On December 14, 1595, my ninth great grand uncle Christian Gungerich was born in Oberdiessbach, Canton Bern, Switzerland to Hans Gungerich and Anna Schindler. Christian was the brother of my 9th great grandnmother Barbara Gungerich.
Christian is notable because he was an Anabaptist teacher and was imprisoned twice for preaching, eventually dying in prison. If he was executed, I do not have that information.
Christian’s family’s surname was originally Gundrich and appeared in records as early as 1389, in Konolfingen, near Oberdiessbach. By the late 1500s there were several Gungerich families living near Oberdiessbach. In 1669, Christian had been captured and imprisoned in Schwarzenegg Prison. He managed to escape. So he was hunted again and taken to Waisenhaus Prison in Bern. Waisenhaus was a former orphanage converted into prison for Anabaptist preachers.
There is not an exact date of death for Christian. As noted above, if he was executed, I don’t have that information. By 1671 his house and lands (inherited) were seized by the government church. Because they kept a case file regarding his property that survived all of these years, and it listed the relations of Christian that came forward to claim the property, we would not know the parentage and siblings of Christian, and he would not be in my tree. He never married and, as such, had no children.
I always wondered who could have been his teacher or “converted” him since the birth of Anabaptism was approximately 70 years before his birth. I read there were several other teachers in his area of Bern already.
His mother, my 10th great grandmother Anna Schindler, shares the surname of an Andres Schindler, an Anabaptist who attended the Anabaptist Debate in Bern in 1538. He was from the area of Oberdiessbach. My theory that she and Andres could be related is just a theory.
Christian’s sister Barbara married Peter Strubel (Rubeli). Remember them? The Rubelis escaped to the German Palatinate and eventually had their farm burned down by Louis XIV when he had the Palatinate scorched. I have written several posts on that branch of the tree.
Barbara also asked after her brother’s estate in April of 1671. These are all ancestors of my Grandmother Leies.
Are we related, or do you have a correction, or addition? Please email me: cinziarosagenealogy@comcast.net.
This week’s 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge during Women’ History Month is 12. For my 12th challenge, I am choosing to write a letter to an ancestress.
Dear Great Great Great Great Great Great Great Great Grandmother Anna Mueller – Rubeli,
I am fascinated by your struggles, your family’s migration, and your the time period in which you lived. Because you were born at a time of religious strife in current-day Switzerland, I am keenly aware that had you and your husband not made a life-altering decisionfor your family, you may have not survived.
I think you may have been born in 1622 in Wattenwil, in the Canton of Bern but am unsure. Therefore, I am unsure of the names of your parents. I know positively that you married my 8th great grandfather Christen Strubel – Rubeli in 1642 in St. Alban’s Reformed Church in Oberdiessbach, Canton Bern.
I know you had 10 children, 8 of which survived to adulthood. My research told me that in the winter of 1672 you took your 6th youngest children with you to the German Palatinate because your Anabaptist faith made it dangerous for you to continue to live in the land of your birth.
Unfortunately, one of your daughters was again made to leave a country because of her faith later in her life. Did you know Madlena was sent to America in 1733 with other Mennonites living in Germany and also died in a foreign country like you? Did you know your son Peter went back to Switzerland after your death and was imprisoned? He was to be sent to America as well.
Thank you for choosing to leave.
What can you tell me about how the choice was made and about your life in the period leading up to your family’s flight before and after 1672, when I discovered that you, my 8th great grandfather, and your children Barbli, young Anna, young Christian, Hans (my 7th great grandfather), Nicholas, and Madlena appeared on a list of refugees kept by the minister of a Mennonite parish near Fischbach bei Dahn, in the German Palatinate?
