The Hirschy Newsletter

for descendants of Philip and Julianne (Frey) Hirschy
January 1997, No. 13

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NEXT REUNION

   The HIRSCHY GATHERING for 1997 will
be held on Saturday, July 12, (NOT July 19
as reported in the previous newsletter). The
place reserved is the Riverside Center,
the place of our previous gathering in
Decatur.
   Registration will begin at 11:00 a.m.
and we will have a carry-in potluck dinner
starting at 1:00 p.m.
   A tour of the historic Hirschy homes and
the cemetery where a number of the early
generation are buried is planned for those
who come early. It will last from 10:30 -
12:00.
   After the noon meal we will meet as a
group to enjoy music and a short review
(25 minutes) of the Hirschy history. Then
we will break up into interest groups.
   Bring any artifacts from the Hirschy
family. There will be a time for telling
about such items to one interest group.
   Those of you who are into research on
the family, bring the result of what you
have found to share with another group.
   A third interest group will be made up
of you who want to learn about the present
generation. Persons will be able to tell
about their interests and activities.
   There will be various activities for
children. They will not want to miss out
on this reunion. So bring them along.
   More information on the reunion will be
given in the next newsletter.

LETTERS

   A number of letters have been received
in the past three months. Here are some
excerpts.

   James C. Hirschy 3.2.2.1.2 sent me two
photos his parents had kept of relatives.
I passed them on to Mary Edna (Lauby) and
David L. Thompson, Sr. 3.2.1.3.1 who
wrote, "Mary and I thank you for the two
pictures given you by James Hirschy.
Interestingly they are not of our
grandmother, rather they are of my wife's
mother Edna Lauby. One of the photos has
never been seen by the Lauby family and is
greatly appreciated. Edna has almost lost
her eyesight with a degenerative eye

disease and has not seen tile pictures.
She still makes it out to church. Has
helped us in our ministry teaching Sunday
School and assisting with a group of some
23 children whose parents (Russians
Immigrants) attend a citizenship class at
our church on Wednesday evenings."
David Thompson also gave the following
new information on Mary Edna, his wife:
"Mary attended Fort Wayne Bible College,
was ordained as a minister in the
Salvation Army and received recognition of
Elders credentials with the Nazarene
Church." They live at N. 5016 Walnut St.,
Spokane, WA 99205.

Nancy Cornell 4.8.3.3.6 wrote, "I have
enjoyed each Newsletter and am saving them
in a loose leaf binder as a continual
update for my Hirschy History."

Arthur Isbell 4.29.1 of Colorado Springs
on Nov. 1, "We've had our first snow - not
enough to shovel - its nearly all melted.
Didn't have many "Tricks or Treaters" last
night -- I think not even 20. I really
miss Bonnie, but I think the Lord will
catch us up to meet Him in the air most
any day and we'll all be together again--
with HIM. He's the important ONE."

Mary (Nolt) Rodman 6.2.6.1 sent some
family information: "Esther Grace
(Mollett) Smith 3.2.1.1 died, not sure of
date. Donald Roy Wilhelm 3.2.1.2.1 died
Mar 24, 1995; Tuanna Moon Frye 3.2.6.1.1.2
married Danny Mays on Sept. 11, 1995 - to
them was born Alena Marie Mays on Aug 04,
1995; and Robert John Nolt 3.2.6.3 died
Oct. 12, 1996."

Berdine B. (Rigdon) Hirschy, widow of
Harlan W. Hirschy 3.6.3.2 wrote from
Waynesville, N.C. "My husband died in
1987 of long-standing heart problems. I
have 4 children living and one who is with
the Lord. There are 14 grandchildren and
3 great grand-children.
I enjoy the Genealogy book so much and
am looking forward to the Hirschy Reunion
in 1997. It is a family line that one
could well be proud of being part of. My
husband, a Research Director for Kimberly

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Clark, was not only a fine scientist but
was also a believer iii Jesus Christ as
being everything He claimed to be. His
prayer and hope was for the generations to
come to have this same love and trust in
God. Four of his sisters and brothers
spent many years telling the 'greatest
story ever told' on mission field of both
Africa and South America."

Velma (Greenhalgh) Runyon 4.8.3.3 sent out
her annual letter@in which she gives an
up-date on all of her descendants - a
great way to keep the family in touch with
each other. At the age of 84 she keeps
very active. In the past year she made a
trip to Florida during February. In June
she attended the World Gospel Mission
Conference at Taylor University, Upland,
IN. She continues as the Michigan
Lifeline Prayer Auxiliary Corresponding
Secretary, attending meetings at Mattawan
and Mount Pleasant. Her sister took her
on a trip to Yellowstone and to a
cranberry farm in Wisconsin i-n May. She
attended Beth Nichols 4.8.3.3.3.6
marriage to James Petipas on August 31
then flew to Chevy Chase, MD to see
Christy and John Kunin 4.8.3.3.6.1 and
their little son Jake born May 15.

