A story in maps
From Hegnau to the Pacific
One line’s journey, scrolled. Other Hegnauers went to Baden, Bavaria, New Jersey and a good many other places; all of them are on the map of the name.
The road, step by step
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Before the records
Hegnau, near Zürich
A hamlet in the parish of Volketswil. The name means, more or less, "the one from Hegnau". The hamlet has stayed where it was; the people have not.
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1500s and 1600s
Elgg and Volketswil
In the sixteenth century Hegnauers appear as citizens of Elgg, and before long they fill the Volketswil registers too. From here on, somebody is always writing them down.
The Elgg line → -
1715
Igis, in Graubünden
Jacob Hegnauer marries at Igis in 1715, the first of the name there. Where he came from is still an open question. The Igis Hegnauers probably all descend from his two sons.
From Igis to the Pacific → -
August 1856
Le Havre
After the hunger years of 1848–50, Luzius and Margreth take their five children from Igis, in Graubünden, to Le Havre and sail on the Chace on 22 August 1856. Thirty-six days at sea.
Luzius Hegnauer → -
29 September 1856
New York
The passenger list calls them Hegemann. It will not be the last new spelling.
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1857–1868
Gasconade County, Missouri
A farm in Boeuf Township, three mortgages, and in 1861 the Union army, for father and son alike.
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1869 onward
Bates County, on the Kansas border
A county the war had emptied. The family helped fill it again: farms, a bank at Rockville, and a great many newspaper columns about Sunday visits.
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1910s
Minnesota
The next generation goes north: teaching at Wells, then the seed-corn business. Winters, it turns out, are longer here than in Missouri.
Robert Lucius Hegnauer → -
The twentieth century
The Pacific
Other branches reach Oregon and Puget Sound. There is nowhere further west to go, so for now the story stops here.
The live map: OpenFreeMap, © OpenMapTiles, data © OpenStreetMap contributors.