Sincerely,
One of your thousands of descendants
Dear 8th Great Granddaughter, Our survival depended on our flight. From the time of my childhood, believers had been practicing in secret. Authorities were always coming down from Bern to make sure we were attending THEIR church and having children baptized THEIR way. My father would say it was only because the military companies of the nobles they rented to foreign countries were in such disarray did the authorities actually care. Your 8th great grandfather Christen was a very independent-minded man. His uncle was an Anabaptist preacher named Christian Gungerich who was imprisoned twice for practicing what wasn’t the approved religion. He had been executed in prison the year before we fled. My mother-in-law was not even allowed to keep one piece of furniture from his house. The town officials took all his property with plans to sell it and keep all of the proceeds. Then, a few months before we left our homeland, men from Bern came to Oberdiessbach and demanded all believing men in the town swear an oath as to their faith – or recant. When your 8th great grandfather refused we feared they would take my mother-in-law or one of your 7th great grandfather’s sisters to prison in Bern as ransom until the men of the family took that false oath. We knew then we could not stay in the canton and thought of perhaps going to Holland. We were hearing the stories from brethren that if you were able- bodied, the authorities in Bern were taking believers out of the prisons and selling them like livestock to Italian merchants as galley slaves. Leaders like Christian Gungerich, instead of being executed, were being whipped or branded to then be taken away on carts and left at the border with their wounds. We believed our sons would suffer the fate of being sold to Italy. When winter came our house had already been seized by the authorities. We were given a choice to leave or face branding or slavery. We were homeless. It was not much of a choice. Our survival depended on it. We hid for a short period of time in the Oberland, and left with the clothes we were wearing following another group of believers. On our way we were given help and encountered others suffering our fate. Most were very young, very old, or lame. Those that traveled with horses did so with the slow, old animals because the authorities had taken their faster valuable livestock. Some men and women traveled without their families. Of the very old, most traveled alone. Would I have the courage at their age I asked myself? It took us about 4 weeks to make the trip to the Palatinate during the winter. After we arrived at Fischbach, your 8th great grandfather, and your 7th great grandfather Hans worked daily as laborers on a farm. When we saved enough money, your 8th great grandfather, your many times uncle Peter, and many times uncle Nicholas purchased farmable land and built a small house near Otterberg, Germany and gave it the name Messerschwanderhof. In 1689, a cruel king in France sent armies to burn the lands of the Palatinate. Before your 8th great grandfather and I could re-unite with our children and grandchildren, who were hiding on an island in the Rhine until the French left the valley, I died in that foreign land – hiding as I did when we left my homeland. Your 8th great grandfather wandered a bit before he made it home where his sons were beginning the rebuilding of their farm. My grandson Balthasar Rubeli, your 6th great grandfather, was born shortly before the firing of the farm. He became an important man in the village when he grew. He was a Gerichtsschoffe. I hope my daughter Madlena and son Peter were sent to a welcoming place. As we received kindness in our flight, please remember it. Tell of how our children could have been ransomed by a corrupt government, and will you, as my descendants, show the same strength and sense of humanity to those like us in your time. Keep up your hunt for more like me in our branches. They too are waiting for their stories to be remembered. Sincerely, Your Ahnfrau
I was recently asked by another researcher what Swiss surnames in my tree I was researching in Canton Bern, Switzerland that belonged to the early Anabaptist followers there. Below is an updated list of surnames and place names:
Oberdiessbach:
Gungerich/Gungery*, Schindler, Vogel, Muller, Rubeli*. See GAMEO. Christian Gungerich was an Anabaptist preacher that was imprisoned in Schwarzenegg prison when he escaped in 1669. He was re-captured and imprisoned in Waisenhaus Prison in the Canton’s capital Bern. He died there in 1671. He is my 10th great grand uncle. See Der Tauferlehrer Christian Gungerich (1591-1671) und der Streit um Seinen Nachlass for more on his relations. Also see Oberdiessbach Kirchenbuchen via Canton Bern archives, Mennosearch.com and the book Bernese Anabaptists and their American Descendants.
Langnau:
Vogt, Strubel known as Rubeli* in Oberdiessbach. See Langnau Kirchenbuchen via Canton Bern archives. Part of the Rubeli family emigrated to the German Palatinate in 1672 as religious refugees. See Mennosearch.com.
Leimen/Merzalben/Leiningen: Reber, Helfrich/Helferich/Helferig (in Leimen before and after the Thirty Years War according to 850 Jahre Leimen. See also Die Helfriche)
Aeschlen bei Oberdiessbach, Bern: Rubeli/Strubel (from Langnau), Muller – Rubeli and Muller migrated to Fischbach, RP and lived in Messerschwanderhof and Contwig. The Rubeli were related to the Gungerich Anabaptists of Diessbach. See: Mennosearch.com and Der Tauferlehrer Christian Gungerich von Oberdiessbach (1595-1671) und der Streit um Seinen Nachlas by Hanspeter Jecker.