Paul and Barbara Laverdiere 4.8.3.3.1.6
Flowery Branch, GA. Paul is employed by a
sporting goods company. Barbara is a
travel consultant for Desk Travel in
Atlanta. They took a barge trip on a
canal in France. Kristen Leigh was born
Sept. 21, 1996. She was premature and
died Sept. 22.

Wendy Lee (Wilber) Mitchell 6.5.1.6.1 of
639 E. Eklutna St., Palmer, Alaska 99645
"I have had this order form for a few
years now... I would prefer a hard cover
copy of the book but I will be happy with
what ever you have left... My grandparents
are Adeline Jerusha Roth and John Regier."
I was pleased to send her a copy knowing
all of her family and her children were
included in the book. Her Christmas
letter has this news: "This years biggest
news is that I have all four boys in
school. In initially had the Hallelujah
Chorus on my answering machine rejoicing
in my new found freedom..."
"Our entire family is in the Valley
Performing Arts production of 'The Best
Christmas Pageant Ever'. I play the

mother (I'm in almost every scene and have
a ton of lines to memorize), Andy plays my
son Charlie (he has a fairly large part),
Jack [her husband) plays the Reverend
Hopkins, Tim plays the part of 'David' and
has a few lines, Matthew and Ben are
children on stage. This is a lot of fun.
We have been practicing since before
Halloween and rehearse 3 - 4 nights a
week. We will perform the weekend before
Christmas. There will be 7 performances
total."

Wendy Mitchell
FROM THE EDITOR    My wife, LaVeta, and I went to Europe
this fall to visit our son Nathan and
family in St. Philbert de G.L., France.
He is a Professor of Mathematics in the
University in Nantes. Since he and his
wife Cathy have six children, it is not
possible for them all to come to see us,
so we go to visit them.
   Since we had not been back to
Switzerland for three years, we decided to
spend a week there doing genealogical
research and visiting friends. We arrived
in Zurich on Oct. 17. After getting a
rental car we headed for Canton Neuchatel
where our Hirschy great great grandparents
lived with their family.
   We stayed in a hotel near the city of
Neuchatel as I wanted to check some
records in the archive of the Canton the
next day. The city of Neuchatel is
situated along the banks of Lake Neuchatel
and on the side of the hill that rises

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from the lake. The archive is located at
the top of the hill in a chateau that is
adjacent to the old cathedral. Beina
situated on a hill, the streets are
narrow. This makes it difficult to find a
parking place. Fortunately we found one
near the Archive.
   The Archive has a large number of boxes
with index cards in which all the persons
named in the old record books are listed
individually. This must have been a very
time consuming effort but it is very
helpful. Someday these will be replaced
by computer files. But for now this is a
good way to look for information on one's
forebears. I asked for several boxes that
had the last names of persons I wanted to
find.
   The first person I searched for was
Marianna Loseas (Losli) who was the wife
of Johann Ulrich Hirschi. (They are named
on page 11 of the Hirschy Genealogy). I
had information about a Losli family that
was registered in Signau and I wondered if
she was descended from them. I found her
name on a card in the box. There I
learned that ber father's name was Pierre
and that he was from Fribourg. I had this
information earlier but had questioned it
because I was looking for a connection to
the family from Signau.
   There is no record of Anabaptists in
Fribourg to my knowledge, but there may
have been. If not, Maria may have been
Catholic or Reformed. This will need more
research. But at least I now know the
possible connection with Signau was in
error. For more information this might
mean a visit to Fribourg at some later
date.
   I then began to look for more data on
the Schlunegger family (page. 444) Here
in the card file I was able to find quite
a bit more information on various family
members.
   Then I asked for the file box on persons
whose names began with Y to see if I could
find more on the Yaggy family (page 444).
A Yaggy genealogy says that in 1977
Clinton Oyer went to the Archive and
it searched for two hours and could find no
Yaggy anywhere." There were no cards
with this name so I asked for the box with
names beginning with J. In it I found the
missing information. There were several
cards. The cards had originally had the
name spelled Yaggi. This was changed to
Jaggi and filed under J. This was logical

for that was the original spelling of the
name.
   There was only a little information, but
I did learn that tile Jaggi/Yaggy family
was originally from Gsteig, Ct. Bern. v

This is a village at the foot of tile Alps.
So I knew where to look for more
information.
   The morning was gone and I had not
completed all the searching I could have
done, but the archive was closing for the
noon hour and LaVeta and I wanted to visit
a quilting friend of hers in Boudry. So we
looked for a restaurant for our noon meal.
   The quilter friend in Boudry has made a
number of very artistic quilts. Photos of
them have appeared in various books. This
was an enjoyable visit.
   From Boudry we took a smaller road north
across the mountain as the main one was
closed for major work. We went through
the valley where several Anabaptist
families had lived to the farm of Pierre
Hirschy.

