Zumbrun Genealogy » Zumbrunnen in Uri

Where Was the Castle Zumbrunnen?

Josh Zumbrun — Mon, 07 May 2018 02:31:44 +0000

A number of Swiss history books all recount the story that Werner, the Baron of Attinghausen, owned a castle named Schloss Zumbrunnen in the early 1200s which he gave to his son Walter in the year 1209. Walter adopted the name of the castle as his own surname. But where was this castle that became the namesake of the Zumbrunnen family?

Schloss Zumbrunnen is long gone now, and its site is uncertain, but there are two leading possibilities for where it might have stood.

Option 1: On a Hill in Brunnen, Switzerland

A number of books about the town of Brunnen, Switzerland, say that the Castle Zumbrunnen once stood upon a small hill close to the shore of Lake Lucerne. The town of Brunnen is also identified in Hans Jacob Leu’s 1750 Swiss lexicon. The site is not hard to find today, and is circled in the aerial photo below. For many years, the site was the location of a hotel called the Park-Hotel Hellerbad (you can find many historic postcards of the hotel online). Today, the site is the the location of the Aeskulap Seeklinik, an upscale lake-side clinic where people go to relax for treatment of stress-related illnesses such as burnout, depression and sleep disorders.

Aerial photo of the village of Brunnen, Switzerland. Some sources say that the Castle Zumbrunnen was located atop the small hill circled in red, where a tuft of trees is growing.
via Wikimedia Commons/CC-BY-2.0

Here’s the location on Google Maps:

A journal article from 1906 on the morphology of Brunnen said of this hill:

According to tradition, a castle was said to have stood here, the castle and courtyard of the noble Zumbrunnen family, which in 1209 was held by the family of Attinghausen through inheritance. [The historian] W. Oechsli mentions the site in 1891 in his book “The Beginnings of Switzerland” but gives no corresponding evidence. In a discussion of the Zumbrunnen family from Liebenau, the hill in Brunnen as a castle site is not mentioned. If such had existed, it should be expected on the dominant hill of the time. On the southern entrance of the Park-Hotel, on Gersauer Street, for quite a distance behind the houses there is large rubble, which could have been taken from the castle hill. According to the present owner of the castle hill …more than 1000 cubic meters of rock have been demolished in three periods.

So it seems that, if indeed a castle once stood here, many of its stones have been carried away, used in the construction of other buildings and retaining walls and the like.

An old drawing of this spot from the year 1833, before the hotel was built and before the big shorefront buildings were constructed, shows that the hill was once quite a bit more pronounced. Even at the time of this drawing, the Castle Zumbrunnen that once stood at this location had likely been abandoned for hundreds of years, perhaps 500 or even 600.

The hill on the right, with a large house and barn, is associated with the site of the Castle Zumbrunnen.
via the Swiss National Library

The stone rubble upon a hill is good and logical evidence that a castle once stood here, but it’s not certain that this was the same castle as Castle Zumbrunnen. For one thing, if the family possessed a mighty castle here, why were all their feudal lands and other early historical evidence place the family in the Canton of Uri?

Uri and Brunnen are not far from each other. The castle was originally passed to Walter Zumbrunnen, but Walter’s son Burkhard became a leader in Uri. This is just speculation, but perhaps Burkhard moved to Uri to work with his uncle Werner II, Baron of Attinghausen, and this is how Burkhard became a leader of the people of Uri. Perhaps at some point, they sold the Zumbrunnen Castle to acquire more lands in Uri.

Brunnen (bottom left circle) and Uri (top right circle) are not far from each other, and can be reached via a quick sailing trip on Lake Lucerne, or via a roughly 9 mile trail along the edge of the mountains.

Option 2: Near a Fountain in Uri

While it’s fun to imagine a mighty castle upon a hill in Brunnen, the other possibility is that the “Schloss Zumbrunnen” was a more modest stone house near one of the fountains in Uri. (This location was cited in an 1830 book on Swiss castles.) The name “Zumbrunnen” is somewhat more suggestive of this possibility. “Zum” means “to the” and “Brunnen,” in addition to being the name of a village, also means “fountain” or “town well.” If the name referred “to Brunnen” the town, then in German it would typically be rendered “Zu Brunnen” rather than “Zum Brunnen.”

