Archive and chronology

A shared chronology

A timeline helps orient the collection, but it does not turn every early family link into a certainty. Dates below indicate the scope of the records and accounts.

1. Nineteenth century

   The Schweickart genealogy follows migration from Alsace into Ohio River communities. The Howell, Stewart, and Wiseman books connect earlier generations with southern Ohio.

2. Late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries

   The Wiseman farm accounts describe Buck Creek household and agricultural life through photographs, plans, letters, and recollections.

3. 1930s–1939

   Albert and Eleanor’s biography follows youth and work around Ironton, the 1937 flood, and their 1939 marriage.

4. 1940s

   Albert’s Pacific service, Eleanor’s home-front work, and Walter Gates’s Italy and POW records preserve distinct wartime experiences.

5. 1947–1950

   The Schweickart family’s transition from Ohio to Detroit and Allen Park links the Ohio archive with later Michigan family life.

6. 1947–1975

   John’s three chronological autobiographies follow his childhood, education, Army service, and transition into professional and married life.

7. 1996

   Walter Gates’s letter records the typing of his diary, addition of an epilogue, and a survivors’ reunion.

8. 2000s–2023

   John’s compilations organize family research and first-person accounts into the books now held in the archive.

The books and documents

The family collection is broader than one diary or surname. These are the source traditions behind the chapters, with the role of each source made explicit.

Records, recollection, and inference

The genealogy introductions explicitly describe a mixture of documents, logic, and supposition. A household listed in a census, a story remembered by a relative, and a proposed parent-child link are different kinds of evidence. Captions, transcriptions, and later summaries sometimes disagree. The research notes retain those differences.

Questions still in the collection

Some details disagree within or between books. These include dates for Harriet Grace Turvey and Albert John Schweickart, Chauncey Howell’s middle name, and whether John Stewart’s middle name was Chilton or Chaney. Early Howell and Wiseman connections include acknowledged inference or contradiction. Those questions are retained as research issues, not resolved by choosing whichever version reads most smoothly.

The original files also contain personal contact details and living relatives’ records. Those details are not reproduced here. The chapter pages use selected historical material and source links, while the full books keep their existing access restrictions.

Reading the archive

Start with the family branches for the relationships, Albert and Eleanor for the Ohio-to-Michigan story, or the Wiseman farm for a detailed place-based account. Walter Gates’s record and John’s life stories preserve distinct first-person perspectives.