I still know very little about Johan Frederick Polycarpus von Schneidau who was forced to leave Sweden in 1842, heavily indebted. I have published another reason for his exile; his marriage to a Jewish girl, but that was allowed if she converted, which she did. Still it was socially unaccepted, at least for an officer close to the King.
Polycarpus is briefly mentioned in a few books as an assistant to Matthew Brady and is known for a daguerreotype of the flood in Chicago in 1849, one of Jenny Lind and an eraly portrait of Abe Lincoln. Otherwise, he is rather forgotten. But his ancestors are active on the web and I found this text:
Correspondence 1//29/02 passengers #2 & 3 von Schneidau on the Ships Manifest for the ship "Stephanie" for 26 July 1842, Hamburg to New York:
I am certain that items 2 and 3 on the List refer to my ancestors, Polycarpus von Schneidau and his wife Caroline (nee Caroline Elizabeth Jacobson). My family's genealogical records indicate that "Poly" and his wife emigrated to this country in 1842. They settled in Pine Lake, Wisconsin, where a number of other emigrants from Skandinavia settled.
It is curious that Poly lists his profession as farmer. He was in fact a former lieutenant in the Royal Swedish Navy, descended from a noble family, and friend of the King of Sweden. What prompted his emigration was his marriage to a Jewish woman, Caroline; marriages between Christians and Jews were illegal in Sweden at this time.
Poly did have to take up farming in the wilderness of Wisconsin initially, but after only a few years moved with his family to Chicago, where he became a successful daguerrotypist. My grandmother, Pauline von Schneidau Jerome, granddaughter of Poly and Caroline's only child, Paulina, was the last to retain the name von Schneidau in our line. /.../ Jenny Jerome was the mother of Winston Churchill.
John Frederick Polycarpus von Schneidau was born in Stockholm 1812 and was listed as lieutenant in the Stockholm Adress books during the early 1940s. Read more >>
