Mary Moyer Snyder

Life

Mary Moyer Lithgow was born into a Presbyterian family in Philadelphia. Both her father and her mother were immigrants from Northern Ireland, and were of Scottish descent. Mary's mother, Rebecca Ewing, died when Mary was three, and her father William did not have the resources to raise her on his own, since he was already a relatively old man at the time, over fifty. He therefore gave Mary to his wife's sister Sarah Ewing to raise.

When Mary reached age nineteen, she married Frederick Wilhelm Snyder, the son of German immigrants, in Camden, New Jersey. They lived in Philadelphia and had a large family, at least two of whom died young.

Later, as she grew ill with heart disease, she moved in with son Harry Bernard Snyder and his family. Granddaughter Carol Berry has fond recollections of listening to classical music from Mary's radio on the carpet of her bedroom. Mary's love of music surfaced in many of her descendants, including Carol's children, and grandson Harold Wright as well.

Mary died in 1942, as the result of long-term chronic heart disease.

Census

Census records show that Mary lived in Philadelphia in 1900 and in 1910, and after her husband Fred died in 1911, also in 1920 as a widow with her married daughter Ella and Ella's husband William Wright.

Origins and Recollections

Mary's surviving granddaughter Carol has said that she thought Mary's maiden name might have been "Ludlow" or "Lithgow". Also, she thought Mary was adopted, which might explain some of the confusion around her origins. Carol also told me that Mary had come to live with them (her son Harry and his family) for a while when she began to suffer from heart problems. This was when Carol was very young. Since Carol was born in 1937 it's clear that Mary lived at least until 1940.

A possible maiden name of "Lithgow" allowed me to find Mary's birth record(s), and they state Feb 5, 1868 as the birth date, here and here.

Looking for census data for "Mary Lithgow", there's a very good match in the 1870 census, with an 1868 birthdate, here.

I've chased this down and found that if the census is correct, Mary's mother Rebecca died when she was less than three. This could well explain an adoption.

Mary's marriage record confirms the Lithgow birth name.

Her death certificate confirms Lithgo also, but on the marriage record, Mary reports her mother's name as Sarah Ewing. After looking into Mary's birth family, it appears that Sarah Ewing was in fact her mother's sister, and the person who raised her after her mother died. Marriage record lists father as ".... Lithgo". Clearly she did not know her birth father, only her birth surname and date of birth. Birth record is here.

Mary's middle name

Mary's middle name of "Moyer" seems to be shared with at least one other grandchild of James Ewing and Mary Diagley. Its significance is unknown but it may represent a family surname from the Diagley side of the tree. It wasn't only in conjunction with "Mary" that it was used, either - the other case is in conjunction with "Rebecca".

The Irish Diagley family is of Huguenot descent. The founder was a dispossessed Frenchman who died in Bristol, England, who named an Irish wife and Irish lands in his will. He had lived in County Waterford most of his life. This is important, because the surname "Moyer" is a very special one in Ireland but is not found at all in County Donegal. There is also a Huguenot immigrant family named "Moynier", which is possibly the source of the surname. The Diagleys didn't come from Donegal, and we may be seeing evidence of Moyer or Moynier ancestry through them. Or it may mean something entirely different; only time will tell.

DNA

Numerous Ewing matches for Mary's descendants confirm her genealogy.