My DNA matches the Rubeli descendants that emigrated to Pennsylvania before the Revolution. They used Ruble and Ruple in America. See also this former blog post for sources and references on the Strubel/Rubeli: The Anabaptist Rubeli of Aeschlen bei Oberdiessbach, Switzerland.
4/20/18 – A genealogy angel (Hanspeter Jecker) from Switzerland sent me more complete, accurate, and voluminous data on the Strubel/Rubeli family that lived in Oberdiessbach, Bern in the 1600s. Their origins were in Langnau where they were known as Strubel. The data detailed an Anabaptist preacher (Tauferlehrer) 10th great grand uncle of the writer that was imprisoned twice by Bernese authorities named Christian Gungerich and the disbursement of his property upon his imprisonment and death. For those related to me, our branch of the Leies family are now confirmed Gungerich descendants.
The Rubeli family were religious refugees that fled to Germany from Switzerland in early 1672. They were forced to leave Canton Bern because of their belief in the Anabaptist faith. They emigrated to the part of Germany that was called Pfalzfgrafschaft bei Rhein (the present-day Palatinate or Pfalz Region). Christian Rubeli and his wife Anna Muller were my 8th great grandparents and they brought their 6 youngest children with them, including, my 7th great grandfather, Hans Theobald Rubeli, who was only 10 years old, to the village of Fischbach to receive aid from earlier Anabaptist migrants.
Data and Sources Concerning the Origins of the Family
A book is written about the farm the Rubeli lived on outside Otterberg in Germany called Messerschwanderhof claims Christian Rubeli was born in Langnau, Bern, Switzerland. His father may have been Peter Rubeli and his mother may have been a Gungerich. This is a link to the website where Christian Rubeli’s family lived on their farm after he settled down in Germany: Messerschwanderhof. The buildings you can see on that webpage were most likely built after his death. Because new research continually comes out to aid those researching Mennonite ancestry, I wrote this post using the following sources:
Der Tauferlehrer Christian Gungerich von Oberdiessbach (1595-1671) und der Streit um Seinen Nachlass by Hanspeter Jecker.
Der Messerschwanderhof by Herman Karch, Section on the Rubeli (translated to English);
Langnau and Aeschlen bei Oberdiessbach Reformed Church Records;
BerneseAnabaptists and Their American Descendants by Delbert L. Gratz;
Palatine MennoniteCensus Lists 1664-1793;
History of the Bernese Anabaptists by Ernst Muller, Minister in Langnau;
Emigrants, Refugees and Prisoners Vol 1-4, by Richard Warren Davis;
Contwig Reformed and Catholic Church Records;
Nunschweiler and Weisbach Catholic Church Records;
French and Swiss History; and
The Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online (Gameo.org).
The Family in Switzerland
4/20/18 – The information under this subheading has been updated to reflect new information in the article published in Mennonita Helvetica by Hanspeter Jecker: Der Tauferlehrer Christian Gungerich von Oberdiessbach (1595 – 1671). New data is reflected in this post with bold text in PURPLE.
At the suggestion of a distant cousin, I found the Rubeli family in Bernese Anabaptists and Their American Descendants, because they were listed among the names of Anabaptist families living in Aeschlen bei Oberdiessbach in the Thun area of the canton in the second half of the 17th Century. Christian Rubeli was born in 1620. (sources: Mennosearch.com and Emigrants Refugees and Prisoners). 4/20/18 – Christian was born Christen Strubel in Langnau, Bern. His father was Peter Strubel and mother was Barbara Gungerich.
Der Messerschwanderhof, if I am understanding the translation to English, and perhaps something happened in the translation, Peter Rubeli, supposed father of Christian, perished in the Thirty Years War. First of all, it could be very likely that the rich men of the canton sent a Rubeli or Rubelis as mercenaries to fight for a foreign power in the Thirty Years War. That is what the Swiss did, and that’s how the rich men in Switzerland kept their money… So I checked the dates of the 30 Years War because I planned to write the Bernese archives about Swiss mercenary rolls to see if it was possible to get any military data regarding Peter Rubeli. So I looked up the Thirty Years War. I then realized that given the dates of the Thirty Years War, there was a problem with what was in Der Messerschwanderhof. There are two things that I think aren’t accurate with that if that man was our Peter Rubeli. 1. The Anabaptists refused the oath and were against violence, and that was a main reason for their persecution; and 2. If Peter Rubeli, Christian’s father, did perish in the Thirty Years War, he wouldn’t be there to have the children the book claims descend from him and also probably couldn’t buy that house.