We also know the Zumbrunnen family in Uri associated their name with fountains. They used a picture of a fountain on their coat of arms. When they were in Italian speaking regions, they even sometimes translated their name to Fontana, the Italian word for fountain. (This is not definitive proof, however, as many Swiss liked wordplay and puns.)

There are a number of ancient fountains in the town of Altdorf, Uri. These would have been logical sites for a stone house too, and make sense as a division of inheritance, as they are across the river from the Attinghausen Castle. Here’s an old fountain near the hospital in Altdorf, Uri. A number of the Zumbrunnen were later involved with the hospital in Uri.

A fountain outside the hospital in Altdorf, Uri.
Roland Zumbuehl via via Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 3.0

The most likely candidate, however, is the old fountain in the main town square of Altdorf. A famous status of William Tell was built next to the fountain. This fountain has since been moved, but you can see it in this old postcard. It closely resembles the fountain that the Zumbrunnen family later used in their coat of arms.

The fountain in the town square of Altdorf, next to a monument to William Tell.

If the Zumbrunnen Castle was, in fact, a more modest stone residence in Altdorf, it would explain why the earliest historical records of the family all point to Altdorf. One site in particular is a possibility: there is a road called Zumbrunnenweg, only about 1,200 feet from the town square, that could have been the location of this stone residence.

This is likely not the last word on the Castle Zumbrunnen. Future research may be able to shed some light on these two locations. If the castle was located in Brunnen then what became of it? Why did it leave the family and when was it ruined? Did some members of the Zumbrunnen family stay in Brunnen? If not for a historic Zumbrunnen residence, then why is the street in Altdorf, not far from the fountain, known as Zumbrunnenweg?

Sources

“To the Morphology of Brunnen, in Canton Schwyz” by J. Früh. Published 1906 in the Swiss journal Eclogae Geologicae Helvetiae.

Zumbrunnen entry in the “General Helvetic, Confederate or Swiss Lexicon” by Hans Jacob Leu. Published in 1750.

“History of the Canton Schwyz” by Thomas Fassbind. Published in 1832.

“The Swiss in Their Knightly Castles and Mountain Castles” by Johann Jakob Hottinger and Gustav Schwab. Published in 1830.

Translating the Zumbrunnen Entry in Hans Jacob Leu’s Dictionary

Josh Zumbrun — Sun, 06 May 2018 03:38:20 +0000

The General Helvetic, Confederate and Swiss Lexicon of 1750

In Zürich in the mid-1700s, a historian named Hans Jacob Leu set about compiling a historical dictionary about Switzerland, especially the families and events that contributed to the development of Switzerland from a territory of the Holy Roman Empire into a unified confederacy. Leu would later go on to become the mayor of Zürich, which speaks to the political nature of such early dictionaries, which were intended to instill a sort of patriotism and shared history among the Swiss.

The fourth volume of his work (titled the General Helvetic, Confederate and Swiss Lexicon) was published in 1750 and contains an entry on the Zumbrunnen family. At the time Leu was writing, the Zumbrunnen family no longer lived in Uri, but he was aware that a branch of the family had moved away to Parma.

His entry on the Zumbrunnen family is not long, but importantly, his work was published several decades before these archives were destroyed by fire in 1799.

What follows is a sentence-by-sentence translation of his entry on the Zumbrunnen. (My own commentary, provided for context, is in parentheses and highlights like this) The original is on Google Books and, as always, any improvements to the translation would be welcomed.

zum Brunnen

A noble family formerly from the country of Uri, of which Bucelin notes in his genealogy, has the same origin as the von Attighausen. Werner von Aetting or Ettighausen in 1209 distributed his estates among his two sons, to Werner, the Schloss Attinghausen and to Walter, the Schloss zum Brunnen (Schloss typically translates as “castle” but generally applied to any respectable stone house. The post on Zumbrunnen family castles contains examples of castles both grand and more modest). Some say this Schloss was located where the village Brunnen stands in the canton of Schweiz. Both men became known by the names of their estates.

