Ancestor Spotlight · Swift line · maternal
Leroy E. Swift (1836–c. 1880)
A Falmouth mariner’s son who served as a Navy officer in the Gulf, married in New Orleans, and left a son who found his way back to New England.
Relationship
Leroy E. Swift is the 3rd great-grandfather of John, Perry, and Patrick Long, via the Swift maternal line.
FamilySearch PID L1VB-5P9↗
Warren-Winter Collection: Leroy E. Swift, Civil War era portrait. Acting Ensign, U.S. Navy (volunteer), 26 Oct 1864 – 12 Oct 1868; served on the gunboat USS Mahaska, Gulf Squadron. Remembered in the family as ‘a Navy Capt.’
His Story
Leroy E. Swift was born 7 June 1836 in Massachusetts, the second son of Solomon Swift and Huldah (Hinckley) Swift, [1] [2] into a Falmouth family that had lived by the sea for generations. His grandfather, Nathaniel Swift, is called Captain on his gravestone; his 1849 death record calls him a farmer. [3] [4]
In October 1864, at twenty-eight, he was appointed Acting Ensign in the U.S. Navy, a volunteer commission given to experienced seamen during the war. He served in the Gulf aboard the gunboat USS Mahaska and remained in the service until October 1868. [5] [6]
On 16 June 1868, still in the Navy, he married Rachel T. Warren at Mt. Olivet Church in Algiers, across the river from New Orleans. [7] Rachel’s family had come from Philadelphia. [8] Their son, Le Roy Warren Swift, was born 19 March 1869. [9]
Rachel does not appear in the records after her son’s birth. By 1874 Leroy had married again, to Emma F. H. Richard of Louisiana; [10] their daughter, Cora Rachel, was born in 1875. [9] Leroy died in New Orleans before 1880, when the census lists Emma as a widow raising Le Roy, then eleven, and Cora. [11]
Le Roy came north as a young man. In 1894 he married Fanny Harrison Winter in New Bedford, and the line continued in Massachusetts. [12]
The family kept one portrait of him: a tintype in a pressed case, showing him in an officer’s frock coat with shoulder straps. A label in red ink, written decades later, reads “His Father, a Navy Capt.” [13]
Timeline
- 1836Born 7 June, Massachusetts●Sourced
- 1864Appointed Acting Ensign, U.S. Navy, 26 October●Verified
- 1868Married Rachel T. Warren, Mt. Olivet Church, Algiers, 16 June●Sourced
- 1868Honorably discharged, 12 October●Verified
- 1869Son Le Roy Warren Swift born, 19 March●Sourced
- 1874Married Emma F. H. Richard, Algiers, 12 August●Sourced
- before 1880Died, New Orleans●Sourced
Still Unknown
- When and how Rachel died.
- The date and cause of Leroy’s death.
- What he did between leaving the Navy and 1880.
Descent to the Brothers
Every generation, with its number from the FamilySearch export. Click any PID to open the FamilySearch record.
Sources
- George H. Swift, comp., William Swyft of Sandwitch and Some of His Descendants, 1637–1899 (Millbrook, NY: Round Table Press, 1900), 105, 150. archive.org●Sourced
- “Massachusetts Births and Christenings, 1639–1915,” database, FamilySearch, Laroy Swift, 7 June 1836, Falmouth, ark:/61903/1:1:FZ37-9JK.●Sourced
- “Find a Grave Index,” database, FamilySearch, Capt Nathaniel Swift, d. 22 September 1849, Bay View Cemetery, Waquoit, ark:/61903/1:1:QVLR-FTXD; Find a Grave, memorial 106704034.●Sourced
- “Massachusetts Deaths, 1841–1915,” database, FamilySearch, Nathaniel Swift, 22 September 1849, Falmouth, ark:/61903/1:1:N7GS-PQL.●Sourced
- Massachusetts Soldiers, Sailors and Marines in the Civil War, vol. 7 (1933), 517.●Verified
- Edward W. Callahan, ed., List of Officers of the Navy of the United States and of the Marine Corps, from 1775 to 1900 (New York: L. R. Hamersly, 1901), 531. archive.org●Verified
- “Louisiana Marriages, 1816–1906,” database, FamilySearch, Leroy E. Swift and Rachel T. Warren, 16 June 1868, Mt. Olivet, Algiers, ark:/61903/1:1:F4CR-65G.●Sourced
- “United States Census, 1850,” database, FamilySearch, Isaac Warren household, Cedar Ward, Philadelphia, ark:/61903/1:1:M4CN-JJQ.●Sourced
- “Louisiana Births and Christenings, 1811–1830; 1854–1934,” database, FamilySearch, Le Roy Warren Swift, christened 1878, Mt. Olivet, Algiers, ark:/61903/1:1:FWGX-F91.●Sourced
- “Louisiana Marriages, 1816–1906,” database, FamilySearch, Leroy E. Swift and Emma F. H. Richard, 12 August 1874, Algiers, ark:/61903/1:1:F4Z3-62Q.●Sourced
- “United States Census, 1880,” database, FamilySearch, Emma Swift household, New Orleans, ark:/61903/1:1:MDXH-JNK.●Sourced
- “Massachusetts Marriages, 1841–1915,” database, FamilySearch, Le Roy Warren Swift and Fanny Harrison Winter, 13 June 1894, New Bedford, ark:/61903/1:1:N47R-CJG.●Sourced
- Tintype in a pressed case, with red-ink label, Warren-Winter collection, family archive.●Inherited Evidence