Elgg "spouse" entries: marriage or burial? Review of 27 Sep 2026

Finding

The Elgg founders' writer suspected that O04287 (Blesy Hegnauwer × Othilia Nussberger), filed as an undated second index of a marriage, was really Othilia's burial. It is. So are all the other entries of the same kind.

In this collection's search results, an entry whose role is Spouse and which shows no event is not a marriage. It is the husband or wife named in someone else's burial entry. The record page shows this plainly. The heading reads "Mentioned in the Record of X (Y's Wife)" or "(Y's Husband)", the record type is Burial, and the date, place and age belong to the deceased, X.

• Checked: all 55 rows in the study's index of records with source familysearch, collection Coll., role spouse and an empty event. The record pages of 54 were read on 27 Sep 2026; the 55th (O04259, Igis) had already been read for master H1434.
• Result: 55 of 55 are burials of the other spouse. None is a marriage.
  • Elgg: 37 entries (Elgg registers DGS 8014314, 8014315 and 8015177).
  • Other Zürich parishes: 9 entries (Winterthur, Uster, Fehraltorf, Richterswil, Gossau, and one without a place).
  • Outside the canton: 9 entries.
• Misread before this review, Elgg: 34 of the 37.
  • 23 filed as marriages. The map calls the Hegnauer "groom", or the variant mapping calls the entry "undated (second) index of the couple's marriage".
  • 6 filed as a "mother / wife (undated or garbled index line)".
  • 4 left undated and untyped.
  • 1 read as a burial, but of the wrong person. O03598 was taken as the burial of A Barbara Trachssler; the deceased is a man.
  • 3 already read as burials, correctly: O00489, O00613 and O00620.
• Misread before this review, elsewhere:
  • Other Zürich parishes: all 9 were misread, 6 of them as marriages.
  • Outside the canton: 8 of the 9. Only O04259 (Igis) was already read correctly, in masters H1434 and H1436.
• Same row, wrong everywhere: in all 55 rows the event, date and place are still blank.

The pattern is the one the study had already proved at Igis. There, the index entry for Jacob Hagenauer as "spouse" of Margreth Hartmann (66V7-FB66) is her burial of 26 Feb 1724 (master H1434, citation margreth1724). The Krädtli case (H1023) relies on the same Igis burial index. There, the burials of married women and widows name the husband or give both surnames. Her 1774 burial has neither, and that is why it is only "possible".

Contrast: what a real marriage looks like

To be sure the rule does not also catch marriages, three one-party or Principal/Spouse marriage entries from the same Elgg folder were opened:

• In a marriage, the spouse entry carries the date. The search result shows the wedding date on the spouse's entry, as with O03593. Only the burial entries show none.
• The marriages keep their dates and types. O04911 is a genuine one-party marriage entry, with the bride's name not indexed. It needs no change.
• A 66V7 ARK is not a burial marker. The prefix covers marriages as well as burials, so it cannot be used as a shortcut.

Table 1: Elgg (37 entries)

Order is by date of burial. "Was read as" quotes , or the variant-mapping note in the study's index of records where the map has no row.

Table 2: other Zürich parishes (9 entries)

Table 3: outside the canton of Zürich (9 entries, same pattern)

Masters affected

Of the Elgg founders' masters (H1450–H1460, H1462–H1482), only H1456 (Blasius) and H1457 (Otylia Nussberger) cite an affected entry (O04287, citation othilia). Two others mention an affected couple only in passing. No other master in people/ cites any of the 55 entries, apart from H1434 and H1436, whose reading is already correct.

H1456 Blasius Hegnauer (O04287)

1. Citation othilia: rewrite. New text: burial of Othilia Nussberger, wife of Blesy Hegnauwer [Blasius Hegnauer], 17 July 1602 (the index gives the date as the date of death), Elgg, Zürich; DGS 8014314, image 213. Keep {{FamilySearch Record|66V7-WMJC}}. The record's own ARK is 66V7-WMJH.
2. Death fact. Replace "An undated index entry … gives no date" in the reason with this: in 1602 Otylia was still recorded as his wife. The entry does not say whether he was then alive or dead, because Zürich burial registers name the husband of a married woman either way. He is last recorded alive in 1566. Keep "after 3 Nov 1566". The Elgg burial register (from 1591) could be searched 1591–1602 for his own burial.
3. Research Notes, "The undated entry". Replace it with the reading: the record is Otylia's burial of 17 Jul 1602. Its image 213 is in the first Elgg volume (burials from 1591), and the late spelling Hegnauwer fits.
4. Name notes. "Blesy in the undated entry" becomes "Blesy in his wife's burial entry (1602)".
5. Biography, "Later years". Add one sentence: Otylia died in July 1602 and was buried at Elgg.

