omnium-gatherum part deux

[temporal1]

oj:
Zofingen is now in Canton Aargau; back then the Unteraargau region of Canton Bern. Pretty remote from the city of Bern, actually. Protestant area with some Anabaptists during that time.
Not really on the flight path from Basel to Zurich, but probably visible under clear conditions.

ok. helpful.
i found it on a contemporary map. could not tell anything from that.
we spent 1 October day in Zurich. trains to+from Lausanne. we were on Swiss trains a lot during those 3 weeks. Zurich impressed me in ways no other city ever has.
coincidentally, i just viewed this video, a jet landing in Zurich:

oj:

would “everyone” in those times, esp in that location, have known? my guess is, no.

My guess is, yes.
In those days, every church was expected to read the edict against the Anabaptists from the pulpit at least annually. And every upstanding citizen went to church, unless they were deathly ill, pregnant, or Anabaptist (in which case they were not a citizen, let alone upstanding).

But many of the common people knew their Anabaptist neighbors, respected them, and were not interested in turning them in to the Täuferjägers, even for a cash reward.
And many of the officials, especially in areas far from Bern, ignored enforcement or did a half-hearted job at best.

yes. i see. this helps with perspective. things have changed dramatically in my lifetime.
it’s strange to think so many living today do not even remember the world i was born into.
frankly, my younger brother is only 4 years younger, but things changed a lot in just those 4 years.

In a sample reading of this book, link below (i can no longer access) there are a few pages (at least) on early Anabaptists, describing them as, “in the thousands.” This puts this part of my family in the “close, but details unknown” part of early Anabaptist history. There may have been some followers/members. Maybe some were killed. or punished.

As i suspected, but never knew, some of my distant family “were somewhere near,” were touched somehow, in these years. It only makes basic math sense. i hope to find no persecutors; so far, so good. i think.

These were interesting pages. i’ll try to get the book through the local library.

“The Story of Christian Theology: Twenty Centuries of Tradition & Reform” / Page 420-ish
https://play.google.com/store/books/det ... QBAJ&hl=en

Gameo / Täuferjäger
https://gameo.org/index.php?title=T%C3%A4uferj%C3%A4ger

[ohio jones]

coincidentally, i just viewed this video, a jet landing in Zurich:

I did sort of wonder why that was linked under the reference to Gameo.

[temporal1]

coincidentally, i just viewed this video, a jet landing in Zurich:

I did sort of wonder why that was linked under the reference to Gameo.

What?!

o dear. i wrote:
Gameo - Bern, Switzerland

Ok. To correct:
Gameo - Bern, Switzerland
https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Bern_(Switzerland)

this link ^^^ is not working, i have no idea why. maybe temporary problem.
the page opened fine before i copied it.

Further bunny trail.
i’ve been dreaming of having my granddaughter go to school in Switzerland (with her mother).
at this point, 5th grade. i doubt she could keep up academically, coming from U.S. schools. plus all the social and language adjustments. she loves language, esp German, but is not bilingual.

i suggested this before she began school. i have lots of fantasies.
my husband used to say, “my wife lives on Fantasy Island.” i could not honestly argue this.

[temporal1]

At last!
i found a long-suspected family link to American Indians: MI’KMAQ NATION, NOVA SCOTIA.

i wrote to my family:

At last. American Indians .. Mi’kmaq Nation, Nova Scotia, Canada, 1600’s ..

.. Through the GRANGERS, my father’s mother’s line, Mi’kmaq Nation, early 1600’s.
(Micmac Indians)

JOHN GRANGER JR married GRACE INDIENNE MICMAC

JOHN - ENGLAND 1576-1643
Bedfordshire, England

GRACE 1584-1643
MICMAC NATION, ACADIA, NOVA SCOTIA, CANADA
(with notes about Catholic Jesuits in Nova Scotia)

- - - - - - -

Does this explain some of my father’s traits?! It might!
His physical appearance, and his love of fishing, the outdoors, etc.
His regard for Indian life. His problem with alcohol.

