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Leonard Tobias Schnell* was born 06 Aug 1860 in Liverpool, Medina, Ohio, USA (within the limits of Valley City) to parents Christopher Levin Schnell, 51 and Catherine Rauch, 32.
Sometime before 1870 the family relocated to the northwest corner of Marks & Boston Roads in the small village of Beebetown (officially known as Columbia Township, Lorain, Ohio). Beebetown would become the Schnell family home for the next 80 years.
John is currently assumed to have been born in Sigmaringen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany in 1824 under the name Justus Betzikofer.
While research is still underway, this is all we know of John's early life at this current moment.
Even less is known on his wife Emily Zimmerman. She was born in the region of Bayern, Germany about 1828 and seems that her birth name was Apolonia even though she frequently went by Emily and Emma.
UPDATED 05/1/2020: On top of the previous update from 2017 that made use of Ancestry.com's transcribed Württemberg parish registers to identify Rauch birth, marriage and death records, I have added additional footnotes to the bottom of the page to address a few old Rauch family stories that keep appearing. I combed the parish registers for Rauch family members to identify occupations and relationships that hopefully answer some of these longstanding questions.
Born in southern Germany to what was by all accounts a fairly prominent farming family (father was said to be town mayor), Catherine was raised in the town of Vöhringen until the age of 5. At that time, the family sailed to America aboard the ship Charlotte and landed in New York on 22 July 1833. They immigrated to Liverpool Township in Medina, Ohio where Catherine married Levi Schnell at 24. The couple lived in Beebetown on the edge of Liverpool their entire lives and raised 5 children. She died a widow at her daughter's home in Berea, Ohio at the age of 74.