H1457 Otylia Nussberger (O04287)

1. Facts. Add a burial on 17 Jul 1602 at Elgg (index date given as death), citation othilia. This replaces the "last recorded … 1566; an undated entry is probably her burial" note.
2. Birth estimate. She married in 1555, so she was born before about 1537. She was about 65 or older at her death.
3. Research Notes, "Her burial?" It is no longer a question. State it as proved from the record page, and cite the rule in this file.
4. Name notes. "Othilia Nussberger (the undated entry)" becomes "(her burial, 1602)".
5. Re-render and re-sync. Both profiles are in the WikiTree publish queue that is running now. The published text will still say "probably her burial … date not yet read" until the masters are updated and re-rendered.

Masters that mention an affected couple without citing the entry

• H1474 Brosshans and H1476 Baschy (b. 1561). Both mention, as possible only, that Baschy may be the Baschi who married Barbel Peter in 1585 ([[H1528]]). O04915 now shows that Barbel Peter, "Baschi Hegnawer's wife", was buried on 25 Jul 1634. This is optional context: Baschi's wife outlived the "Baschy Hegner" buried in 1627. The possible identification does not change.
• H1434 and H1436 (Igis). They already cite 66V7-FB66 as Margreth Hartmann's burial. Nothing changes except the occurrence row (O04259).

Other data these entries change (not masters; for the lead to review)

These follow from the burials. They are not in the proposed JSON, which only corrects occurrence rows and three links.

1. H0676 Hans Rudolff Hegnauer is two men.
   • Ursula Fess (Felsen), whom a Hans Rudolff married on 31 May 1739, was buried on 28 May 1787, aged 76, as Rudolff Hegnauer's wife (O00592).
   • Anna Gallmann, whom a Rudolf married on 12 Oct 1751, was buried on 24 Feb 1767 as Rodolff Hegnauer's wife (O04900).
   • The two marriages overlap, so they belong to two different Rudolfs. The split:
     • Hans Rudolff, b. 1710, bur. 16 Sep 1787, × Ursula Fess: children 1740–1750.
     • A second Rudolf × Anna Gallmann: children Anna (1753) and Esther (1760, H0694).
   • Esther's father is therefore not the son of Peter × Esther Trachsler. That affects the Elgg tree in Elgg, canton Zürich: the Hegnauer families, 1553–1875 (F0033 and F0037).
2. H0821 A Barbara Trachssler died on 8 Apr 1815, buried 11 Apr 1815, aged 66, b. c.1749 (O04907). gives 18 Mar 1829, which is wrong.
   • That date came from the 1829 record 6FZG-7TQQ/7TQW (O02189, O03598). The record is the burial of a man, Heinrich Hegnauer, aged 76 (b. c.1753), died 18 Mar and buried 22 Mar 1829.
   • Those are exactly the dates of the Uster burial of Heinrich Hegnauer (O00800, H0990). The Elgg entry is probably the home-parish copy for an Elgg citizen who died at Uster.
   • This settles the conflict "Two burials of 22 Mar 1829". A Barbara was about 18 at her 1767 wedding, not 14.
   • The JSON proposes: O03598 unlinked, and O02189 → H0990 (possible). H0990 would gain "b. c.1753". H0821's death date should become 8 Apr 1815 (bur. 11 Apr 1815, Elgg).
3. H0611 Andres Hegnauer (m. Eva Kraymann/Kräjenmann on 29 Aug 1667; she was buried 29 Jan 1681 as his wife). He is not the Andreas who married Margreth Brännwald in 1669. Delete the "possibly the same man … a widower remarrying" note. H0662 Peter's line back to Andreas × Brännwald is unaffected.
4. H0732 Hans Caspar Hegnauer.
   • He married Barbara Peter on 19 Apr 1712. Their son Hs Jacob was baptised on 4 Oct 1713, and a child of Caspar's was buried in 1713.
   • Barbara herself was buried in 1713 (O00526; the index gives the year only).
   • The note "possibly the Caspar who married Magdalena Büchi on 28 Nov 1713 (a widower remarrying)" can be raised to probable. Barbara's burial should be dated from the image, to be sure it falls before 28 Nov.
5. H1549 Anthoni Hegnauer. Margretha Holtz (Helz) was buried on 3 Dec 1615 as his wife (O04888), and he married Beatrix Lud in 1616. This supports the "one man" reading already adopted.
6. H0742 and H1606 Salomon. Anna Zimmermann (m. 1716) was buried on 19 Nov 1733 (O04292). Anna Rütschi was buried on 25 Feb 1770 as the wife of a Salomon (O04910), and H0742 is buried "1 Oct 1769?".
   • This fits Salomon (H0742) remarrying after 1733 and dying shortly before Anna Rütschi. H1606 is probably H0742, and the two could be merged, with the reasoning written in the person file.
7. H1096 Magdalena Hegnauer × Hans Jakob Hensler. The "undated line" (O00708) is Hensler's burial at Richterswil ZH, 10 Feb 1853, aged 70.
   • The family lived at Richterswil; their children were baptised there 1817–1826.
   • The family line "Igis GR" rests only on the 1816 marriage at Igis. Review whether the family belongs under Igis at all.
8. O05191 "Barb Hagenaider" (filed "outside the study"). This is A Barbara Hegnauer, H0846, named in the burial of her husband H Ulrich Huber at Sirnach, 29 Mar 1850, aged 67. She had married Hans Ulrich Huber at Sirnach on 15 Apr 1806. Proposed link: probable.
9. The spouses gain death and burial dates from the table rows. Each of these persons is in the study's list of people with the death date blank:

