if there was a family out among the family members, but it sure would be interesting to find out!

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