This possibility was never mentioned in my family. i never asked.
even as a child, i “just noticed” certain traits about my father that “haunted” me as possibly Native American.
After our parents died, i spoke with my younger brother about it. he agreed! he had also wondered.
so far, this connection does not appear in my DNA. but, it might in my brother’s. he has not taken the test.

The Mi’kmaq / Nova Scotia
https://archives.novascotia.ca/genealogy/mikmaq

This is interesting, but not the surprise Charlemagne was.

[temporal1]

From Mrs.Nisly’s Geneaology thread, Page 5:
http://forum.mennonet.com/viewtopic.php ... mac#p16488

Any French-Canadians present?
Most French-Canadians are descended from these 800 women
http://www.cbc.ca/2017/canadathestoryof ... -1.4029699

My grandmother was French Canadian and Micmac. She lost her father at sea and was sent to live with relatives in the US when she was 16.

[temporal1]

More Mi’kmaq surprises.
i was very surprised to see records of my ancestor Grace’s parents, and further back.
plus, pictures of her parents. (paintings.) how could this be?? 1500’s-early 1600’s?
as i read more, i realized, her father was an important Mi’kmaq chief, there is recorded history,
and, even a (2007) Canadian stamp in his honor.



the link below has a lot of general information,
with one page on Chief Henri Micmac Membertou (there are spelling variations).
he was a serious Christian.



A Legendary Man – Chief Membertou
https://www.omfrc.org/2017/01/legendary ... membertou/

i feel pretty confident i’ll be able to find more info, i.e., a lot of work has been done on this, and is ongoing. with the records i’ve found, i will be surprised to find any glitches in making connections with this group, Ontario Métis Family Records Center (OMFRC). they seem quite user-friendly.

life is so unpredictable.

(i’m really surprised those images appeared. first try, too.)

[temporal1]

Found these on the Scandinavian site i read.



How the Danes see Europe:

[temporal1]

Another surprising family discovery.
This through my mother’s father’s side, French Huguenots.
No family stories of France on either side, yet, i have recently found “French” on both sides.
People get busy and forget. And, often, they WANT to forget.

Early 1600’s France.
1627, King Louis VIII, France, decided 10% of the population, Protestant Huguenots (Calvinists) was too much, he decreed all must be baptized Catholic. The Huguenots refused. They were largely located in La Rochelle, France, they fortified their city. The king decided to add another wall to block off the city.

There were 25,000 Huguenots, 5,000 fled, 14,000 starved in this 14 month siege. It was severe.

My ancestor, Etienne Gano, 1590-1658 (Gayneau, Gerneaux, Gaineau, Gouyon, Gouyo, Genjoy, Etienne de Purlboreau) survived. He was 27, in 1629, he married another survivor, Marie-Jeanne Hautin, 19, 1611-1682.

The surviving Protestants were then allowed 1 church in La Rochelle for worship. Protestants were not allowed all rights of French citizenship. They were persecuted.

1685, King Louis VIII proclaimed the EDICT OF NANTES, Huguenots were expelled from France.

(Their son) Etienne and wife, Lidia Mestereau, migrated to “the New World,” New Amsterdam/New York. They lived and farmed on Staten Island.
The Huguenots got along with the Dutch and English in New Amsterdam/New York.

They had a family, then came — John Gano, 1736-1804, born into Presbyterian Calvinism, he studied and became Baptist. His mother was English Baptist.

He eventually became Reverend John Gano.
He was founding pastor of what would become First Baptist Church, New York,
now corner of Broadway and 79th.

https://forgotten-ny.com/2014/07/first- ... west-side/

“The First Baptist Church’s congregation’s history goes back to 1745, first occupying a loft on downtown William Street in 1753, then its first proper church building on Gold Street in 1760
under Rev. John Gano, who had baptized George Washington .. and later was a founder of Brown University in Rhode Island.