SO! there are three things we can surmise from what is in Der Messerschwanderhof:
-Christian’s father was not Peter or one of these Peters. Gungerich is not the last name of his mother either.
-Christian’s father bought the house in 1630 and was not in the war.
-Christian’s father did perish in the war and it angered his children who then trended to follow the anti-State religion – Anabaptism. This makes for a better story.
You cannot take the translation of the book literally.
4/20/18 – Peter Strubel/Rubeli was Christian’s father and he bought the farm in Oberdiessbach from his father-in-law Hans Gungerich when his brother-in-law died. Peter Strubel/Rubeli WAS STILL alive in 1630.
At this time, the only information I have on Christian Rubeli’s wife is that she was named Anna Muller, the church record of St. Alban’s in Oberdiessbach states she married Christian Rubeli on December 2, 1642, and she was obviously in the baptisms of her children, including the baptism of my 7th great grandfather Hans (Theobald) Rubeli pictured below.
The baptism of our Hans Rubeli from St. Alban’s, Aeschlen bei Oberdiessbach, Canton Bern
The Rubeli – Muller Migration
In 1671-1672, persecution of the Anabaptists in Switzerland was at it worst. In November 1671, 200 persons had come to the Palatinate from Switzerland, including cripples, and elderly people ages 70-90. They arrived destitute, having walked, with bundles on their backs, and their children in their arms. In January 1672, 215 Swiss came to the west of the Rhine, and 428 came to the east of the Rhine. (sources: Gameo. link, History of the Bernese Anabaptists.
With that data, I suspect that Christian, Anna Muller and 6 of their younger children, including our 10 year old Hans Rubeli, were part of the 215 Swiss Anabaptists that arrived west of the Rhine in January 1672 – because the data in Emigrants, Refugees and Prisoners and Mennosearch.com, says Christian “was called Christen Roling when he was listed as a Swiss Anabaptist refugee in April 1672 at Fischbach, Germany. He was age 52 and his wife Anna Muller was 50 years. They had 8 children, 6 with them, with the oldest 20 years.” Fischbach was west of the Rhine River. The following are the children of Christian and Anna that came to Germany:
Barbli- 20, Anna-16, Christian-14, Hans (Theobald)-10, Nikolas-8, and Madlena-3.
Source: Emigrants, Refugees and Prisoners, Mennosearch.com.
Eventually, our Hans married a lady named Anna Liesbeth, who may also have been a refugee, they had at least 6 children somewhere near Biedershausen, Germany. If you are a Rubeli researcher reading this, there is misinformation on this website you may be familiar with: Rubli. As you can see, Hans Theobald was only 10 when he got to Germany, he didn’t marry his future wife Anna Liesbeth in Switzerland, bring her to Germany and have my 6th great grandfather, Balthasar Jakob, the Gerichtsschoffe. Hans and Anna Liesbeth were already there in Germany.
In my search, Has and Anna Liesbeth had Balthasar near Biesdershausen in 1690. I found Hans Theobald RUBELI listed as a resident of the Contwig area of the Palatinate with his wife Anna Elisabetha on June 27, 1695 in the Catholic Parish. They are not Catholic residents. The nearest big town to Contwig is Zweibrucken. In 1720 in the Reformed Church records of Contwig, Hans Theobald is listed as a “common man” and the name is spelled Rubli. Contwig is also a couple of miles from Nunschweiler, birthplace of Johann Leies and Emilie Bold. Hans Theobald’s children appear in the local Reformed Church records, while Balthasar appears in both the local Reformed and Catholic records. The name changes to Rubly, Rubli, Ruble, and Rubel in the early 1700s in Germany. Balthasar married Anna Elisabetha Stuppi, and their daughter Anna Margaretha Rubly (as it was spelled in the Nunschweiler Catholic Church records) married Johannes Leyes, making them the 3rd great grandparents to Anne Leies Ferraro. Sources: Contwig, Weisbach, and Nunschweiler church records.
