The Lowe Family Tree

Gullik was born 26 Jan 1794 on Hære Farm in Øvre Eiker, Norway to a crofter father who rented farmland to get by. The family moved to the mining town of Konnerud where Gullik spent his teen years. Here his father gave him ownership of a small parcel of land named Loe [pronounced loo] near his father's properties of Veierud and Knatholt. Gullik married his wife Maren Christensdatter Wear and lived here for at least 7 years. Family stories say his inability to manage money and a pension for drinking and card playing bankrupted the family, forcing them off the Loe property and out of town. It was the shame of his mother-in-law that bailed him out and saved the family. Gullik's own shame of the situation seemed to straighten him out and the carpenter bought Sondre Myhre farm in Svelvik where they spent the next 20 years before Gullik died in 1856.

Our Schnell immigrant ancestor was born in Germany. Our only account of Levi's early life comes from his immigration manifest that says he was from Hanover, Germany. His childhood and origins beyond that are a mystery. Even his actual birth name is up for debate as he has been written under many different variations of Christoph Levin Schnell. He originally married in Cuyahoga County, Ohio to Mary Richardson at the age of 30, less than a year after arriving in America. They lived in Liverpool Township, Ohio where he worked as a carpenter and farmer and had 4 children together before Mary died. Levi remarried Catherine Rauch at 46 and moved to Beebetown where they had 5 more children together. Levi died in Beebetown at the age of 74.

Andreas was born to a sailor/carpenter father in northern Svelvik in 1830. He was 1 of 8 children, including a half-sister and only the second boy of the house. His younger sister died when he was 9, his father passed away at 11, and an older sister when he was 14. Andreas took to the sea as a sailor and while home married Anne Marie Ruud in 1855. The couple would have 6 children before Anne's untimely death in 1867. Andreas stopped sailing and took up carpentry at the shipyard full time when he remarried Laura Anderson. They had a son in 1873, but Laura also died the following year. Andreas died in Svelvik in 1888 at the age of 58.