Section 12: The Christian Schneÿder Story Continues
Pennsylvania, and Philadelphia in particular, is important to our family story. We've known for many years that we had a strong connection to the City of Philadelphia and to Philadelphia County. We now know that our ancestor lived in the Old City for more than 40 years and that he stayed in the same neighborhood and attended the same church for much of that time.
Of course, his first home was in Europe, and no doubt, some of us will try to find where Christian Schneÿder was born. Did he originate, as others would suggest, in the Palatinate region of western Germany - perhaps in the same locale as Rev. George Michael Weiss and his countrymen? It's probably a good place to begin.
The congregation of Old First Reformed Church of Philadelphia considers Rev. Weiss its 1727 founder, and they formed “The 1727 Society” in 1996 to commemorate this and to reach out into the community. New Goshenhoppen Reformed Church, UCC (East Greenville) also considers Rev. Weiss to have been their “founding Pastor”. He is buried on the church grounds.
In a quote from the New Goshenhoppen church’s website: http://www.newgoshucc.org/AboutUs/aboutus.html - “Rev. George Michael Weiss, the eminent Reformed pioneer clergyman, has been called the first mission superintendent of the Reformed Church in America”.