hegnauer.family
hegnauer.family

The workshop

Mapping every Hegnauer (family reconstruction, offline)

· 3 min read

Goal (owner, 2026-09-27): map the Hegnauers first. Every bearer of the name (and variants: Hegnäuer, Hegnaüer, Hegnaùer, Hegnawer, Hegnaner, Hegnaver, Hegenauer, Hegnaur, Hagnauer only when the record ties it to a Hegnauer family) is placed in a family and a lineage. In-laws matter only as spouses and parents of Hegnauers (a wife's maiden name, a daughter's married name).

Inputs (repo D:\hegnauer-one-name-study)

  • the study's index of records: 4,072 harvested records (FamilySearch index, Find a Grave, some Ancestry). Columns: occ_id, surname_as_written, given_names, event, date, place, role, source_site, collection, citation, url, person_id (blank = unassigned), confidence, added, notes. 3,358 are unassigned.
  • the study's list of related records (if present): relatives on the same records (spouses, parents, children) — key for linking.
  • the study's data, Swiss Hegnauer families (reconstructed from indexed church records), Switzerland: where the Hegnauers lived, the study's tools: the automatic Swiss couple groups (F####); Igis reviewed, others not.
  • the study's list of people and people/H####.md: people already in the study (H-IDs). Link to them; don't duplicate them.
  • sources/: transcriptions (Swiss tax books, certificates, obituaries).

Method

  1. Cluster records by community (parish, town or county) and period.
  2. Rebuild households/couples (parents + children) from baptisms, marriages, censuses, death records, obituaries and gravestones. Collapse duplicate index entries of the same event (FamilySearch often indexed a register 2–3 times).
  3. Chain couples into lineages: a child baptized in 1720 who marries in 1745 is the husband of a later couple. Every link needs two identifiers (names + dates/places/parents/spouse); mark each link proven / probable / possible and give the reason.
  4. Identify each lineage's earliest known ancestor and, for emigrants, the origin (a record naming the parish, a passenger list, a naturalization, an obituary) — or say it is unknown.
  5. Keep separate families separate: same names in the same place are not the same person without evidence.

Output (write only these; don't edit , or masters; don't commit)

  • One file per community or lineage in families/<area>/<name>.md (e.g. Elgg, canton Zürich: the Hegnauer families, 1553–1875, Rochester, Monroe County, New York: the Seengen (Aargau) family), each with:
    • a summary (records, couples, years, origin, links to other lineages);
    • a descendant chart (indented list) from the earliest ancestor, each person as Name (b./bapt. – d./bur.) [person key] {occ IDs}, with spouse(s) and their origin;
    • the evidence for each generational link, conflicts, and open questions.
  • families/<area>/map.csv: one row per record placed: occ_id,person_key,family_key,role_in_record,confidence,reason. Person keys: <AREA>-<COMMUNITY>-<NNN> (e.g. CH-ELGG-001, US-ROC-014); use the existing H-ID instead when the person is already in the study; family keys likewise (F#### for existing Swiss groups, else <AREA>-<COMMUNITY>-F<NN>).
  • families/<area>/people.csv: one row per person key: person_key,given_names,surname,sex,birth,birth_place,death,death_place,father_key,mother_key,spouse_keys,living,notes (living = born 1926 or later with no death evidence; list them with a birth decade only and "LIVING — do not publish").
  • A short families/<area>/README.md: what was mapped, counts (records placed / left unplaced and why), the lineages found, and the top open questions.

Rules

  • Evidence first; say plainly when a record is index-only. Never invent a link to make a tree tidy.
  • Living people (born 1926+ without death evidence) appear only with a birth decade and the LIVING flag; never in text meant for publication.
  • If a record belongs to a person already in the study (H-ID), map it to that H-ID with the reason.
  • Stay offline (no browser).