Switzerland: where the Hegnauers lived

Summary

Hegnauer records cluster in two core communities, with scattered later records mostly in cities:

The name and its first bearers (added 2026-09-26)

• Hegnau is first recorded about 1150 as Hegenowa. The Zürcher Siedlungsnamenbuch explains it as OHG ouwa "land by water" plus a personal name, most likely Hagino (or Hego), not Hag "hedge" (ortsnamen.ch 7059591).
• Earliest surname bearers found (see Hegnauers in the Zürich tax books, 1366–1470): "Johans Hegenower", Zürich city tax book, Neumarkt 1366 (I 172, no. 194a), and a "Hegnöwer", Rennweg 1366; the "Hegnöwerin", sister of Cuni Schönöwert, Linden 1372–75; "Hans Hegnoͧwer von Hegnoͧw", 1437 (II 500). In 1467–70 there are Hegnauer households at Hegnau (Herman, wife, son Wilhelm), Wangen, Hirslanden and Oberhusen, and a Heinrich (1455–69) in the city; also Klaus "Hegner" of Elgg 1468–70 (uncertain: Hegner is also a Winterthur surname). Also "Hegnawerin", Zürich parish register 1680 (StAZH E III 60.1).
• "von Hegnau" in the 14th–15th-century tax books marks people from the village with other surnames (Bela 1366, Fren Schultheissin 1375, Hans Gul 1483), so it is not by itself evidence of a Hegnauer or of the ministerial family (HLS: the lords were probably ministeriales of the Counts of Rapperswil). "Johannes de Hegnowe", 1282, is undetermined.

Hypothesis H1: one origin or several?

The surname means "from Hegnau", and Hegnau is a hamlet in Volketswil, canton Zürich. Elgg and Uster are both within about 15 km of it. Igis is about 90 km away in Graubünden, and its first Hegnauer record (1744) is almost a century later than Elgg's (1659). That fits either:

1. a migration from the Zürich area to Igis in the early 1700s, or
2. an independent formation of the name.

Tests:

• Familiennamenbuch der Schweiz: the places where the Hegnauer family held citizenship before 1800. If Igis is listed as an old citizenship place, that favors an old, independent Igis line.
• The earliest Igis registers (before 1744): browse the images for the first Hegnauer entries and any note of where they came from.
• Y-DNA: a direct-line male from Igis (the owner) and one from Elgg.

Igis line (reviewed)

Lineage to the Missouri emigrants, oldest first (group IDs in brackets):

1. Nutt Hegnauer × Madlena Krädtli [F0062]: children 1748–1762. Earliest Igis couple (merged across five index spellings of Madlena's maiden name).
2. Christian Hegnauer × Ursula Radig [F0066], married 15 Jan 1777: children include Jakob, baptized 5 Sep 1783 (H0155). Whether Christian is a son of Nutt (a Christen was baptized 12 Dec 1748) is not yet proven; it's the obvious candidate.
3. Jakob Hegnauer × Christina Pleisch [F0076], married 18 Oct 1808: seven children 1809–1824, including Luzius, baptized 8 Dec 1819 (H0001).
4. Luzius Hegnauer × Anna Margreth Bernet [F0081], married 14 Jun 1840: five children 1840–1851; the family sailed from Le Havre on the ship Chace and landed at New York on 29 Sep 1856 (see sources/immigration/ship-chase-1856.md), settling in Gasconade County, Missouri, where a sixth child was born in 1859.

Nutt × Luzia Luzi (m. 1806) is Jakob's own brother's family: Nutt's 1854 burial names Christian and Ursula as his parents, and their son Peter (b. 1811, m. Anna Berri 1833) emigrated to America in 1872. Other Igis couples of the same period (Johann Heinrich × Maria Hartmann, Jacob × Maria Ladner, Rudolf × Elsbeth Rofler) are cousins' lines to trace for emigrants. Peter × Anna Berri (17 children indexed, 1834–1858) is the largest family.

Open questions

• Is Christian (born c.1748, son of Nutt) the Christian who married Ursula Radig in 1777? Look for a marriage record naming his parents.
• Which Igis Hegnauers emigrated besides Luzius's family? Compare the Igis baptisms with the US records: the Oregon, Ohio and Illinois Christians, and the Bozeman pension of 1903.
• Elgg: 45 couples still need a merge review.