A second Gold Street church was built in 1801, followed by a Gothic Revival church at Broome and Elizabeth Streets in 1841 and a brownstone Gothic at Park Avenue and East 39th Street in 1871.” ..

He was a chaplain in the Revolutionary War. Recorded as a friend of George Washington.
Not uncontested, he is thought to have baptized his friend, George Washington. (i like this thought, so, here is a painting of the event.)

He and his wife, Mary (Stites) are buried in the DAR section of the Frankfort Cemetery, Kentucky (near Daniel Boone’s grave).



The painting is in the Gano Chapel, William Jewell College, Missouri.

“French Huguenots seek refuge in New York” / under 2 minutes


“Huguenots and the French Revolution” / approx 28 minutes


.. At this point, my primary reason for adding these surprises here is .. i certainly wonder how others’ ancestry might overlap my own? How many of us are connected but are not aware?

i had no inkling of well-known ancestors, i wasn’t even hoping for any!
i liked my understanding of plain+ordinary just fine.

i hardly know what to make of these various ones who “made history.”
i do wonder how they were so well forgotten. that’s a puzzle.

My old question of, “What were my ancestors doing when (history) happened?” - is somewhat revealed. They were in it! i knew they had to be “somewhere.” i didn’t expect to find them in the thick of it.
My grey matter is stretched.

[temporal1]

It seems, French kings ^^ can be confusing.
The king that persecuted Huguenots was King Louis XIV (not VIII, as i found recorded).

“Huguenot History” / Huguenot Society of Great Britain & Ireland
https://www.huguenotsociety.org.uk/history.html

.. However, their position became increasingly insecure as King Louis XIV,
grandson of Henri IV, listened more and more to those who advised him that the existence of this sizeable religious minority was a threat to the absolute authority of the monarch.

Gradually the Huguenots' privileges were eroded.
In the 1680s Protestants in certain parts of France were deliberately terrorised by the billeting of unruly troops in their homes ['the Dragonnades'].
Finally, in 1685 Louis revoked the Edict of Nantes, while exiling all Protestant pastors and at the same time forbidding the laity to leave France.
To the considerable surprise of the government many did leave, often at great risk to themselves.

Men who were caught, if not executed, were sent as galley slaves to the French fleet in the Mediterranean. Women were imprisoned and their children sent to convents. ..

Mistakes, mistakes .. sigh.

[temporal1]

It’s taken long enough ..
i finally found a Mennonite ancestor, Switzerland, my father’s mother’s side.
Hans Graff 1661-1746

“Groff Family” / Graff, Groff, Grove
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groff_family

Originating in Bäretswil, Switzerland, the Groff family (also Grove), originally spelled Graff,
became during the early eighteenth century[citation needed] one of the founding families of both the United States and what was later to become Canada. .. ..

Ancestory
.. .. Hans Graff (1661–1746) founder of Earl Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania was the uncle of the father of Jacob Groff.[1] He is believed[by whom?] to be the oldest known member of the Groff family in North America and the holder of the title Baron von Welden of Grafenwald Castle near Bäretswil, Switzerland.

Other family members:

Jacob Groff (1751–1824), was a prominent Pennsylvania American Revolutionary War soldier of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania
Ulysses Grant Groff (1865–1950), was a noted philanthropist who donated tracts of land to Amherst College and the City of Amherst, Massachusetts
Charles Wister Groff (1898–1987), a renowned real estate developer and philanthropist. .. ..

This is saying Jacob Groff’s father was a nephew of Hans Graff, elsewhere, it says Hans Graff was a grandfather to Jacob. So. not sure.

My ancestory is a real mixed bag of Christian faiths.
i do wonder what my grandmothers knew, i suspect a lot.
but, my parents, like many, did not want us to be burdened with “old wars” from the Old World, so, almost nothing was handed down. for sure, they were well-intended! but.