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Note: mary was the mother of frederick schindewolf and his brothers and sisters, and we knew she was marie schill from frederick's death certificate. our 'german brain trust' also knew of mary's birth year from her entry in the 1880 nyc federal census. we caught a glimpse of the identities of her parents from the vague nyc death records of the 2 men we believed were her brothers, john (johannes) and fred (friedrich) schill. (john's son, richard the music teacher, was witness at albert schindewolf's naturalization) fred's said parents were 'hildebrandt schill and elizabeth muller,' while john's said 'mr schill and anna mu----' (obscured by ink stain) i assumed they may have been from the frankershausen area based on the grouping of the names schill, hildebrandt and the curiously uncommon surname, 'schindewolf.' frederick's nyc marriage return says he was born in 'frankenhausen,' though there were other subtle errors in this and other nyc records. this is all corroborated by birth records from frankershausen. it now looks like john came to nyc first, then helped his minor younger brother over shortly before their mother's death, their father being deceased since fred was 3. mary's husband, jakob schindewolf, died in 1867, when albert was 15 and frederick 13, at a very unstable time in german politics, shortly after the 7 weeks' war. johannes may have convinced her of the benefits of leaving germany at that time, for the children especially. he and mary's son frederick were both lifetime tinsmiths. it is reasonable to believe, in light of all the evidence of johannes' support for family members at critical times, that frederick's choice of occupation came under his influence and aid. no nyc death records for mary have yet been found, though it appears the children, who she lived with generally, stayed in nyc. she was certainly alive circa 1900, when she appears in a number of family photographs. it is not known whether she remarried, or perhaps returned to germany in her old age. the latter is not likely in light of the european political realities of the early 20th-century.
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