Finding a new great aunt...but first the back-story.

Originally posted Tuesday, May 20, 2014 - edited May 14 2020

Looking at my ancestors on my father's side of the tree.

Alexander John Swasey

Writing says "Alexander John Swasey, the father of Ada and Stella Swasey" Possibly photographed around 1890.

Born in 1853 in Charleston, South Carolina. His mother had Dutch roots, Anna J. (Fanny) Zylstra Swasey.  

His father, Captain Alexander Swasey was a Confederate Blockaid Runner.  His birthday link is HERE.

My father's mother's father, Alexander John Swasey (I'm calling him G-grandpa Alex) had 3 older sisters, born in 1840, 41, and 43, all born in Florida.  There isn't much information about any of them.

EDITORIAL NOTE: there's now another sister that I just discovered, and I'll be talking about soon.

He married Zulieka Granger Phillips in 1882 when he was 29.  She had been an orphan raised in the homes of her mother's sister's families in Galveston, Texas during the Civil War and following.  I don't know how G-Grandpa Aex got to Galveston, TX from Charleston, SC where he lived as an adult.  That's where his father died in 1866, following imprisonment during the war.  But the first verifiable record of G-Grandpa Alex being in Galveston is in 1884.

G-Grandpa Alex had various clerical and bookkeeping and sales jobs.  In 1884 he is listed as a Collector in the Rosenberg Bank in Galveston Texas city directory.  His wife's cousin Chauncey G. Sweet is listed with the same occupation, and their residence is listed as the same address at that time.  Many of my Swasey and Phillips and Sweet families apparently lived together around the corner from each other.

My grandmother, Ada Phillips Swasey Rogers (1886-1964) lived with her parents until her marriage to George Rogers in Galveston in 1905, a ceremony which was held in the Swasey home. She just had one sibling, a sister named Stella Zulieka Swasey Winslow (Aunt Jim) (1887-1960).

In 1907, G-Grandpa Alex and his wife, Zulieka Granger Phillips Swasey, (Dear Nan) moved to Houston TX  and he was a bookkeeper for Kirby Lumber. By 1910 he was listed as an accountant at that lumber company, with their home on Main Street.

They lived in an apartment called The Savoy in Houston in 1911, and he was a clerk for an oil company. They are listed in the Houston Directory at the same address until his death from heart failure in 1913.  His wife's cousin Chauncey Sweet took his remains back to Galveston to be buried.  Chauncey signed the death certificate Oct. 4, 1913, which lists his occupation as a salesman, to be buried on Oct. 5.

Unfortunately G-Uncle Chauncey was wrong about G-Grandpa Alex's mother. She was not named Tylstra, nor was she born in Tallahassee FL. The Florida part was true, but it was St. Augustine where she lived. And her name was misread when a "Z" looked like a "T" on a document.

----------------------------------------

Another repost about G-Grandpa Alex and the Swasey family.

Friday, March 2, 2018 EDITED

Alexander John Swasey

Was he known as Alex or John? I don't know for sure.

1853–1913

Birth MAY 20, 1853 • Charleston, Charleston, South Carolina, 

Death OCT 4, 1913 • Galveston, Texas

He was married to Zulieka Granger Phillips Swasey.  He was my grandmother Ada Phillips Swasey Rogers' father. 

He was a bookkeeper, and so was my grandfather, George Rogers. 

Alexander Swasey's mother was Anna J (Fanny Tylstra) Zylstra Swasey.  There was difficulty reading the census, and apparently even the family believed her name had been Fanny Tylstra.  But I saw the "Z" in longhand on a census report, and changed my Ancestry notation for her name, and found more of her family.  Unfortunately I've never found when or where she died.

She had lived in St. Augustine FL where her brother was the postmaster. (See this old post about them!) Alexander's father was Captain Alexander G. Swasey, a nautical man who spent most of the Civil War in prison in a fort in Boston Harbor.  He had been a blockade runner for a short time for the Confederacy.  He died shortly after the end of the war, when Alex John was just 12.

G-Grandpa Alex and G-Grandma "Dear Nan" lived in Houston until Alexander died in 1913.  His wife lived until 1935.  They are both buried in Lakeview Cemetery in Galveston TX

Tomorrow I'll introduce you to his sister, Marianne (Mamie) Swasey (1849-1883)