Surname Saturday: MUSCHG in Oetwil am See

The mother of the immigrant Hoffman generation also immigrated to Illinois, arriving in 1864. She was born Elisabetha Homberger, daughter of Johannes Homberger and Barbara Muschg, on 27 August 1797. She was baptized in Oetwil am See, Canton Zurich, on 3 September 1797. Her father was a citizen of the gemeinde (political community) of Egg, which is just northwest of Oetwil am See. Her mother’s family were citizens of Oetwil and lived in the Oetwil village of Bäch. Village might be a generous term as an 1835 gazetteer of Zurich listed it as having only three households. Despite his citizenship in Egg, Johannes Homberger and his family lived in Oetwil and that is where Elisabeth was raised and where she returned as the widow of Johannes Hoffmann, a citizen of Oberglatt, and where she continued to raise her children. The Muschg family must have been the anchor to that community.

Muschg looks very unfamiliar to American eyes. It appears in family name books for Switzerland and Canton Zurich, important tools in genealogical research. They list the places (gemeinde) in which people of those surnames held citizenship. The Zurich book lists detailed records of 1,200 early surnames. A problem with the books is that they give early (pre-1800) citizenship status, but only if the surname was still in the community when they were compiled. Thus Muschg is listed for Hombrechtikon and Maur but not for Oetwil am See. I believe that Barbara Muschg, wife of Johannes Homberger and her sister were among the last of the name in Oetwil. Some sons existed in earlier generations, but either they had daughters or the sons died early or disappeared from the Oetwil records. Following are the family’s Muschg ancestors.

Barbara Muschg: baptized 27 March 1777, apparently died after 1844

            married Johannes Homberger of Egg on 20 September 1777.

Rudolf Muschg: baptized 2 August 1735, died 5 November 1805

            married Barbara Krauer of Adetswil in Bäretswil on 6 June 1758.

Ulrich Muschg: baptized 30 May 1669, died 9 April 1739

            married (1): Susanna Kunz on 10 January 1700

            married (2): Elisabetha Walder on 13 June 1724

            married (3): Küngold Heüsser of Männedorf on 10 August 1734.

Bläsi Muschg: possibly born ca. 1640, died 27 December 1685

            married Barbara Küster prior to birth of a daughter in 1668.

The family information is from FHL microfilm of Oetwil am See and Egg church records of baptism, marriage, burial and family registers.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Ancestor #34

Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings has another interesting challenge for Saturday Night Genealogy Fun (SNGF). This time he's going for ancestral name list roulette. Here is the challenge:

1) How old is one of your grandfathers now, or how old would he be if he had lived? Divide this number by 4 and round the number off to a whole number. This is your "roulette number."

2) Use your pedigree charts or your family tree genealogy software program to find the person with that number in your ancestral name list (some people call it an "ahnentafel"). Who is that person?

3) Tell us three facts about that person in your ancestral name list with the "roulette number."

4) Write about it in a blog post on your own blog, in a Facebook note or comment, or as a comment on this blog post.

5) If you do not have a person's name for your "roulette number" then spin the wheel again - pick a grandmother, or yourself, a parent, a favorite aunt or cousin, or even your children!

Using Dick as the base person, here is the result:

Dick's grandfather Henry Hoffman was born in Oct. 1873 making him 137 today. Divided by 4 = 34.25 that rounds to 34.
Dick's Ahnentafel #34 is Johannes Homberger.
He was baptized on 20 January 1771 in Vorder-Radreyh, Hof, Egg, Zurich.
He married Barbara Muschg on 20 September 1795 in Oetwil am See, Zurich which was her home community.
He died on 16 September 1835 in Oetwil am See at the age of sixty-four.

Three facts about Johannes Homberger:

1. He was a citizen of Hof, Gemeinde of Egg in Canton Zurich, Switzerland, but the family lived in the home gemeinde of his wife's family in neighboring Oetwil am See which is near Lake Zurich (the "See") on its east side.

2. Johannes and Barbara had at least eight children although the records were not totally legible. Marriages were recorded for three of the children, Elizabeth to Johannes Hoffmann, Jakob to Susanna Kunz, and Heinrich to A. Barbara Weber. Daughter Elizabeth was the mother of the immigrant generation of Hoffmans. She also came to Illinois where she died in 1870.

3. His occupation or trade was "meisterzimmerman" or master carpenter. I speculate that it was this occupation that brought Johannes Hoffman, zimmerman, into the Homberger family.