The family Von Attinghausen were landammann, as were those of the family zum Brunnen. Among the zum Brunnen family there were several Landammann of Uri:

Burkhard in 1273.

Johannes, who had previously been bailiff (the Swiss title of “landvogt.”) in the free states in 1468, 1470, was landammann in 1482.

Hans, in 1477 the bailiff to Baden and in 1484 an envoy at the agreement between the Confederates and the cities of Bern and Fribourg. He fought in the Battle of Marignano where, according to Jove, he killed a number of enemies with his great battle sword before dying.

Mansuetus in 1548.

Hans in 1579. Also bailiff to Baden in 1536 and 1564. (the date of 1536 might refer to Mansuetus, rather than Johann) Also, at some time, he was involved in the business of the Catholic confederates to Rome, and was an envoy to King Henry the III of France in 1582. His brother Walter became a papal guard captain, and his nephew Josua became captain of Uri.

In 1621 and 1637 the Landammann of Uri was Johann Heinrich Zumbrunnen, who was also at the same time the captain of Uri, and a Knight in the Order of St. Michael. In 1622 he was sent to the House of Austria during the violent disputes of the Gray League in Lindau. In 1625 he owned a regiment in the French services, recruited into the Valtellina(This was a brutal conflict in the Thirty Years’ War).

This family is now extinct in the land of Uri, but there is still a fund, founded by the family, at Altdorf, which is called the zum Brunnische Pfründe (A “Pfründe” is a German word that refers to an endowment that sponsors a priest. The English word for this is prebendary.). Some of the family moved to Parma, and there they are still propagating.

There was also a Conrad zum Brunnen who was Abbot of St. Urban from 1349 to 1356, but whether he is of the same family is not known.

Also, this family sometimes was called Lowenstein.

Original Sources: The Necrology of the Brotherhood of “Old Grysen” in Altdorf

Josh Zumbrun — Thu, 29 Mar 2018 22:03:02 +0000

In Altdorf, in the 1500 and 1600s, a number of the prominent residents of the Canton of Uri belonged to a brotherhood named “Old Grysen.” The exact purpose of the brotherhood is unclear to me, but it was ecclesiastical, or at least church-affiliated, in character. The book is of interest because it establishes membership in the brotherhood for some of our Zumbrunnen ancestors and records some of their years of death. (You can read a bit more about older Necrologies here).

The books have been transcribed by historians. The lists below draw on a transcription published in 1910 in the Journal of Swiss Church History. Not all the death years were written down but, because the people were listed in chronological order of death, the historians were able to infer many of the dates from the surrounding people on the list. The data added by historians is in [brackets] whereas the rest of the information is the direct transcription. Below are all the entries for our ancestors; a relatively small slice of the overall necrology.

[1515] Hans Zum Brunnen, was Landammann [Fallen 13/14 Sep 1515 in the battle of Marignano]

Werni Zberg [Von Erstfeld. Margrith Zumbrunnen is his wife]

[Abt. 1549] Andreas Zum Brunnen [son of Landammann Johann Zumbrunnen and Dorothea von Beroldingen; Katharina Kas was his wife]

[1549] Mansuetus Zum Brunnen, was Landammann [Elected in 1548 and died
At the end of this year or at the beginning of 1549]

[Abt. 1555] Erasmus Zum Brunnen [Son of Landammann Mansuetus, Gertrud Kluser is his wife.]

[Abt. 1564] Hug Dauid Zum Brunnen, was landschrieber [Son of Landammann Mansuet]

[1588] Johannes Zum Brunnen, was landammann [1579-1581]

[1588] Josue Zum Brunnen, is landschreiber

1618 Ensign Heinrich Zum Brunnen, of the council

1629 Johannes zum Brunnen, is bailiff of Bolenze [1626-1628]

1639 Ensign Caspar Zum Brunnen [son of bailiff of Bolenze Johann Zumbrunnen and Veronika Rueplin]

1645 Captain Antoni zum Brunnen

17 Apr 1648 died Johann Heinrich Zum Brunnen, was a Knight in the Order of St. Michaels, Landammann [1621, 1622, 1637, 1638] and general of Uri.

