Kara Swisher Family History

Kara Anne Swisher was born on December 11th, 1962 to Louis and Lucretia Swisher in Roslyn Harbor, Long Island.  When she was five she lost her father who died from a cerebral aneurysm.  The family moved to Princeton, New Jersey and her mother remarried.

Her teenage ambition had been to work in the military or with the CIA.  However, as a gay woman this may not have been feasible at that time.  Instead, after attending school at Georgetown University and interning with the Washington Post, she pursued a career in journalism.

Journalism and The Big Tech Love Affair.    After graduating from Columbia University with a MS in journalism in 1985, she rejoined the Washington Post where she was to work for the next twelve years.  She has credited the Post with sparking her interest in tech issues.  During that time she received national attention for covering AOL and the beginnings of the dot-com era that defined the 1990’s.

Kara joined The Wall Street Journal in 1997 and made the move to San Francisco to be closer to the tech industry.  She and her fellow tech journalist Walt Mossberg were among the first to recognize the importance of the  digital revolution.

She also got to know the tech leaders well – types like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk.  As a result of the coverage through her interviews and podcasts, she has become almost as well known as the tech people about whom she has written and spoken about.

Her book Burn Book: A Tech Love Story appeared in 2024.  It is only in part a tech love story.  It is also a warning about the dangers of giving these rich tech leaders unbridled freedom to determine their futures and ours.

The Swishers from West Virginia

Kara’s ancestry in America has a long Swisher history on her father’s side, dating back to Peter Schweitzer from Switzerland in 1767; and a short history on her mother’s side, dating back to Italian immgrants to America around 1900.

Early Days.  Peter Schweitzer had arrived in Philadelphia on the Sally in 1767 at the age of twenty-one. He changed his last name soon after to the more American Swisher.  Then he married.  There has been some confusion as to whether his wife was only Mary Waggoner; or maybe she died and he might have remarried Anna Maria Deckern in Maryland.

In any event he and his wife or wives raised seven children over the next twenty or so years.  In 1812 the family moved to the Lost Creek area of Harrison county in what was then Virginia.  This part of Virginia later became West Virginia when the state was created in 1863.  R.E. Swisher traced the family’s history in his 1974 book The Swisher Family of Harrison and Lewis Counties, West Virginia.

The Swisher line here went as follows:

• Peter Swisher (1779-1830) in Harrison county
• Isaac R. Swisher (1805-1839) in Lewis county
• James Lee Swisher (1832-1908) in Lewis county
• and Charles E. Swisher (1870-1960) in Lewis county.

Peter Swisher was the second son of immigrant Peter Schweitzer.  His siblings Jacob and Mary Swisher had moved onto Ohio with their spouses in the early 1800’s.  But he only went as far as Lewis county, Virginia.

Swishers As Farmers.  Peter’s son Isaac started the family farm which was located at Hackers Creek near Berlin in Lewis county.  After Isaac’s death in 1839 at the young age of thirty-four, his son James Lee took over its running.

James’s son Charles grew up on this farm, but then moved away.  Soon after his marriage to Vinnie Bush at the Bush Inn in 1895, Charles acquired virgin land to farm at Cedar Creek in Gilmer county.

He and his family, however, would end up in the 1920’s at a farm along the Berlin Road quite close to Charles’s childhood home.  Charles died there in 1960 at the grand age of ninety.

These Swisher farmers had large families – Peter with ten children, Isaac with six (but he died young), and James with nine.  Many hands to work on the farm!

Interestingly in their marriage certificates, we find some surnames recurring – Smith, Gaston, Hinzman, Allman and McKinney for instance.  These probably were names from nearby farms.

Louis Bush Swisher (Sr. and Jr.).  Charles’s son Louis Sr. grew up in the family log cabin in Cedar Creek.  He became the first in his family to get an education.  It was a bachelor’s degree at West Virginia University.  Then it was a master’s degree in Agricultural Economics at Cornell University.  This he completed in 1933.

