This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list.
Surnames: Snider, Snyder
Classification: Query
Message Board URL:
http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/Hi.2ADI/1765.2.1.1.2.1.1
Message Board Post:
Nel,
You'll be familiar with the old U.S. 54 then. It runs through Fulton and Mexico, up
through Laddonia, and points further north and east. Last time I was in the area, in 1993,
they had changed the course of 54 and everything was completely different. In my day, 54
was four lanes only to a mile or so north of Kingdom City, and went through Auxvasse as
well.
My daughter Sarah was born at Mexico-Audrain County Hospital in Mexico.
My Nancy's sister Sarah, who married Henry Meyer, ended up in Daviess County,
Missouri, just over the Gentry County line. Apparently the post office address was McFall,
which is in Gentry County. Most of that branch of the family is also buried in Gentry
County.
Several of John Snider/Snyder's children went to Iowa in the 1850s. Sarah Meyer was
among them; but she and Henry found the winters too cold, and after a year or two they
went to Missouri instead. Nancy stayed in Iowa longer, but she and her husband moved to
Kansas between Jan 1875 and sometime in 1878. Their brother, Henry Wallace Snyder, ended
up at Hutchinson, Reno, Kansas, where he lived out his life. I am in touch with one of his
descendants.
I actually have step-cousins who were born Hoyts, but I have no idea where their family
came from. My relationship to them was through their mother, who died in November at the
age of 80. She was my stepfather's sister.
For a number of years now, I've felt sure that this Snider/Snyder family came out of
Germany at some point. There are scads of Schneiders in Pennsylvania during the right time
period. Virginia I don't know about, as I've never found anything on this end to
suggest Virginia. I've wondered whether a Schneider family came to Pennsylvania and
was known as "Pennsylvania Dutch." Another of my families came over from Germany
in 1752 and settled in Pennsylvania. The father and two of his sons (both my ancestors,
thanks to a cousin marriage) all served in the Revolution. This family also went to Ohio
in the early years of the 1800s. It's possible that the Snider/Snyder clan began in
Virginia and moved on to Pennsylvania, or that this particular branch tried Virginia and
didn't like it. Despite the difficulties of travel in those days, our ancestors seemed
to get around!
As I mentioned, my researcher didn't look at land records in Tippecanoe County. I know
about the Montgomery County land only because it was listed in John's estate papers.
They did not mention land in Tippecanoe County. I suppose one explanation would be that he
wanted to move, had sold out in Tippecanoe and bought land in Montgomery County. However,
perhaps all this means is that his Tippecanoe County land was to remain in the family,
because it was the Montgomery County land that was being sold. The probate court had to
approve the sale. Of course, I can't swear that I was sent the entire record.
Your circumstantial evidence for the relationships is very good. Have you ever found a
will or estate for William? Or for Sarah, for that matter? A couple of times I've run
across families where the will wasn't probated until the surviving wife died -- in one
case, nearly 30 years after the original will was written, and 15 years after the
husband's death. Then there was the case of my first husband's maternal family,
where land had remained officially in the names of his great-grandparents until the
descendants got the title changed in 1978.
I'd think there would be at least an estate record for William, since he had young
children at the time of his death. John's estate record shows each change in guardians
until son John reached his majority in 1862 (that is, in 1862 the last guardian was
officially released from duty). Those were the days in which it was deemed necessary to
appoint guardians for the minor children even though their mother survived -- and even
when they remained under her roof.
John had to be a relatively young man when he died, as it seems William was. My
Snider/Snyder line comes through my father, who died of coronary occlusion at the age of
51. A blood clot reached his heart and blocked it. Not proof of relationship, but
suggestive. My uncle died of an enlarged heart at the age of 52.
I'd love to find a family for John, and your evidence looks pretty good for a
relationship because so many things fit. Please keep me posted on further developments.
Thanks,
Alma