Today in Family History ~ The Anniversary of the Birth of Christian Gungerich – Religious Prisoner

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.

Religions of My Family Tree

On today’s date in 1620, one of my Anabaptist refugee ancestors Christen Strubel, also known as Rubeli, was baptized in Langnau im Emmental, in the Canton of Bern, Switzerland. He was born in June 1620 to Barbara Gungerich and Peter Strubel. His baptism took place in the Reformed Lutheran Church of Langnau. He was my 8th great grandfather.

• 

According to the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online, Langnau has a history of Anabaptism going all the way back to March 1525. Today, Langnau has the oldest Mennonite church in the world, dating to 1530.

Christen’s mother Barbara might have also been an Anabaptist influence on her children. She was born in nearby Oberdiessbach, and her younger brother Christian Gungerich was an Anabaptist teacher who was imprisoned in Schwarzenegg Prison and escaped. He was recaptured and died (maybe executed) in the Waisenhaus Prison in the city of Bern. Barbara’s mother was named Anna Schindler. There is a possibility Anna Schindler was a relation of, or a descendant of the Andreas Schindler from Thun who attended the Great Debate (on the Anabaptist Creed) in Bern in 1538. Thun has a close proximity to all of these villages. The relationship to Andreas Schindler is a possibility. It has not been proven!

Christen married Anna Muller in the Reformed Church of Oberdiessbach in 1642. In the winter of 1672, Christen and Anna and their six youngest children left Oberdiessbach for the German Palatinate due to religious persecution. They were no longer permitted to possess property and left with what they could carry.

In 1691 Christen was recorded on the Palatine Mennonite Census list as living near Messerschwanderhof near Otterberg in the German Palatinate.

Christen’s grandson Balthasar Jakob Rubeli was recorded in his lifetime as having been Lutheran and Catholic, but was raised by parents, who were noted in the Catholic Church book of Contwig, Germany, as being common residents of the area but not Catholic. Balthasar’s children were all baptized Catholic. Other Rubeli researchers hypothesize Balthasar was really a Mennonite.

A knitting friend had recently been talking about all of the religions in her tree. She has a lot more than me though. This is the list I came up with for my tree that I have found to date:

Protestant – Martin Heinzen was tried for witchcraft by the Catholic authorities in Switzerland in 1629. He was only labeled as Protestant in the record.

Calvinist

Anabaptist (Taufer)

Mennonite

Old Lutheran

Reformed

Lutheran

Roman Catholic

Folk Catholic

Spiritualist

Of course not to mention the various religions of my cousins of my immigrant ancestors I may have missed.

Do you have any comments, or corrections? Are we related? I would love to hear from you. -cinziarosagenealogy@comcast.net

31 Day Genealogy Challenge – Day 25: Share a Record from a Book

This was a wide open choice. Since I have many civil and church records from foreign countries, they were all recorded in books! Today I went to a book in my physical possession. It is a translation of the Palatine Mennonite Census Lists 1664-1793 by Herman and Gertrud Guth and J. Lemar and Lois Ann Mast printed in 1987. The Rubeli family (mentioned yesterday) is listed on several pages in this book. In 1717 they appeared as below. This was approximately 45 years after they had to leave Switzerland.

• 

Please site the above-mentioned book if you add this to your tree. Thanks!

-cinziarosagenealogy@comcast.net

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks #37: Mistake

This week’s 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks theme is Mistake.

Everyone makes mistakes in genealogy.  When I started studying my family history I took all of the family tales literally and allowed them to take me down rabbit holes and waste my time.  I also accepted hints on Ancestry.com for my ancestors living in Germany without actually having access to the original church records.  That took some deleting.  Through Ancestry.com’s screwy algorithms, I still get hints for people that I deleted from my tree.  Thanks Ancestry.com for the reminder to never trust your hints unless I can see the record myself.