Sources

“Das Nekrologium der Bruderschaft zum «Alten Grysen» in Altdorf bis zum Jahre 1650″ by Joseph Müller in the 1910 Journal for Swiss Church History (Zeitschrift für schweizerische Kirchengeschichte).

The Zumbrunnen Go to College

Josh Zumbrun — Tue, 27 Mar 2018 21:48:50 +0000

The church at the Collège Saint-Michel, built 1606-1613, was the heart of the college.
via Wikimedia Commons/(CC BY-SA 3.0)

Many of our ancestors were active in political offices, especially as leaders, clerks and secretaries in the Canton of Uri. By the 1500s in Switzerland, people with such aspirations often pursued some sort of formal education. So, the boys of the Zumbrunnen family began to go to college.

Their alma mater was the Jesuit Collège Saint-Michel[1], or the College of St. Michael, in Fribourg, Switzerland. The school was founded by Father Peter Canisius, S.J., in 1582. Amazingly, the school has some alumni records dating back to its founding. Nine different Zumbrunnen boys, all from Uri, enrolled in these early decades.

Obviously this “college” was much different than the modern American or European university experience. Boys enrolled between the ages of 10 and 21. Many of the pupils were local and lived at home, but the boys from far away places like Uri would board with private hosts or sometimes with clergy. In addition to religion, the curriculum included courses in the humanities, rhetoric, dialectic and logic.

While much of Switzerland was becoming Protestant at this time, Uri and Fribourg were holdouts of the Catholic faith, explaining the link between the two far-flung areas. Another advantage was that Uri was German-speaking, but Fribourg was in the French-speaking part of Switzerland, so attendance was also a French immersion program.

The information is not extensive. In most cases, the records only say the year of enrollment, the boy’s name, age, parents and hosts. In some cases, the history journal cited below added information about their subsequent careers. Here are the nine Zumbrunnen men who are alums of Collège Saint-Michel:

Enrolling in 1610: Johann Zumbrunnen, age 15, son of Heinrich, who became a captain in the French service during the Thirty Years War.

In 1612: Erasmus Zumbrunnen, age 12, son of Josue

In 1613: Jacob Zumbrunnen, age 12, son of Josue. Host: Burgknecht.

In 1613, Fridolin Zumbrunnen, age 12, son of Henry. Host: Haberkorn. He later became a priest in the Order of St. Benedict, and a professor of theology.

In 1620, Franz Zumbrunnen, age 11, son of Josue. He became a Capuchin priest and assumed the name Paschal. Host: Lutenschlager.

In 1624, Andreas Zumbrunnen, age 11, son of Martin.

In 1624, Conrad Zumbrunnen, age 11, son of Josue. Host: Burgknecht.[2]

In 1660, Franciscus Zumbrunnen, age 18, son of Burkhard and Ana Catharina Behsler. He became a Marian priest.

In 1661, Johann Anton Zumbrunnen, age 14, son of Burkhard and Ana Catharina Behsler. He became a Capuchin priest and assumed the name Primus.

I’m not sure if Johann Anton was the last member of the family to attend because the records I found end in 1663. The Zumbrunnen family was dying off in Uri by this point. A number of the men perished in the Thirty Years War, while others emigrated away from Uri and converted to Protestantism.

Notes
1) Yours truly also has a Jesuit education!
2) A peculiar story explains the 36-year gap between Conrad’s enrollment in 1624 and Franciscus in 1660. In 1628, the plague struck Fribourg, and over 30 of the college students died. Classes were suspended for six months, and most students returned home. Conrad, apparently after four years at the school (the records contain no indication of how long students typically enrolled), was prevented from leaving by his hostess, Ursula Burgknecht, because of unpaid debts to her. Apparently, the dean of the school intervened to negotiate the boy’s release. Conrad’s father later filed some sort of grievance with the city over the incident with the hostess. The story is recorded as this combination of pestilence and the bad hostess kept the Zumbrunnen and many other boys from Uri away from the school for several decades.

