On today’s date in 1629, the witchcraft trial of my 10th great grandfather Martin Heinzen started at Freigericht Ganter, near Glis, Valais, Switzerland because someone in the local populace had sick livestock and other executed witches had implicated him as their accomplice. Martin ended up being tortured for nearly a week in hopes of extracting confessions of sorcery.
Mayor Kaspar Stockaler was the man responsible for routing out witches in the local population. Thirty witnesses had sworn statements against my 10th great grandfather.
Because Ganter didn’t have a torture device, they borrowed one from nearby Brig.
Through his long torture, Martin confessed every sin, and in an article in French on the subject of witchcraft trials in Valais, he confessed every “pecadillo” BUT sorcery. On the 12th of October 1629, friends and relatives of Martin demanded his release. So he was released and ordered to pay one third of the costs of his trial!
When I found this sensational fact about my ancestor, I discovered that the witch trial madness had actually started in Valais, Switzerland in 1428 before it spread to the rest of Europe. It started there! You can find headings about this sad phenomena under such headings as “Valais witch trials” and “Swiss werewolf witch trials.” I am still searching for a book in English on the subject.
Martin went on to marry and have my 9th great grandfather Kaspar Heinzen. Of note is the fact that Martin’s wife and Kaspar’s mother – Barbara Andamatten, shared a surname with one of Ganter’s witchcraft judges.
Martin Heinzen’s tale appears in “Das Freigerecht Ganter” and “Notes sur les procès d’hérésie et de sorcellerie en Valais” because he was an accused sorcerer that walked away from one of these terrible trials with his life.
I suspect Martin may be my 10th great grandfather two times over. I need to do some more digging. Martin is the ancestor of my immigrant second great grandmother Anne Marie Aloisia Heinzen.
Do you have Swiss ancestors accused of sorcery? Have you found European ancestors accused of witchcraft?
Sources:
Dionys Imesch, “Das Freigericht Ganter”, dans Blätter aus der Walliser Geschichte, Bd 3, 1902-1906, S. 70-100, surtout p. 82-83 (http://doc.rero.ch/record/200661)
Kirchegemeinde Glis
“Hexerei im Oberwallis” um 1600 von Hans Steffen
Jules-Bernard Bertrand, “Notes sur les procès d’hérésie et de sorcellerie en Valais”, dans Annales valaisannes, 1921, vol. 3, n° 2-3, p. 151-194, surtout p. 189-191 (en ligne: http://doc.rero.ch/record/6753)
Thank you to the great people in Genealogie Familienforschung Ahnenforschung Schweiz and Genealogy Translations…
This post was originally shared 4 years ago on this date.
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