Switzerland: the Hegnauer families

Offline reconstruction from the FamilySearch index extract (data/occurrences.csv, data/related-records.csv), following Mapping every Hegnauer (family reconstruction, offline). Index-only: no register image has been read.

What was mapped

Every record that was unassigned in the master on 2026-09-27 and whose place is in Switzerland (or whose collection is a Swiss one and whose place is blank), with the duplicate index entries of the same events, was placed in a household and a lineage.

• Records placed: 1630 of the 1650 unassigned Swiss records (the three US records with a Swiss birthplace that were in the original selection — O00298, O00299, O03429 — were placed by the America mapping and are now in the master). Confidence of the placements: see map.csv (proven / probable / possible, with a reason on every row).
• Left unplaced: 20 records, all undated or ambiguous index lines (below).
• Keys: CH-ELGG-NNN, CH-USTER-NNN, CH-ZH-NNN (other Zürich parishes), CH-IGIS-NNN, CH-AG-NNN (Aargau/Seengen), CH-BASEL-NNN, CH-BERN-NNN, CH-SG-NNN, CH-LU-NNN, CH-ZURICH-NNN (city), CH-X-NNN (parish not indexed). Existing study people keep their H-IDs (the Seengen emigrant couple is H0522 × H0523). Family keys: the automatic group ID (F####) where one exists (after review: merged groups keep the lowest-numbered surviving ID named in each file's Merges section), else CH-<COMMUNITY>-Fnn. people.csv has one row per key used (in-laws included as spouses and parents of Hegnauers); rows for H-IDs only point to the master.
• Living people: one couple of the place-less "Schweiz" entries (married 1948) is treated as possibly living and appears only with a birth decade and the LIVING flag.

The lineages found

The strongest cross-community links

1. Elgg → Uster (probable): the Uster marriage of 26 Sep 1730 names the groom Hans Heinrich's father Peter; the Elgg register has the same wedding; Peter × Esther Trachsler's son H Heinrich was baptized at Elgg on 16 Feb 1701.
2. Elgg → Thurgau (proven): A Barbara Hegnauer's Sirnach marriage (1806) names her parents Hs Heinrich Hegnauer × A Barb Trachssler of Elgg; Sabina's marriage at Gerlikon (1760) gives her Elgg baptism date (17 Jun 1714) and father; Zacharias's children were entered at both Elgg and Aadorf.
3. Elgg → Wetzikon (proven) and Elgg → Wynau BE (probable).
4. Uster → Württemberg (proven): Elisabeth, b. 26 Jan 1847 at Uster, m. 1877 at Brackenheim.
5. Igis → Toggenburg (proven): Christina (b. 1800), daughter of Johann Heinrich × Maria Hartmann, married Nikolaus Hermann; the marriage is entered in the Obertoggenburg index and at Grabs, and her children in both the Igis and Obertoggenburg registers. Igis → Richterswil ZH (probable): Magdalena × Jakob Hensler (m. Igis 1816, children at Richterswil).
6. Seengen → Rochester (probable): Luise (b. c.1846), daughter of Jakob × Verena Siegrist, m. 1869 — the parents taken to be H0522 × H0523.
7. Basel → Baden (probable): Dorothea (b. 1856), daughter of Samuel × Susanna, m. Müllheim 1877; Anna Maria Christina (b. 1833) × Rudin, children at Liestal and Lörrach.

Hypothesis H1: one origin or several?

What the records show

• The Elgg–Uster–Thurgau Hegnauers form one connected Reformed cluster in north-eastern canton Zürich, within 20 km of Hegnau: Uster is an Elgg branch (probable), and all the Thurgau and Oberland entries are Elgg families.
• Igis is a separate cluster. Its given names are Graubünden names (Nutt/Nuttin, Luzius, Christian, Georg, Luzia) with only the common Johann Heinrich, Jacob, Rudolf and Elsbeth in common with Elgg; its spouses are Graubünden families (Krädtli, Radig, Pleisch, Luzi, Berri, Ladner, Roffler, Michel, Hartmann). Nothing in the records ties Igis to Elgg, Uster or Seengen: no Igis Hegnauer is ever named with a Zürich origin, no Zürich Hegnauer appears at Igis, and the only Igis–Zürich contact is the other way round (Magdalena's children at Richterswil after 1817). The Igis family is in the index from 1744 and reaches its first recorded couples in 1748 (Nutt) and 1763 (Johann Heinrich b. c.1734); the Igis registers before 1744 are not in the extract, so absence of earlier Igis Hegnauers is not yet evidence.
• Seengen (Aargau) is a third centre (from the America mapping; the Swiss index shows Aargau Hegnauers marrying from 1813), with no recorded link to either.
• The name was already widespread in the 17th century, in both confessions: Reformed Hegnauers at Elgg (1659), Uster (1647), Turbenthal (1660), Schlieren (1674), Altstetten (1676), Egg (1677), Bern (1673), Kleinhüningen near Basel (1607); Catholic Hegnauers in the Luzern Seetal (Schongau 1643–1751, Hochdorf 1662–1687), at Cham ZG (1731), in Baden (Breisgau and Blumberg, 1665–1701) and Upper Swabia (Zußdorf 1682–1737). A Catholic Luzern group in 1643 cannot descend from a Zürich family after the Reformation (1523) without a change of confession, so either the name had spread before the Reformation (as the 15th-century tax books suggest: Hegnauers at Hegnau, Wangen, Hirslanden and in the city by 1467) or it arose more than once.

