Work and service
Albert in the Pacific
Surveying, roads, airbase construction and the documents preserved in the wartime chapter.
Read the account →Family history
Family history
A connected family archive across generations, places, work, war, and everyday life.
Explore the interactive family tree60 people · linked source records · searchable branches
Why I am keeping this record
I want these records to help me understand the people I am connected to: the work they did, the homes they kept, the decisions they faced and the accounts they chose to preserve. The family history reaches across several branches. A wartime diary matters, and so do a household, a farm, an engineering career and a letter remembering Christmas.
My uncle’s books make much of this material available to the family. I want the stories within them to remain attached to the people who lived them, including Eleanor, the Wiseman women, Albert and Walter. Their experiences offer different ways into the same larger history.
Records and recognition
Following the open questions
Walter’s recognition effort, the pilot he credited and ways to help locate the evidence.
Explore the research and help →My parents: Brian and Cynthia
My parents, Brian Howell Schweickart and Cynthia Daphne Gates, bring the two sides of this archive into my own family. Their chapter follows their marriage and family life, Brian’s memories of learning to build things and the values he hoped to pass on.
Brian Schweickart, my father
Brian grew up in Albert and Eleanor’s family, alongside his older brother John. His own recollections bring that history into everyday life: learning electrical work and construction with his father, making things from lumber-yard scraps, playing tennis, and later finding his own way as a parent. He entered Western Michigan University in 1968.
Cynthia Gates, my mother
My mother, Cynthia Daphne Gates, was born in Detroit. She and Brian married in 1978 and raised three children, including me. Through her, the Gates family is part of my history; through their life together, the two branches become the family I grew up in.
Their chapter brings together the family records, their 2005 photograph and Brian’s April 2008 recollections. Read about Brian and Cynthia →
The family archive
The records in my family reach from Alsace and the Ohio River valley to Michigan, wartime Italy, and the Pacific. They include family trees, biographies, photographs, letters, drawings, and first-person accounts.
The Schweickart collection includes the Howell, Wiseman, and Stewart lines. The Gates material includes my grandfather Walter’s war diary and his later recollections. The chapters below connect the people with the places, work, and events in their records.
Frederick and Louisa
Follow the Schweickart branch from Alsace and the Ohio River to an Ironton household, a building business and Louisa’s later years with her daughter Margaret. Read the family chapter →
How the branches connect
Schweickart and Turvey
Albert John Schweickart and Harriet Grace Turvey → their son Albert Junior Schweickart.
Wiseman and Stewart
Charles Allen Wiseman and Martha Jane Stewart → their daughter Effie Louise Wiseman.
Howell and Wiseman
Effie Louise Wiseman and Chauncey Howell → their daughter Mary Eleanor Howell.
Albert and Eleanor
Albert Junior and Mary Eleanor → their sons Albert John and Brian Howell Schweickart. The younger John is David’s uncle and the family historian. Brian is David’s father.
The Gates branch
Walter G. Gates is David’s maternal grandfather. A complete maternal pedigree is not shown.
Places and generations
- Nineteenth centuryAlsace and Ohio River communities. The Schweickart, Howell, Wiseman, and Stewart histories meet in southern Ohio.Family branches
- Late 1800s–1930sThe Buck Creek farm, Ironton households, and the work of raising families.The Wiseman farm
- World War IIAlbert in the Pacific, Eleanor in Ohio, and Walter in Italy and captivity.People and wartime places
- 1947–1950Work in Detroit and a family home in Allen Park connect Ohio with Michigan.Albert and Eleanor
- 1947–1975John’s autobiographies follow childhood, university, Army service, and engineering.John’s life stories
- 1978 · Brian and CynthiaMy parents marry, bringing the Schweickart and Gates branches together. Their chapter follows the family they raised and the memories preserved in the books.My parents’ story
The dates mark the scope of the accounts. The source collection and full chronology identify the books and unresolved details.
Explore the family history
Begin with a family branch, a person, or the place where the story unfolds.
Family branches
The Schweickart, Howell, Wiseman, and Stewart connections, and what the research can establish.
Read the chapterBrian Schweickart and Cynthia Gates
The family they raised, their Michigan roots, and Brian’s memories of building, tennis and parenthood.
Read the chapter ↗Albert and Eleanor
Childhood in southern Ohio, wartime separation, and the move to Michigan.
Read the chapterThe Wiseman farm
Buck Creek, the household and farm economy, and the memories preserved by several family members.
Read the chapterJohn Schweickart’s life stories
The family historian’s own accounts of childhood, education, Army service, and work.