3rd line, 1st word, spelled Rubly in Nunschweiler
The Children Left in Switzerland
Christian and Anna’s oldest son Peter Rubeli didn’t accompany them to Germany according to the Fischbach refugee list. According to Emigrants, Refugees and Prisoners, “he was a Mennonite of Aeschlen bei Oberdiessbach when he was to be sent to Pennsylvania on April 17, 1709. He was in jail at the orphanage at Bern with his wife Margaret Engle. Ulrich Rubeli, their second oldest son, stayed and married Anna Russer.” However, Der Messerschwanderhof tells that Peter’s wife Margaret spent some time in the Palatinate with him and went back to their valley in Switzerland because she missed its beauty. He went after her and they were caught, and were sentenced to be sent to America. Der Messerschwanderhof said they made their escape back to the Palatinate but also states they escaped from being sold as galley slaves which causes some confusion for a reader. An Anna Rubeli had been imprisoned as well and she was sent away in 1711 to Holland on a ship called the Thuner. Source: History of the Bernese Anabaptists. I do not know her relation to our Christian and Anna, or if she was the daughter named Anna that may have returned to her homeland as well. There are numerous other Rubeli shipped away too, of which I can’t establish a connection to our Rubeli at this time.
What Became of Christian and wife Anna
Back in Germany, Christian and his son Nikolas moved to near Otterberg and lived on a farm where a farm had had been continually in existence since the year 1195. (Source: Messerschwanderhof). Der Messerschwanderhof implies that Christian, Anna, and Christian’s father Peter moved to Otterberg, Germany where they lived there as early as 1688 and another date of 1682. Other farm sources: Otterberg and Messerschwanderhof website. The surname is spelled on those websites as Rubel and Reubal. I believe a father of our Christian Rubeli would have been too old and doubt that. DerMesserschwanderhof says that Louis XIV burned the Palatinate in 1684. That year may not accurate. He burned parts of it more than once, in 1674, 1688, and 1689. Messerschwanderhof was burned down, and the French killed or stole the Rubeli cattle, and it is believed the people that survived the devastation fled to a small island in the Rhine River where they lived in huts and survived on frogs and snails (Source: Der Messerschwanderhof). Because of the French actions, October 6, 1683 saw the first wave of Mennonite settlers from the Palatinate arriving in the Philadelphia at the invitation of William Penn. They founded a new settlement called Germantown. Source: GAMEO.org.
Contrary to what is written in Der Messerschwanderhof, after the burning, our Christian Rubeli didn’t run off or sail to America because the farm was lost. If you want to accurately take what is in Der Messerschwanderhof though, in 1698, with the payment of protection fees to the sovereign, their youngest son Nikolas Rubel (as they spelled it) went back to the farm and began the rebuilding of the lower part of the Messerschwanderhof. I tend to believe this part of the book since his descendants continued to live on the farm for hundreds of years.
According to Emigrants, Refugees and Prisoners/Mennosearch.com, our Christian Rubeli was living at Messerschwanderhof in 1691. If that is accurate, what year was the farm really burned, and what year was it really re-built?
Given the age of our Hans Theobald, and the possible dates of the burning of Messerschwanderhof, I surmise there is a possibility that he was living there when the French rolled through. This could explain why Hans ended up near Biedershausen in 1690 and then near Contwig in 1695, where the children he and Anna Liesbeth had after Balthasar were born.
Mennosearch.com relates that descendants of Nikolas Rubeli, Christian’s brother, emigrated to Pennsylvania, settling in York and Mifflin Counties before the Revolution. My DNA likely matches so many PA Dutch descendants because of these various portions of my Palatinate ancestry.
Finally, my research hasn’t discovered when Christian, Anna, and their son Hans Theobald and wife Anna Liesbeth died. According to the GAMEO.org, Otterberg Germany has its own Mennonite cemetery that they have kept through the centuries. I wonder if Contwig has the same…
4/20/18-THIS POST STILL NEEDS SOME MORE UPDATES WITH DATA FROM HANSPETER JECKER’S ARTICLE WHICH MAY COME IN THE FORM OF A NEW POST.
Cinziarosa's Descendants (c) 