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A Hegnauer family

Pfeffikon and the Luzern Seetal (Catholic)

A Catholic family at Pfeffikon, in the upper Wynental on the Aargau border, from 1584, then in the Seetal villages of Schongau, Hochdorf and Aesch, with three siblings marrying at Cham, in Zug, in 1700.

What became of them Most of their records fall before 1740; the study has not yet followed them further.

Still open: whether the Seengen Hegnauers of the 19th century, about 9 km to the north in Aargau, descend from them.

People
178
In the records
1584–1876
Families
17
Generations
3
Records
187
Life stories
2

Stories

The finds, with their stories →

People to know

Everyone in the family ↓

  • Melchior Hegnauer

    1584–aft. 1621 · Pfeffikon

    Baptised at Pfeffikon in 1584 and probably last recorded at Pfeffikon in 1621.

    Pfeffikon and the Luzern Seetal (Catholic) Married again Full story

  • Casparus Hegnauer

    c. 1623–bef. 1702 · Schongau

    Probably born about 1623 and probably died at Schongau before 9 August 1702.

    Pfeffikon and the Luzern Seetal (Catholic) Married again Full story

  • Melchior Hegnauer

    c. 1655–1733 · Pfeffikon

    Born about 1655 and buried at Pfeffikon in 1733.

    Pfeffikon and the Luzern Seetal (Catholic)

The families

17 families · 48 people

Each family runs from its earliest known ancestor to the latest generation the records reach. The number beside a name counts the descendants folded behind it. The 110 who stand alone are in the list of people below.

Showing the 8 largest of 17 families. See them in the whole-study tree

The places

7 places
  1. Schongau Luzern 25 1630–1751
  2. Pfeffikon Luzern 19 1584–1733
  3. Hochdorf Luzern 13 1608–1687
  4. Aesch Luzern 3 1620–1739
  5. Altishofen Luzern 2 1672–1689
  6. Eschenbach Luzern 1 1693
  7. Richenthal Luzern 1 1681

The numbers count people of this line at each place, from their baptisms, marriages, homes and graves.

The people

178 public pages
When they appear in the records, decade by decade: the first record is from 1584, the last from 1876.

16th century 5

17th century 75

18th century 13

Date unknown 85

How the lines connect

Where this line may come from

The grades are the study’s own, as for facts. Every line points back to Hegnau by its name; few can point there by a record.

Not to be confused with

Same name, same years, another family. The name’s home was a small place and its first names were few.

Most namesakes are in Elgg (81), Volketswil, Hegnau's parish (55) and Around Zürich (24).

Research notes

For anyone who wants to check the study’s working: how the records join this family, what is still open, and the write-ups behind this page.

The records join 48 of the 178 into 17 families over as many as three generations; 110 more stand alone for now, each known from a record or two. The oldest family in the chart begins with Jagli Hegnauer; the line's first record is the baptism of one of his children in 1584. Of them, 2 have a written life story, marked ✦ in the list of people.

From the study’s notes

  • Luzern Seetal (Catholic), now from 1584. 175 records (19 to people of the first mapping), 160 people added (106 Hegnauers). Pfeffikon (from 1584: Jagli and Margreth Thomman; Rudolff and Dorothea Marta Wyler; Melchior and Anna Sutter; the marriages of 1627–1667; Jacobus and Maria Blattner and Joannes and Elisabetha Kreienbühl, children to 1685), Schongau (1618–1737: Udalricus and Anna Bütler; Jost and Barbara Nill; Kaspar and Ena Keller; Jost and Margaritha Müller; Joannes and Elisabetha Meyer), Hochdorf (1608–1676), Aesch (1620–1739), Emmen (1613), Ebikon (1630), Hitzkirch (1645), Altishofen (1672–1689), Eschenbach (1693), Richenthal (1681) …
  • The line's name (29 Sep 2026): the line was called "Luzern Seetal (Catholic)". It is now "Pfeffikon and Seetal LU (Catholic)", shown as "Pfeffikon and the Luzern Seetal (Catholic)" (address /lines/pfeffikon-and-seetal-lu-catholic/; the old /lines/luzern-seetal-catholic/ redirects). By the study's coordinates Pfeffikon, its first parish (1584) and the home of more of its people than any other, lies in the upper Wynental beside Reinach AG, about 7 km west of Schongau, over the ridge from the Seetal; Schongau, Hochdorf, Aesch and Hitzkirch are in the Seetal proper.
  • A lead joining lines (geographic only): Pfeffikon lies about 9 km from Seengen AG (corrected 28 Sep 2026: the two do not adjoin), the second old Hegnauer citizenship (Familiennamenbuch). The Pfeffikon Hegnauers are there from 1584; the Seengen registers are not filmed, and no record joins the two. If the Seengen family is the Seetal family, the Swiss lines reduce to two centres, Zürich (Elgg, Uster, the villages) and the Seetal.
  • Surnames: Hegnauwer is the usual form (Hegnawer, Hegnatter, Hegnasser, Hegnauter, Hegnarwer, Hegnaunder in Luzern). The Luzern entries of 1630–1685 are in Latin (Joannes, Jacobus, Mariae), those of Pfeffikon before 1630 in German.

Open questions

  1. Pfeffikon and Seengen: the Seengen registers (not filmed) and the Pfeffikon register images would show whether the Seengen Hegnauers of the 19th century descend from the Seetal family of 1584.
  2. The Luzern Catholics of 1630–1739: are the Schongau, Hochdorf, Aesch and Pfeffikon families of the 1640s–1680s one family? Jost and Barbara Nill (1643–1649) and Jost and Margaritha Müller (1657–1674) may be one man, as may the two Melchiors who married at Pfeffikon in 1650.

Open questions in the people’s own notes

  • Melchior Hegnauer Anna Sutter's husband (probable). Melchior and Anna's marriage has not been found; the earliest Hegnauer marriage indexed at Pfeffikon is that of 1627.

The study’s write-up

Cite this page

Evidence Explained

Hegnauer One-Name Study, “Pfeffikon and the Luzern Seetal (Catholic): a family line,” hegnauer.family (https://hegnauer.family/lines/pfeffikon-and-seetal-lu-catholic/ : accessed 29 September 2026).

Chicago (notes)

“Pfeffikon and the Luzern Seetal (Catholic): a family line,” hegnauer.family, Hegnauer One-Name Study, accessed September 29, 2026, https://hegnauer.family/lines/pfeffikon-and-seetal-lu-catholic/.

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