This thread will deal with information about our ancestors. It will be a "work in progress," so let's see how far back we can go.

I have a nice 8 X 10 photo of Jacob Schwingel, my great-grandfather, who was both Mayor of Wheeling, Illinois, and owner of the Schwingel Brewery in Wheeling, in the early 1900's.

I will post it here soon.

Uncle Jerry told me that the word "Schwingel" (pronounced "Schvingel") in German has two definitions:

1. refers to a basket which was strapped to the wrist, from which a farmer would take seeds and spread them over the ground.

2. refers to a part of the harnessing equipment used for farm oxen.

There is a Ralph Schwingel in Germany who is involved in movie making whom I corresponded with via email some time ago. I will try to re-contact him.

Our Schwingel ancestors were from Saarland, Germany, and there is a place there called Schwingel House, which is (I think) a type of boarding house.

Any more tidbits?

-- Anonymous, March 30, 2000

Answers

Hi Duane, to give you a new impression, where the name could come from: There are some sorts of grass existing, in german it's called 'Horstrot-Schwingel', 'Wiesen-Schwingel', 'Rohr-Schwingel' etc.

-- Anonymous, July 20, 2000