My ancestors are fairly recent immigrants to America, and show no connection to royal lines period.  Since I heard stories from other family researchers about mistake horror stories in other online trees for their ancestors, I thought that would cut down on errors for my ancestors in other trees as well.  Sadly, the further back I go or the more I dig in a foreign country in the language of my foremothers and forefathers, the more mistakes I come across in online trees.

Ancestry.com has a new feature called MyTreeTags.  If people used tags like “Unverified” on their ancestors or use a custom tag they created like “Not Sourced” perhaps mistakes wouldn’t be so common.  It isn’t just Ancestry.com either.  A My Heritage user claimed my 11th great grandfather (on my maternal side) that lived in Alsace was a “council prive” to Louis XIII of France.  HAHAHAHAHA!  Good one!  When I messaged the user to ask where she got that information I was informed it was not her tree and she did it for her husband and she didn’t have any sources.  He was actually a forester!

On my paternal side a user on Ancestry.com claimed one of my fourth great grandfather’s named Domenico Cirone living in Farindola in the first half of the 19th Century, was their Domenico Cerone from Sicily and had children 47 years after his death.  I messaged the user about this and left a note on his tree explaining how the surname is definitely Abruzzese and was not even the same surname.  What did they do?  They changed their ancestor’s birthplace to Farindola, attached my fourth great grandmother to their tree, copied the names of my Domenico’s parents and didn’t correct anything.  Said user has been inactive for about two years.  Oh well!  See for yourself.  My tree is on the right.

Luckily, that’s the extent of silliness on my paternal side, because records for that side are online, and there really isn’t a reason to collect errors.

Whoooaaaaa Nellie for the Mennonites on my mother’s side!  The one thing you discover about Swiss Anabaptists when you find them in your tree is that they are well-documented and chronicled and they are many sources and publications out there to  aid you.  What is the excuse then?!  There are so many errors on my 7th-10th great grandparents I won’t bother going through all of them.

I found about 17 trees listing my 9th great grandmother Barbara Gungerich, a possible Anabaptist living in Oberdiessbach, Switzerland, simply named Elisabetha Catharina.  These trees must have all copied each other.  My 8th great grandparents Christen Rubeli and Anna Muller, who are listed on a refugee list in Fischbach, Germany in 1672 as having newly arrived from Switzerland and later listed on the Palatine Mennonite Census Lists in Germany as having been living and died in Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany on at least 10 different trees.  Again, these trees must’ve all copied each other.

To tie some of these errors together, let me just show you this tree hint for my 9th great grandparents Peter Strubel/Rubeli and Barbara Gungerich and their children.  The correct is mine on the right.  The mistakes are in the tree hint on the left.  Spouse and parents are incorrect.  Just take a look at that list of children.

They must’ve had twins and gave them the same first names huh?

I am sure there are others out there that have seen worse mistakes than me.  What have you found in other online trees?

Do you have any comments, additions, corrections, or questions on my Strubel/Rubeli sources?  Please email me @ cinziarosagenealogy@comcast.net.

 

 

Women’s History Month/52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: #12 ~ A Letter to and from 8th Great Grandmother Anna Mueller Rubeli~

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 decision for 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

–cinziarosagenealogy@comcast.net

My Switzerland (Canton Valais and Canton Bern) and Northern Italian Surnames and Places Lists

 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Canton Valais/Wallis, Switzerland

• Ried-Brig: Heinzen, Vollmar, Bieler, Imhoff, Holzer, Pfaffen, Andamatten
• Brig: Gentinetta
• Niederwald: Mutter
• Bodmen: Mutter, Nellen
• Lingwurm: Lauwiner
• Unknown: Blatter, Zum-Kami

Piemonte, Italy

• Bognanco: Gentinetta

Canton Bern, Switzerland

• Wattenwil: Muller, Stauffer
• Oberdiessbach: Muller, Rubeli/Strubel, Gungerich, Schindler
• Langnau: Strubel/Rubeli, Vogel

 

Thank you for visiting.

-cinziarosagenealogy@comcast.net