AncestryDNA review of the study owner's matches

2 Summary of findings

1. Every Hegnauer-surname tree among 57,347 matches descends from Leonhard (H0003) × Susanna Hirschi (H0038). There are 14 of them. Five more Leonhard descendants turned up through ThruLines or the name search, and one more descends from Leonhard's sister Christina (H0005). No match from any other Hegnauer family was found: not from Peter's 1872 branch, Seengen/Rochester, Newark/Neuchâtel, Elgg/Uster, or Swiss Hegnauers still in Switzerland.

2. ThruLines: Luzius × Anna Margreth Bernet 19 matches (10–178 cM). Leonhard × Susanna has 18. They come through four of Leonhard's children:

   • Mary Christina × Hammer: 7
   • Christian × Wirz: 9
   • Katherine × Link: 1
   • Robert Lucius × Donnell: 1

   The 19th match (22 cM) comes through Christina Hegnauer × Sylvester Krattly. Several independent trees and matches of 100–178 cM (a match 178, a match 139, a match 106, a match 105) strongly support the owner's paper descent from Leonhard and Susanna.

3. Above Luzius, DNA adds nothing independent yet. Jakob (H0155) × Christina Pleisch shows 16 matches. ThruLines proposes Christian Hegnauer (1748–1828) × "Ursula" (1750–) as potential 5th-great-grandparents with 8 matches. All 16 and all 8 are the same Luzius descendants. ThruLines proposes no parents above Christian. The facts it shows for him come from another member's tree, which gives his parents as "Nuttin Hegnauer" and "Madlena Krattlin". That is a tree-based suggestion, not evidence, and matches the study's possible link of H0157 to Nutt × Madlena Krädtli.

4. New lead: a Riedberger cluster, descendants of Elsbeth Hegnauer (H0223, b. 3 May 1785), the sister of Jakob (H0155).

   • Two tree matches, a match (10 cM, tree spelling "Hegenauer") and a match (16 cM), descend from two daughters of Johannes a match Riedberger (b. Igis 1809), son of Elsbeth × Johannes Riedberger. The family emigrated in 1857 to Madison, Wisconsin.
   • Two treeless matches, a match and a match (16 cM each), cluster with them.
   • a match, a match and a match are also shared matches of a match (105 cM, Mary Christina line). a match is also a shared match of a match (Rosa line) and a match (Katherine line).

   This is consistent with a paternal-side Igis connection, most simply through Christian (H0157) × Ursula Radig (H0158). The cM are small and the Riedbergers share other Igis surnames (Krättli, Nutt), so it is not proof.

5. The Igis/Graubünden birthplace results are dominated by non-Hegnauer Igis families.
   • Tonz × Bernet × Hirschi. Christian Dönz/Tonz (1802–1893) married Barbara Bernet (1804–1881), whom trees make a daughter of Johannes Bernet × Maria Dorothea Grest. Two of their children married children of Christian Hirschi × Magdalena Stocker, so their descendants (a match, a match, a match, a match, a match, a match) share both Bernet and Hirschi ancestry with the owner. a match (Tonz × Kurth line) is Bernet only.
   • Krättli / Philipp. a match, 25 cM.
   • Dolf / Fausch. a match and a match
6. The Bernet parents agree with the records. ThruLines proposes Johannes Bernet × Maria a match Grest (1775–1830) as parents of Anna Margreth Bernet (H0036), with 37 matches, which is the same couple as her 1819 baptism in the study. 16 of the 37 descend through Anna Margreth, 17 through Barbara (Tonz) and 4 through Dorothea Bernet × Michel. This is DNA consistent with the record, though the tree-based side is only a suggestion.
7. Hirschi × Stocker (the owner's 3rd-great-grandparents) have 52 ThruLines matches, and ThruLines proposes Hans Stutzmann × Anna Feller one generation above Hirschi's mother. Swiss-birthplace matches on the owner's father's side are mostly this Bern line, not Hegnauer.
8. Hegner: one match, a match (8 cM, private tree). Whether the ancestor is Swiss cannot be checked. Hegnaur and Hagnauer: no hits in trees or names. Seengen and Elgg birthplace hits: nothing links them to a Hegnauer.
9. Why these lines stay unjoined. A shared Hegnauer ancestor from before about 1715 is 9 or more generations back from the owner. Autosomal DNA usually cannot detect cousins that distant, so finding no match from Seengen, Elgg or Newark is not evidence that they are unrelated. Y-DNA is the right test (section 8).

7 What this proves and what it doesn't

Supported by DNA.

• The owner descends biologically from Leonhard Hegnauer (H0003) and Susanna Katharina Hirschi (H0038). The evidence:
  • 18 matches through four of their children, each linked by a different tree-builder.
  • Four of them at 105–178 cM, and all of them clustering together.
  • At that size, and with that many independent lines, the link at this level is effectively confirmed.
• Descent from Luzius × Anna Margreth Bernet (H0001 × H0036) is supported by one match through Leonhard's sister Christina (a match, 22 cM, 2 segments). This is consistent with the records but thin on its own.
• The Bernet parents: ThruLines' potential Johannes Bernet × Maria Dorothea Grest are the parents named in H0036's 1819 baptism, with 37 matches descending from them.

Not proved.

• Jakob (H0155) and Christian (H0157) × Ursula Radig (H0158). Every ThruLines match for them runs through Luzius, so they are only as good as the paper trail. The Riedberger cluster (a match 10, a match 16, a match 16, a match 16) is the first DNA that may reach Christian × Ursula through a different child, Elsbeth (H0223). But:

  • the segments are small, 10–16 cM and single segments;
  • Ancestry shows no segment positions;
  • the Riedbergers also share other Igis ancestry (Krättli, Nutt).

  So it is consistent with, not proof of, the Elsbeth link. A match of 16 cM is well within what a 6th cousin can share, and just as well within what Igis endogamy can produce.

• Christian's parents (Nutt × Madlena Krädtli). This appears only as another member's tree data shown in ThruLines. No DNA tests it.
• Igis ↔ Elgg (the 1715 founder Jacob, H1434), Igis ↔ Seengen/Rochester, Igis ↔ Newark, and Igis-Luzius ↔ Igis-Peter (1872). Nothing in the owner's matches bears on these:
  • No descendant of any of these lines appears among 57,347 matches with a tree or a Hegnauer name. Most likely few of them have tested, or their trees are unlinked.
  • The Luzius–Peter common ancestor is Christian (H0157) × Ursula, so their descendants would be 6th cousins of the owner. They would be detectable only sometimes.
  • Seengen, Elgg and the founder generation are too far back for autosomal DNA. Finding no match there is not evidence that they are unrelated.
• Birthplace filters mislead here. Igis and Graubünden birthplaces on the owner's father's side mostly reflect the Tonz × Bernet × Hirschi intermarriages and other Igis families, not additional Hegnauer lines.