Ancestor #4: A Patriarch of Many

 

As we move through the selections for my Twelve Most Wanted for 2025, we are bound to find some repeats from prior years' selections. Ancestor #4 is no exception. Exactly three years ago, I had decided to focus on my mother-in-law's ancestor Nicholas Schneider, and this coming April, I will do so again.

With the selection of Ancestor #4, we shift from selecting ancestors from my mother's line to that of my mother-in-law. In many ways, working on my mother-in-law's tree is comparatively easy. For one thing, some of her ancestors were residents in this country from among the earliest of immigrants. Those ancestors, most of whom were devout Catholics, had many children, and for the most part, remained in the same rural areas for generations—either in Ohio (spelled Snider) or onward to Minnesota (spelled Snyder).

On the other hand, there is a twist to my mother-in-law's tree. For example, Nicholas himself was both my mother-in-law's second great-grandfather and her third great-grandfather. He was her second great-grandfather through her father's line, while he was her third great-grandfather on her mother's line. Perhaps that was thanks to the close-knit community where her family settled in the earliest years of Ohio statehood that her family intermarried over the generations. Whatever the reason might have been, I've learned to proceed carefully to make sure I'm following the right surnames in the right order.

That, in fact, is part of the reason I've decided to work on Nicholas Snider's line once again. While I would like to know more about where in Germany the man once known as Nicholas Schneider originated, the most pressing goal now shifts from ancestors to descendants, thanks mostly to the 262 DNA matches who claim him as their ancestor, according to Ancestry's ThruLines tool. It's time to update that list of matches and ensure that I've gotten each of them placed on the correct line in this Schneider/Snider/Snyder family tree. While I have some already linked to their rightful place, I have a long way to go.