Swope Family Book of Rememberance

Schwab (Swope) coat of arms

Yost Swope (1678-1735) tombstone
-in Salem Heller Church Cemetery, Bird in the Hand, Lancaster, PA-
(with errors - a great grandson had Yost and his spouse moved from the family property to the churchhard in 1884 (157 years later and obviously someone had a new tombstone made - as mentioned previously, the tombstone for Yost is incorrect and is obviously not 277 years old.  As related in "the Swope Family in America" the dates for Yost are incorrect.  A great grandson had Yost and his spouse moved from the family property to the churchyard in 1881 (157 years later and someone hhas had a new stone made. This info comes from Vernon Lee Ellison *1936, 5. great grandson of Yost Swope and Anna Wolfarten)
Joseph Swope (1707-?) tombstone
(son of Yost Schwab & Anna Wolfarten)
(historical highway marker of his son Joseph Swope *1707 and his sons in Monroe County, WV)
Michael Swope (1753-1839) tombstone

Among other sources, "Pennsylvania German Ancestors"  by Anne Shifflet, Ph.D.  pages 113 thru 119 address 'Swope Ancestors' starting with Jost (Yost) and Anna Catharina Wolfhardt.  Their 10th child listed being Hans Ulrich Schwab born 21 Oct 1707 in Germany who later americanized his name to Joseph Swope as shown on the Historical Highway marker in West Virginia along with birth year 1707 near his family home there.  Ms. Anne Shifflet did not have any further info on Hans Ulrich aka Joseph, my line into the Harvey family, in her book.  There are other Swope writings which concur with her
findings of 1656 to 1727 [date of inventory of goods at time of his death] for Yost Schwab based on immigration to america, marriage, children birth dates, etc.

As to the wives of Hans Urlich (Joseph) I have NO PROOF. Their names are posted on some web sites and I found references to "Unk Beckett" as the mother of his 5 children as well in the local library in West Virginia as done earlier by a family researcher. Their marriage "abt 1748" would fit with Michael's birthdate of 1753. Perhaps Joseph's first wife died along the way in the wilderness from PA.

Next generation Michael Swope (my line) with birthday also listed on the highway marker. His daughter Sarah Swope married Joshua Harvey. I have a picture of her Tombstone with the death date as well.  Source:  Vernon Lee