Johan Henrich Schwartzel

There’s no official beginning. There’s also no official end. Only a few pieces near the middle. My goal is to find the beginning if I can, but would be content for now with patching together the middle.

Most information on Johan Henrich Schwartzel have his birth circa 1710. I have not yet found any document, note, or story that has this date listed as his birth date. It’s nice to have a potential guide post, but without a citation or source I am hesitant to write this in ink. 

The first solid date available for Johan Henrich, referred to as Henry, is his arrival in Philadelphia on 23 October 1754, along with two of his sons, Mathias and Jost. I am going to use my analysis from my previous post as a starting point. 

Luckily the only Schwartzel’s, and variations of its spelling, throughout Pennsylvania at that time were all related. So after a number of record hunts I am ready to start putting together the pieces.

Lancaster County

After their arrival in 1754 the first record of the family is an affidavit for a pension application from Philip Swatzel of Greene County, TN in 1833 stating he was born in Lancaster County, PA on 10 June 1758. The first local record of the family is for the marriage of Mathias Schwertzel and Catherine Barbara Laey in 1760 at the Hill Evangelical Lutheran Church, North Annville Township, Lancaster (now Lebanon), Pennsylvania. 

We then have a few records from 1763, all in Lancaster County. One is a tax record of John Swatel living in Lancaster Borough and the other is a deed (abstract, yet to find original) for Henry Schewetzel in Derry Township (likely Londonderry Township now). This record is potentially significant because the later sale of this property on 12 March 1773 lists Henry’s wife, Anna Catharina (also spelled Cathrina in the document). This is the only record I have with Anna Catharina. 

There is a reference from correspondence between Bruce L. Botkin and Garry Swartzel from May 9, 1997 that references (Johann) Henry’s wife:

“Johann remarried and had a son John. John (son) married and lived in Virginia. Matthias was a son of Johann and was born in Heidelberg, Germany in 1739.”

A similar note by Wilbur F Swartzell was obtained from Garry Swa[r]tzel but the date of birth for Mathias is different. I have highlighted in red the subtle difference in these copies of the same information.

“Johan[n] remarried and had a son John. John (son) married and lived in Virginia.Matthias was a son of Johan and was born in Heidleberg, Germany in 1736.”

This is deserves a pause. We know that Henry was married to Anna Catherine by 1773. He arrived in 1754 with at least two sons at least 16 at the time so I will assume he was married in Germany before 1839. If Philip was his son, as I discuss below, then he had a wife in America around 1758. There is also now a John Schwartzel who’s birth needs to be identified, also discussed below. These relationships may help us identify if Anna Catharina was the mother of John, Philip, Mathias, and/or Jost (hint: I still don't know). 

Other information we get from the 1773 deed source record that isn’t included in the indexes is Henry’s occupation, Yeoman, or farmer, and that he sold 250 acres for 200 Pounds. Henry has a nice signature using German Kurrent Script (signed Henrich Swärtzel) and his wife signed with an ‘X’.

Cumberland County

So Henry lived in Lancaster County in Derry Township for about 10 years and then moved, if Philip is correct, to Cumberland County. Record hunts through Cumberland tax records show a Henry Swatzel, Swartsel, Swartson, Swartsell, Swartser, and even Swirtzey in Antrim Township (now Franklin County) between 1775 and 1782. The records only show that he owned at most 2 horses and 2 cows. No family or other information is provided.

Notably absent from these same records are any freemen (single) with the same last name (I would have expected to find Philip and maybe John there around 1776.). Henry never shows as owning any land and I have not found any deed records for him during this time. 1782 is the last year I have any records of Henry. More research may be needed in Franklin County records, which formed from Cumberland County in 1784.  

It’s important to note here that there is another Henry Swartzel in Pennsylvania at this time in Union and Armagh Township, Cumberland (now Mifflin) County. However, cemetery records show that he was born 18 October 1775 and died 1 August 1838 and that his father was Jost Swartzell. 

Washington County, Maryland

These are the only records I have found of Henry in Pennsylvania, but the references to both John and Philip living in Virginia had me wonder if he ever moved there with them. By 1782, if we use 1710 as a birth date, Henry would have been about 72 years old. At this age he is likely to have moved in with a family member or passed away. 

While hunting records for Swartzel’s in Maryland I found a number of documents from Washington County, specifically near Hagerstown. Geography is always important in genealogical record searches. Antrim Township is on the state line between PA and MD. Hagerstown is only 14 miles south, making it a very reasonable place for other family members to have moved.

In Hagerstown I have found records for Mathias, John (also known as Johann) but not Philip. The most surprising record I found was for Henry. It was a muster of Maryland Troops during the Revolutionary War! He may have been well into his 60’s at this time. The record is a transcription in the Records of Maryland Troops in the Continental Service and indicates Henry was enlisted on 23 January 1777 and discharged 24 September 1777 with a note that he deserted, which was extremely common at this time.

