SCHWINN FAMILY TREE
(under construction -- more to come)
Father: Joseph Firmin Bonnefoi
b. 1809?, Vigan, France?
m. June 1, 1847
Mother: Maria Anna Caroline Messing, b. 1823?
 
Father: Johann Christoph Geller
b. Sept. 30, 1806, Sodel, Germany
m. June 15, 1834, Sodel
Mother: Maria Elisabeth Schneider
b. around 1811 in Sodel?
Johann was a baker.
Johann Heinrich
(Henry) Bonnefoi

b. Dec. 20, 1849, Kassel, Germany
(to U.S. in 1867)
m. 1875?
d. Nov. 27, 1902, Chicago

bd. Rosehill Cem, Chicago
Emilie Auguste
Kretzschmar (Steuernagel)

b. Oct. 19, 1849, Gesterwitz,
Saxony, Germany
(to U.S. in 1867)
her 2nd marriage
d. Dec. 24, 1895
bd. Rosehill Cem, Chicago

Henry ran away from home at age 14 because his parents wanted him to be a priest. He got a job on a boat to pay his passage to the U.S. in 1867. He worked in Chicago as a journalist for the "Abendpost" and other German daily newspapers. Later he published the Lake View Tribune, a German Republican weekly. In 1888, he was appointed Deputy Postmaster of the Lake View postal Station. In 1895, he was named Justice of the Peace, and later was named Police Magistrate of Chicago. He held court at the police station on Sheffield near Diversey. His law office was at Wrightwood, Lincoln, and Sheffield. An 1896 publication states that Henry "is a prominent member of the 25th Ward Republican Club, and is one of the most popular German-Americans in the North Division of the city."

Peter Schwinn
b. Aug. 13, 1829, Germany
m. Buffalo, NY
d. July 13, 1895, Chicago
bd. Rosehill Cem., Chicago
Catharina (Kate)
Dorothea Geller

b. July 3, 1835, Sodel,
Hesse-Darmstadt, Germany
(to U.S. in 1848)
d. Nov. 29, 1911, Chicago
bd. Rosehill Cem., Chicago

Peter was first a shoemaker, and by 1871 he had a factory with 14 employees. After his factory burned in the Chicago Fire, he became a fireman.

Peter and Kate had 13 children, 3 of whom died in infancy.

Kate came to the U.S. in 1848 with her mother's sister and family. She was a housekeeper for an English family in Buffalo, NY, where she met and married Peter.

Kate raised Emilie ("Mammy") after her mother Caroline died.

Caroline (Carrie) Bonnefoi
b. April 10, 1876, Chicago
m. 1895
d. May 4, 1901

bd. Rosehill Cem., Chicago, w/daughter Elsie
Carrie died of tuberculosis a month after her daughter Elsie died, and since Carrie was very sick, they held Elsie's coffin in a vault and then buried the two of them together.

William Schwinn
b. 1877?, Chicago
1st marriage to Caroline Bonnefoi
(2nd marriage to Minnie Krull)
d. April, 1919

bd. Rosehill Cem., Chicago
William was one of 13 children. About two years after his wife Caroline died, he married Minnie Kroll and had 5 children, 3 of whom were stillborn or died in infancy.

CHILDREN

SPOUSE/PARTNER
1. Emilie Elizabeth (Amelia) Schwinn
known to her grandchildren as Mammy
b. Oct. 1, 1896, Chicago
m. April 6, 1918, Chicago
d. March 29, 1984, Chicago
bd. Evergreen Cem., Barrington
Arthur Herman Flesch
known to his grandchildren as Pappy
b. Feb. 18, 1897, Chicago
d. Oct. 22, 1969, Barrington
bd. Evergreen Cem., Barrington
They met coming home from Riverview Park Skating Rink at the end of 1916.
2. Elsie Schwinn
b. June 1, 1899, Chicago
d. April 13, 1901, Chicago
bd. Rosehill Cem., Chicago, w/mother