hegnauer.family
Hegnau from the air in April 1946: a farming village among orchards

Hegnauer

the one from Hegnau.

2,234 people · 6,486 records · 283 spellings · six centuries, 1533–2026

Hegnau, canton Zürich, from the air on 26 April 1946. Photo: Werner Friedli, ETH-Bibliothek Zürich, Bildarchiv / Stiftung Luftbild Schweiz, LBS_H1-008904, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons .

Coming: the migration map

Where the name went

From a hamlet outside Zürich to Graubünden, Missouri and the Pacific coast, with detours through Baden, Bavaria and New Jersey. The map is being drawn. The cartographer is slow but thorough.

  • Switzerland 2,443 records
  • United States 2,179 records
  • Germany 136 records
  • United Kingdom 10 records
  • Austria 4 records
  • France 4 records
All 886 places →

Coming: the stories

Of the cuckoo, and other true Hegnauer stories

For centuries the neighbours told stories about the people of Hegnau: how they tried to fence in the cuckoo, and how they sank the bell and marked the spot on the side of the boat. The study will retell them here, in its own words, beside the stories the records tell.

In the tales, a “Hegnauer” is simply anyone from Hegnau. The surname came later, and travelled further.

The lines

All 25 lines →

From the archive

The whole archive →
  • A printed notice in German from the Graubünden gazette of 1856
    6 Jun 1856 Leave to emigrate Luzius Hegnauer of Igis and his family intend to emigrate to America; creditors have eight weeks to come forward. Amtsblatt des Kantons Graubünden, 6 June 1856, p. 167. Luzius Hegnauer → Staatsarchiv Graubünden, Amtsblatt des Kantons Graubünden 1856/23
  • A column of shipping news from the New York Herald of 30 September 1856
    30 Sep 1856 Arrived: the ship Chase The New York Herald's shipping news for 29 September 1856: the ship Chase, 36 days from Havre, with about 200 passengers, the Igis Hegnauers among them. Luzius Hegnauer → New York Herald, 30 Sep 1856, p. 10; Library of Congress, Chronicling America
  • A printed creditors' call in German from the Graubünden gazette of 1906
    12 Jan 1906 A widow's estate A creditors' call for the widow Margreth Hegnauer-Disch, who died at Igis in October 1905. Amtsblatt des Kantons Graubünden, 12 January 1906, p. 30. Margreth Disch → Staatsarchiv Graubünden, Amtsblatt des Kantons Graubünden 1906/02

What's new in the study

  1. Direct line: Christina Pleisch d. Igis 17 Sep 1862 (b. c.1792), daughter of Leonhard Pleisch × Maria Nett (her burial)

  2. Odis Wilson × Genevieve Watson marriage certificate (1939): year settled; Genevieve's birth surname now doubtful

  3. Igis founder found: Jacob Hegnauer m. 1715 (first Igis Hegnauer; the two stems are his sons, probable); Familiennamenbuch: old citizenships only Elgg and Seengen; Elgg indexed to 1553

  4. Luzius and Margreth deaths not online; Graubünden Amtsblatt: emigration call 1856 (confirmed), 1844 mortgage (probable), 1852 bankruptcy (possible), ~35 more Hegnauer notices

  5. Hirschi family in Illinois: 1866 Highland church marriage of Leonhard × Susanna found (FHL 1433226 img 594), 1870/1880 censuses, 1850 bounty-land purchase, Tontz marriages

  6. Susanna Hirschi's family from the Bern registers: baptisms 1836/1844/1846, banns 1833, Christian's 1814 baptism; sisters H2250-H2251

  7. Volketswil: the 'Schwyz' series is the Volketswil register (Hegnau's parish), 128 rows fixed, 149 occurrences and 71 people added (H2300-H2370), ~20 households 1590-1736

  8. hints resolved for H0025/H0017/H0003/H0038/H0001/H0036; negative searches for Luzius's and Anna Margreth's deaths and Leonhard's naturalization logged