My biggest concern with matching this record to our current Henry is his age. Most muster rolls with men over 58 are denoted as "old". I know that older men and children were often used as musicians, and this may be the case. Or this is a different Henry, possibly a son or grandson, but all grandson's named Henry I've identified were born in 1775 or later. I also haven't seen other records for a Henry that would be of age to be his son. I will continue to look for original sources for this record and hope I may also find an age or date of birth.


Augusta County, Virginia
In Virginia, there are plenty of records of Johannes Swartzel. As I'll show in a future post on Johannes, I have been able to track records of him from Elizabethtown, Lancaster County, PA in 1773 to Hagerstown, Washington County, MD in 1780 to Augusta County, VA in 1791. A tombstone in Augusta County, VA for John A Swortzel in 1815 places his birth in 1742.

This is significant because it means he would have been around 14 during the migration to Philadelphia and would not have signed either oath or been on the ship's registry. It also obviously means he was born in Germany, which puts a new twist on Garry Swatzel's information about Johannes' mother and Henry's second wife. Henry may have been married twice while in Germany but we shouldn't rule out a marriage in Pennsylvania as well.

No additional records for Henry have been found in either MD or VA at this time, but I admit there hasn't been as much research in this area yet.

Additional Information
In addition to the information from Garry Swatzel there are also some facts about Henry that need some further research. A Facebook group states the mother of Mathias was Christiana Sibylla Vepes, born in Germany about the same time as Henry. I have not seen this information anywhere else but it may lead somewhere. Again, I'll just pencil this in for now and keep an eye out for her in the future.


There is also a book published in 1879 titled "History of Mifflin County: its physical peculiarities, soil, climate, &C.; including an early sketch of the state of Pennsylvania" that contains a biography of the Swartzel family in that county. In this biography they state that the Swartzel family originated from Bavaria. Being only 100 years removed from when the family first moved to the area, this is the closest that I have found any information related to where in Germany the family came from.

Theories and Speculation

Throughout all these records I did not find a single reference to his age, date of birth, or origin from Germany. Germany wasn’t yet officially Germany at this time but a collection of German speaking kingdoms. I would have expected Hesse or Baden or Prussia to be listed if a place were listed. Parts of these areas were known in America as the Palatinate and where most German immigrants at the time came from due to war, disease and famine. 

A records hunt on ancestry.com through that area around 1710 came up with a baptism record for a Johannes Schwärtzel on 17 February 1711 in Frankfurt am Main. The father was Johann Henrich Schwärtzel from Wetzlar, occupation: "Sesselträger", or "Chair Carrier". I am going out on a limb here but this job would either be literally carrying a chair like at a bar mitzvah or Cleopatra, or more likely, a carter or carrier. The mother was Juliana Schwärtzel nee Gropp (Kropp).

While there’s no direct tie from our Henry to this Johann Schwärtzel, further records show that the mother Juliana died 19 March 1719 and the father remarried 12 Jul 1719 to a woman whose father was from Heidelberg. The father later dies in 1735 as recorded in Frankfurt. This string of family records is the only set of information that leads me to believe there could be a connection between these families. Until I find a birth record for Jost, Mathias, or John, or a marriage record for Henry this remains a theory.

Conclusions

Based on the pension application for Philip Swartzel and his supporting military records I firmly believe that Henry was his father. They both lived in Lancaster County and Cumberland County at the same times. Henry has numerous records from Antrim and the mapping of military units to town map Philip to Antrim as well. One consideration would be Henry's age in 1758 (~48) when Philip was born. While not uncommon for a man to have children this late we would need to validate his wife's age at that time.

The other candidates for his father I originally considered were Jost and Mathias. Here’s some additional reasons I have excluded them:

• Jost lived in Lebanon Township, Lancaster (now Lebanon) County throughout the Revolutionary War and around 1785 moved to Armagh Township, Cumberland County, which was formed into Mifflin County 1789.

• Mathias was married in 1760, and while not a stretch to believe he has a son earlier than that, there are no records of Mathias ever living in Cumberland County. In fact, he moved further west to Bedford County and later Ohio. All of his 10 children are fairly well documented.

Further Research
There are still notable gaps in the American records for Henry.

1. There are no references to his place of origin other than the ship register from Holland.
2. We don't know where he was between 1754 and 1758.
3. We don't have a PA birth record for Philip.
4. We don't know where he lived until 1763.
5. Birth and marriage of daughter (referenced by Philip in pension application)
6. Possible second marriage in America.
7. We don't know when or where he died (our last record is from 1782 in Antrim, Cumberland, PA).

I have not looked through any county court records in PA yet and there are plenty of church and other records available through a Family History Center.

There's also a lot of events in Germany that we could now search for, including:

• Birth
• Marriage (before 1739) (Anna Catharina or Christiana Sibylla Vepes)
• Birth of Johann Jost (before 1739)
• Birth of Johann Mathias (1739/1736)
• Birth of Johannes (1742)
• Birth of daughter (referenced by Philip in pension application) (year unknown)

I hope this information is useful to you in your family record hunts. If you have any additional information, corrections, theories, facts, anything at all on this topic I would love to hear from you. Please comment below.