Our Hirschy Cousin    Pierre Hirschy's great great grandfather
was a brother to our g. g. grandfather.
So we are 4th cousins. It was in his home
that we found the outline of a deer on
their storm door which we used as the
symbol on the Hirschy Genealogy.
   They recently renovated a house just
above their hillside farm house that had
been built in 1683. The entire inside and
the roof of the house had been removed and
then rebuilt on a modern pattern, using
the same window openings of the old house.
It is very nicely arranged.
   Pierre and his wife live in the newly
rebuilt house while his son and wife have
moved into their former home and taken
over the dairy farming operations. The
daughter in law lived in Canada for a year
and speaks English very well. She
translated much of the conversation.
   Pierre, as a member State Council, is
the head of the Department of
Administration of the Territory of
Neuchatel. A major project, under his
administration, was the recently completed
construction of a four lane road through
the city. A major concern was to
construct it in harmony with the
environment. Part of the road is
underground as it is adjacent to parks, a
museum and boat harbors. A church had to
be moved 50 meters to accommodate the

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road. The story is proudly presented in a
publication with many photos. Here is one
of Pierre.

On Saturday we went to Le Locle to visit
Claire-Lise Ummel. She with her late
husband Charly published a history of the
Anabaptists of Neuchatel. This volume has
been updated as of 1994. She invited us
to stay for the noon meal. Present, also,
was her son Michael and his two children.
She was interested in the information
about the Jaggi family I had uncovered as
she did not have this family in her book.
   Saturday afternoon we drove to Tramelan
in the Sonnenberg area of Canton Bern.
Here we staved with our daughter-in-law's
parents, Werner and Martha Bischoff.
   On Sunday we attended the services of
the Mennonites in the Sonnenberg area.
Normally they have services in four
different chapels. On this day they had a
special Harvest Thanksgiving service in
the building at Les Mottes. To
accommodate the crowd all young people sat
on the stage along with the children on
the floor and steps. They served as the
choir.
   Two sermons were given. The senior
minister, Samuel Gerber, preached in
Barndutsch, and Michel Ummel gave one in
French. The closing song of the young
people was sung in English - "Stand up,
stand up for Jesus."

Research in Canton Bern
    On Monday we went to Berne with plans to
do research in the state Archive, not
knowing that it was always closed to the
public on Monday. So we changed our plans
and drove to Grindelwald in the rain.
This town, right up against the Alps, is
the village from which the Schlonegger
family originated. Normally the streets
are crowded with tourists, but in October

there were only a few buses.
   In the Gemenide Verwaltung (Community
Offices) we asked for the record books of
the citizens. We learned that all the
oldest marriage, birth and death record
books have been placed in the Archive in
Bern. But their records of the citizens
which date back to the late 1700s are
still housed there. Here we found
information on the Schlunegger family that
came to Ohio. But there was no
information about Gaspard and Barbara
Schlunegger, our ancestors.
   On Tuesday and Wednesday we were in the
Archive in Bern. They have microfilmed
most of the older books so one can read
the films and make photocopies if you find
information. I asked for the film of
records from Gsteig and was able to
photocopy 12 pages of information on the
Jaggi family. I now have two more
generations to add to the information that
we had previously. The transcription is
still being worked on and will be
published in a forthcoming edition.
   I also looked for information on the
records from Langnau. Most of the older
books are not indexed so it would take
hours of research to go through them. I
decided to leave that for another time. I
found the record of the marriage of Peter
Burkhalter and Anna Gyger (page 223)in the
marriage record book. They were married
by minister Peter Sprunger. I found the
baptismal record for Peter Burkhalter's
father Christen. It took place on Sept.
13, 1770 the same year as his wife.
   We were hosted by Jean Vercler, one of
the ministers in the Mennonite Church in
Bern. So we had a good time talking about
common interests.
   The next days we visited with friends
and also checked for information in the
village offices of Trubschachen and Biglen
but found nothing new,

PUBLICATION INFORMATION
   The Hirschy Newsletter is
published four times a year. Cost
is $5.00 for four issues.
   The editor is David L. Habegger,
6929 Hillsboro Ct., Fort Wayne, IN
46835-1818.
   If you have material you would
like to submit for publication,
send it to the editor. In corres-
pondence use the number behind your
name to identify yourself.

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