Read the chapterWalter Gates’s wartime record
The daily diary, Foote’s crew, captivity, and later accounts of what happened.
Read the chapterArchive and chronology
The books and documents behind these chapters, a shared timeline, and unresolved questions.
Read the chapterWar and home-front life
The family records place different people in different parts of the same events. Their roles range from Army construction and aircrew service to civilian work and medical care.
Albert Junior Schweickart
New Guinea → the Philippines. Army surveying and construction, including airbase, road, and air-depot work.
Mary Eleanor Schweickart
Port Clinton, Ohio. Civilian secretarial work at Erie Proving Grounds; household with Louise and Arline.
Walter G. Gates
Grottaglie, Italy → crew loss over Wiener-Neustadt and captivity. Army Air Forces right waist gunner, 449th Bomb Group, 716th Squadron.
REVOLUTIONARY WAR ACCOUNT
George Stewart
The Stewart volume reproduces George’s later pension testimony about service and travel during the Revolution. The account belongs to the Stewart branch behind Martha Wiseman.
- Places in the account
- Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York
- Evidence
- Later sworn recollection, reproduced in the family genealogy
WORLD WAR II
Albert, Eleanor, and Walter
The Pacific construction record, the Ohio home-front chapter, and the Italy diary preserve three distinct experiences. Photographs, correspondence, and later recollections add detail to each.
1969–1971 · VIETNAM WAR ERA
John Schweickart
John’s Army account follows training and work as a medic at Fort Ord, California. His service was stateside, where he worked in medical care during the Vietnam War era.
- Role
- Emergency-room and surgical-clinic medic
- Evidence
- Autobiography, letters, and service documents
Work and industry
The archive follows people through farming, construction, manufacturing, military work, and engineering. Work changed as families moved and as the economy around them changed.
Building trades and lumber
Late 1800s and early 1900s. Frederick and the Schweickart family; Ironton and Ohio River communities. Carpentry, contracting, and lumber work.
Farm and household economy
Late 1800s and early 1900s. Charles and Martha Wiseman’s household; Buck Creek, Lawrence County, Ohio. Crops, livestock, domestic work, and shared harvests.
Wartime construction and support
1940s. Albert Junior and Mary Eleanor Schweickart; the Pacific and Port Clinton, Ohio. Army engineering and civilian secretarial work.
Plant engineering and auto plants
1947–1950 transition. Albert Junior Schweickart; Detroit and Ford. Plant engineering, construction estimates, and planning.
Chemical process engineering
1973. Albert John Schweickart, the family historian; BASF Wyandotte, Michigan. Research and development on chlorine and caustic manufacturing technology.
The people who kept the record
Much of the Schweickart-side research was assembled by my uncle, Albert John Schweickart. His books preserve material collected by earlier generations and contributions from relatives. His own autobiographies explain why he kept writing: he wanted descendants to understand the person behind the photographs and the events that shaped his life.[1]
Walter Gates made a daily wartime record and, decades later, added an epilogue and correspondence. The daily entries, later recollections, and correspondence each preserve a different part of the experience.[2]
The archive and chronology brings together the source books, documents, and research questions behind these chapters.
Sources
- A Collection of My Life Stories. Albert John Schweickart. Introduction and “Describe your family,” printed pp. 9–12. Private family archive.
- Overseas War Diary. Walter G. Gates. Diary, epilogue, and covering letter; PDF pp. 2, 16–19. Private family archive.
- Albert and Eleanor Schweickart — The Story of Their Lives. A. John Schweickart. Ancestry and descendants charts, printed pp. 5–7 / PDF pp. 6–8.
- Albert and Eleanor Schweickart — The Story of Their Lives. Wartime chapters, printed pp. 93–117; Detroit and Ford work, printed pp. 133–143.
- My Story: 1969–1975. Albert John Schweickart. Introduction; training and Fort Ord, printed pp. 21–30, 75–90, 97, 144–145; engineering, printed pp. 178–180.
- Stewart Family Genealogy: Their Lives. A. John Schweickart. George Stewart’s service account and pension discussion, printed pp. 16–27; reproduced pension testimony begins on printed p. 72. The graphic identifies the testimony as a later recollection.
- Schweickart Family Genealogy: Their Lives. A. John Schweickart. Carpentry, contracting, and lumber work, printed pp. 50, 64–65.
- Memories of Charles and Martha Wiseman and Life on the Family Farm. A. John Schweickart. Farm buildings, crops, livestock, and household work, printed pp. 117–123.
Page numbers are those printed in the source unless marked as PDF pages. The source files retain their existing access restrictions.