For those given only a year here, the full dates are in the tables above.

10. and the mapping notes.
    • Map rows (15). For O00526, O00543, O00545, O00579, O00592, O00654, O01485, O02178, O00708, O00535, O00591, O00694, O02181, O03592 and O03599, the role_in_record values "groom", "bride/wife (undated line)" and "mother / wife (undated or garbled index line)" become "husband of deceased" or "wife of deceased". Their reason text "undated second index entry of the NNNN marriage" should go.
    • The 1829 rows. O03598 and O02189 ("deceased (wife; indexed as Heinrich …)") need the correction given in item 2.
    • Variant-mapping notes. The O04xxx rows have no map row. Their notes in still say "undated index of the couple's marriage". appends to notes, so the proposed note is added after the old one rather than replacing it.
    • . It lists these entries only as record IDs. Its conflict note "Two burials of 22 Mar 1829" should be rewritten as in item 2.
    • How to do it. The map is generated, so the simplest route is to re-run the mapping after the corrected occurrences are applied.

Working notes Proposed edits file

the study's edit files is in the study's tools format and has 56 occurrence entries:

• 55 rows get event, date, place and a note. Each is set to event: burial, the date of the deceased's burial (or the death date where that is the only date indexed), and the index's place. role stays spouse, which is correct: the Hegnauer is the spouse named in the burial.
• Three links change.
  • O03598: unlinked.
  • O02189 (the principal of the same 1829 record): → H0990, possible.
  • O05191: → H0846, probable.
• Place is "Schweiz" or blank where the index gives no parish. That applies to O01485, O04688 and O04706 ("Schweiz" as indexed) and O04712 (no place indexed).
• Nothing in people or add_people. The people-level changes listed above need the study's review first. In particular, the H0676 split and the H1606/H0742 merge need person-file reasoning.

Apply only when the Elgg WikiTree publish is finished, then re-run the study's tools for H1456 and H1457 after their masters are updated.

Caveats

• Index only. No image was seen. The Elgg images (DGS 8014314, 8014315, 8015177) are viewable only at a FamilySearch Center.
• Early dates may be death dates. For the 17th-century Elgg entries the index gives the date as a "death date" inside a burial record. They are used as the burial-register date.
• Image numbers are not a date check. Within DGS 8014315 they do not run in date order (1739 on image 242, 1676 on 243), so they cannot be used to test the indexed years. Barbara Peter (1713) and Ester Keller (1761) are both on image 270; Ester's year should be checked on the image.
• Barbara Peter's 1713 has no day or month. The image is needed to place it before or after 28 Nov 1713.