Answer, as far as the records go: the Swiss Hegnauers do not form one documented family. Elgg and Uster are one family cluster; Igis, Seengen, Basel/Bern and the Luzern Catholics are separate in every record we have. That is compatible with H1 option 1 (a migration from the Zürich area to Igis before 1744) only if the migration happened before the Igis registers start; option 2 (independent formation, or a pre-Reformation dispersal of Hegnau emigrants) fits the evidence at least as well.

What would test it

1. The Igis registers before 1744 and the Igis Bürgerregister: when the first Hegnauer appears and whether he is entered as a newcomer ("von …", "Hintersäss", "eingekauft") — the decisive record.
2. The Familiennamenbuch der Schweiz (1989–) entry for Hegnauer: the old citizenships (before 1800) and their dates; if Igis GR and Seengen AG are listed as "old" (alt, before 1800), they are independent or early.
3. Y-DNA: a direct male-line Hegnauer from Igis (the study owner's line, H0001 → H0003 …), one from the Elgg–Uster cluster, and one from the Seengen line (Rochester descendants, e.g. of H0534 or H0568). A match between Igis and Elgg within ~15 generations would support a migration; no match would support separate origins.
4. The Zürich Bevölkerungsverzeichnisse (1634–1780) for Elgg, Uster and Volketswil, and the 16th-century Elgg and Uster registers: whether any Hegnauer household left for Graubünden or Aargau (entries such as "ist in Pündten", "zog nach …").
5. The Luzern Seetal Catholics: their first entries (Schongau, Hochdorf) and any "von Zürich" note.

Left unplaced (20)

• O00495 — undated Elgg burial-series line: Johannis Hegnauer, father, child not named - not identifiable
• O00498 — father line of the burial of Susanna (burial naming father Jacob: Susanna b. 1744 (F0027) or b. 1754 (F0031)); the father cannot be identified
• O00505 — father line of the burial of Hanss Jacob (burial naming father Hans Jacob; candidates: Hans Jacob b. 1704 (F0018) or an unindexed child of Hans Jacob × A Catharina Spiller (m. 1738)); the father cannot be identified
• O00542 — undated Elgg burial-series line: Jacob Hegnauer, father of a Jacob - several Jacob-son-of-Jacob burials fit (1665, 1749, 1766, 1772)
• O00550 — undated Elgg burial-series line: Heinrich Hegnauer, father of a Heinrich - several burials fit (1691, 1716, 1771)
• O00553 — father line of the burial of A Maria (burial naming father Jacob, indexed twice (A Maria / Anna): Anna Maria b. 1741 (F0027) or Anna b. 1764 (F0040)); the father cannot be identified
• O00554 — father line of the burial of A Maria (burial naming father Jacob, indexed twice (A Maria / Anna): Anna Maria b. 1741 (F0027) or Anna b. 1764 (F0040)); the father cannot be identified
• O00564 — undated Elgg burial-series line: Heinrich Hegnauer, father, child not named - not identifiable
• O00587 — father line of the burial of Anna (burial: b. 1789, father Heinrich; no matching baptism indexed); the father cannot be identified
• O00588 — undated Elgg burial-series line: Rodolff Hegnauer, father, child not named - not identifiable
• O00621 — undated Elgg burial-series line: Uolrich Hegnauer, father, child not named - not identifiable
• O00655 — father line of the burial of Elisabetha (burial naming father Jacob: Lisabeth b. 1732 (F0027) or Elisabetha b. 1748 (F0031)); the father cannot be identified
• O00671 — undated Elgg burial-series line: Johannes Hegnauer, father, child not named - not identifiable
• O00675 — father line of the burial of Susana (burial: b. 1752, father Heinrich; no Susanna of a Heinrich is in the baptism index); the father cannot be identified
• O00705 — undated Elgg burial-series line: Heinrich Hegnauer, father, child not named - not identifiable
• O00707 — undated Elgg burial-series line: father, no names - not identifiable
• O00731 — undated baptism line (Igis ark series): "Jagli" Hegnauer × Anneli Schaub, child Barbara - no Jagli/Anneli Schaub couple in any Igis or Elgg record; place unknown
• O01502 — undated Igis-series line: Jakob Hegnauer, father, child not named - not identifiable
• O01789 — undated Igis-series line: Jakob Hegnauer, father, child not named - not identifiable
• O02096 — undated line (place "Schweiz"): "Meister Hegnauer", father of Jacob Fischer - garbled index

Top open questions

1. The Igis registers and Bürgerregister before 1744 (H1).
2. "Baden, Aargau" in the index: are these Seengen-area records? (Seengen and the other Aargau Hegnauers)
3. Elgg baptisms before 1695, which would join the 17th-century Elgg families to the couples of 1698–1740 (Elgg, canton Zürich: the Hegnauer families, 1553–1875).
4. The Zürich Bevölkerungsverzeichnisse for Elgg and Uster, which would test the many possible identifications (Heinrich b. 1780 = husband of Huggenberger; Hans Jacob b. 1745 = husband of Magdalena Trachssler; the two Heinrichs b. 1746).
5. The parents of Salomon (b. c.1746) and Jacob (b. c.1749) of Uster.
6. The Heimatort of the Basel, Bern and St. Gallen fathers (Samuel, Kaspar, Johann Jacob, Heinrich, Ludwig, Caspar; Jakob × Eugster; Elisabetha, mother of Otto b. 1885).
7. Christian H0157 = Christen b. 1748 (Igis): still only possible.