Person:Emil Schwarz (1)

Record 46591

1579 South 4th Street: SCHWARZ, Emil, Head; W; M; BORN: JAN 1850; Married 23 Years; BORN: Germany; FATHER BORN: Germany; MOTHER BORN: Germany; Immigrated 1872; 28 Years in USA; Occupation: Barber; Rent

LINE 34: "Schwarz, Emil; W; M; Age: 30; Profession, Occupation: Barber; Place of Birth: Bavaria; Father's Place of Birth: Bavaria; Mother's Place of Birth: Bavaria."

Emil Schwarz 1850-1921

Line 37, Microfilm Roll: 364; List Number: 907
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Male, Age 22, Est Birth Yr: 1850; Port of Departure: Bremen, Ger.; Ship Name: Donau

District: Geislingen; Number 572048
Birth Place: Augsburg, Bavaria; Destination: N.a.; No. 572048

Milbert, Dominic, Born: BAVARIA; AGE: 63; 1511 s 4th St

3136 north Chatham, 25 Ward: Amile Schwarz, Male, White, Widowed,
DATE OF BIRTH: January 8, 1850; AGE: 70 yrs., 11 mos., 22 days;
OCCUPATION: Barber;
BIRTHPLACE: Germany;
DATE OF DEATH: December 31st, 1920;
"I certify that I attended the deceased from March 1920 to December 31st, 1920 and that I last saw him alive December 31st, and that death occurred, on the date stated above, at 6:40 PM. The CAUSE OF DEATH was as follows: Ulceration of Stomach, Duration 5 mos., Contributory: Chronic gastritis," Signed Augustus H. Keller, M.D.
DATE OF BURIAL: January 4, 1921
LINES 14 & 16: Informant: D. Milbert, 1511 So. 4th, Phila., PA
Undertaker: "D. Milbert, 1511 S Fourth St

Ancestry.com, New York Passenger Lists, 1851-1891[database online]. Provo, UT: MyFamily.com, Inc., 2003.
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Original Data: NY. Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at NY, NY, 1820-1897. Micropublication M 237. Rolls # 95-580. National Archives, Washington, D.C.

"OUR ROOTS" to Matthew and Teddy as remembered by Grandmother Fox November 15, 1981

My knowledge of my family comes only from the stories my mother told me as a child. She was the youngest of four daughters, and the family Bible was given to one of her older sisters. However, many rainy afternoons I spent with my mother in her kitchen, while she regaled me with tales of her childhood. Being German, she was always koffee-klatching with her sisters or neighbors, so I had a lot of listening to do.

Both my maternal grandparents emigrated to this country from Germany sometime in the decade after 1870. I cannot remember the name of the town my grandfather, Emil Schwarz, came from. His father, Francis Schwarz, was a customs officer on the border of Germany and France. He was much older than his wife, Kathryn Christman. They had ten children, two of whom were missionary priests to Central and South America. Emil billeted with a young French couple, who had a small daughter. For several years after he emigrated to America, he sent Christmas presents (dolls, etc.) to the little girl. Emil had met his future wife, Anna Bommersheim, in Frankfurt-am-Main. She was the grand-daughter of Michael and Mary Geibel. Anna's first cousin was Adam Geibel, a blind organist and composer, who wrote "Kentucky Babe" and other melodies still used in lesson books.

After he settled in Philadelphia and opened his own business, a barber shop, he sent for Anna. She was a "package deal"- he also had to bring over her widowed mother and maiden sister Julia, a seamstress. They married and had four daughters: Anna, Caroly, Catherine, and Julia (who was my mother.)

Julia Susan Schwarz finished grade school and went to work for Bell Telephone. Shortly after her training, she went to work for the then General Chemical Co. as a PBX operator and receptionist. There she met my father, James Seddon Brook, who was a clerk in the order department. They married in 1914 (both 23), and I was born in 1916. My sister is Elinora Francesca (1920) and my Brothers are James Edward (1918) and Joseph Charles (1924). Nora married Landon Albert Witt (Army Officer from Illinois); Jim married Carol Kerr (Elizabeth, NJ) and Joe marries Eleanor Ross (Pennsauken, NJ)
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Also around 1870 Henry Brook, a rug merchant from Liverpool, England, emigrated to Philadelphia. He married a Quakeress, Elisabeth Morris. They had three children: George, Clara, and Edward (survived). Edward, my grandfather, worked in a rug mill in the Kensington section. He married Mary Fletcher (whose family fled Ireland during the potato famine around 1850.) They had ten children- five boys and five girls. My father, James, was the youngest son. When he was around ten years old, his parents separated, and his father raised him and his brother, George. The older boys moved to Rochester, where my grandmother went to live. The surviving girls (Madeline, Clara, and Agnes) lived with relatives. I know nothing of my Irish grandmother and never even saw her picture. She had bright red hair. My mother only met her once.

When my father was twelve, his father found a Catholic Baptismal certificate in my father's name. He promptly took him from the Episcopalian Church to the Catholic priest for instruction. A year later my father took his first Communion, and while all the other little boys wore navy blue serge suits, my father wore a shepherd's plaid suit, which was the niftiest my grandfather could find. He finished grade school and several years of Roman Catholic High, and left to work for General Chemical. He continued his education at Drexel in their evening school. He later became manager of a dye-house, moved his family to South Jersey (Runnemede), but lost everything in the Great Depression. He was out of work off and on for four years. Both my parents' families helped us in those hard years. He died at 49 of lung cancer. My mother managed an apartment house in Merchantville for over fifteen years. She died in 1977 at age 86. She was a very kind, loving mother.

--OliviaRevits 07:42, 30 April 2007 (MDT)

[Note: Error. Lists death year as 1921.]