He did not need to go back to the farm.  Instead he had the credentials to work for the government on their farm programs.  After his work in West Virginia for the Federal Land Bank and the Farm Security Administration, he ended up as one of the prominent business leaders in his hometown of Morgantown.

Louis’s son Louis Jr, or Buddy as he was known, was Kara’s father.  He also attended West Virginia University, but then went to Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia and came out a doctor, specializing in anesthesiology.

In 1968, after a spell with the US Navy, he was working at the Jewish Hospital and Medical Center in Brooklyn when disaster struck.  He unexpectedly fell ill at his home in Roslyn Harbor, Long Island and underwent emergency surgery for a cerebral aneurysm. He did not survive the surgery, leaving his wife Lucretia and children in shock.

And Her Italian Stock

Kara’s mother Lucretia was of Italian immigrant stock.  Lucretia’s grandparents Francesco and Lucretia Ventre had arrived in America from Campania in southern Italy around 1900.  They settled in NE Pennsylvania.

Their son Henry was born in Old Forge, Pennsylvania in 1902.  His Italian wife Sue was a stay-at-home housewife.  According to Kara, she liked nothing more than cooking and watching on TV the Weather Channel, soaps, and Penn State football matches.

They raised three daughters – Susan who became a doctor (she died in 2012), Lucretia (Kara’s Lucky mother), and Janet.  

Kara Swisher’s Family Tree

• West Virginia

• Isaac Swisher from Lewis county, West Virginia m. Jane Gaston (1802-1876) in 1829
• – Peter Swisher (1830-1913) m. Margaret Hinzman
• – Jane Swisher (1831-1850’s)
• – James Swisher (1832-1908)
• – Sarah Swisher (1834-1917) m. Perry Hinzman
• – Anna Swisher (1838-1911) m. John Boram
• – Isaac Swisher (1839-1875) m. Eda Lawson

• James Swisher from Lewis county, West Virginia m. Mary (Molly) Hinzman (1835-1908) in 1855
• – Alvin Swisher (1857-1906) m. Alice Morrison
• – William Swisher (1860-1932) m. Nancy Cookman
• – Isaac (Lum) Swisher (1861-1953) m. Mary Allman
• – Alfred (Wash) Swisher (1863-1898) m. Eliza Allman
• – Robert (Bob) Swisher (1866-1958) m. Laura McKinney
• – Addie (Ada) Swisher (1868-1942) m. John Lawson
• – Charles Swisher (1870-1960)
• – John Swisher (1873-1936) m. Minnie McKinney
• – James Swisher (1879-1957) m. Stella Post

• Louis Bush Swisher Sr. from Glenville, West Virginia m. Mildred King (1906-1990) in 1929
• – Louis Swisher (1933-1968)
• – Anne Swisher (1935-2023) m. Bruce Chase
• – Charles Swisher (1938-2017) m. Marilyn Auvil and Sharon Carroll

• Dr. Louis Bush (Buddy) Swisher Jr. from Morgantown, West Virginia m. Lucretia Ventre in Philadelphia in 1959.  After Louis’ death in New York in 1968 Lucretia rem. and became Mrs. Carney.
• – Jeffrey (Jeff) Swisher m. Dana Boren, doctor (anesthesiologist)
• – Kara Swisher (b. 1962)
• – David Swisher m. Patricia (Patty), attorney

• Kara Swisher moved to California in 1997 and m. Megan Smith, tech officer (b. 1964) in Marin county in 1999, divorced in 2017; rem. Amanda Katz, journalist (b. 1992) in 2020 and returned to Washington DC
• – Louis (Louie) Swisher (b. 2003), adopted with Megan
• – Alexander (Alex) Swisher (b. 2006), adopted with Megan
• – Clara Swisher Katz (b. 2019), adopted with Amanda
• – Solomon Swisher Katz (b. 2021), adopted with Amanda