Sources

“Students from Uri at the Jesuit college in Fribourg from 1582 to 1663″ by F. Gisler and O. Perler. Published 1944 in the Swiss history journal Historisches Neujahrsblatt.
The University of Fribourg (partially in English) and the The Collège St-Michel website (in German and French). Both institutions developed from the original Jesuit College. Despite retaining its original name, the Collège St-Michel is no longer associated with the Catholic church and is now the equivalent of a public high school.

Original Sources: The Oldest Baptism Book in Altdorf, Uri

Josh Zumbrun — Wed, 24 Jan 2018 16:45:03 +0000

A register of baptisms at the church in Altdorf begins in 1648. Earlier records were destroyed in a fire in 1799. These baptisms don’t seem to be available on any genealogy websites, but were published in a Swiss history journal called “The History Friend: Messages from the Historical Society of Central Switzerland“.

By the late 1600s, the Zumbrunnen family was in decline in Uri, and there are only a handful of Zumbrunnen baptisms. The surviving branches of the Zumbrunnen family seem to have left Uri by this point. Below I’ve transcribed the Zumbrunnen entries and translated them from Latin as best I could. There are many more entries for other families that had close ties to the Zumbrunnen, such as the Beroldingen, Crivelli, Zwyer, Puntener family, etc., that I haven’t transcribed.

Most of these entries include some additional identifying information which I’ve included below, such as titles. (My own commentary, which is provided for context, is in parentheses and highlights like this). The commentary in the history journal introducing this information scoffs at the use of titles, however, noting that basically everyone who is not a cobbler is identified as a lord.

May 23, 1649: Sebastian Peregrin zum Brunnen, child of Lord Captain Sebastian zum Brunnen and Lady Maria Salome Rizard. Sponsors: Lord Colonel Sebastian Peregrin Zwyer, landammann and general captain of Uri. and Lady Maria Elisabetha von Beroldingen. (Sebastian Peregrin Zwyer was a very prominent political and military leader in Switzerland in the 1600s and a close associate of Landammann Johann Heinrich Zumbrunnen.)

April 17, 1654: Anna Maria Magdalena, child of Lord Carl Ernst von Roll and Lady Maria Magdalena Zumbrunnen. Sponsors: Carl Emanuel von Roll, landammann and supreme captain of Uri, and Lady Maria Magdalena Rheding.

November 8, 1655: Maria Barbara, child of Nicolao An der Halden and Agatha Klan. Sponsors: Reverend Lord Stephen Straumeyer and lady Maria Magdalena Zumbrunnen. (A Maria Magdalena Zumbrunnen was married to Johann Martin Straumeyer. Perhaps Stephen was her brother-in-law. A close familial tie to the clergy may explain why she appears in multiple baptisms below, along with a clergy member.)

August 10, 1668: Maria Magdalena, child of Lord Antonio Schmidt, a centurion in the Savoy guard, and Lady Maria Anna Zwyer von Evebach. Sponsors: the pastor and Lady Maria Magdalena Zumbrunnen.

January 16, 1679: Maria Margaretha, child of Francis Alexander Besler and Lady Maria Magdalena von Montenach. Sponsors: Lord Captain Johann Anthoni Schmidt and Lady Maria Magdalena Zumbrunnen.

August 14, 1684: Melchior Joseph, child of Johann Carl Besler, prefect of Lugano, and Lady Maria Anna von Beroldingen. Sponsors: Reverend Johann Melchior Imhoff and Lady Maria Magdalena Zum Brunnen.

April 10, 1688: Anna Maria Margaritha, child of Lord Sebastian von Beroldingen and Lady Regina Gasser. Sponsors: R.D. Franz von Beroldingen, of the monastery of Seedorf, and Lady Anna Maria Margaritha zum Brunnen.

October 10, 1691: Johann Baptist Anton Zum Brunnen, child of Lord Johann Heinrich zum Brunnen and Lady Maria Hyacintha, born in Parma on October sixth and baptized Catholic on October 10. Sponsors: Lord Joanne Herardo de Naithuldt and Lady Anna de Buffalini. (This branch of the family had moved to Italy, and must have written back to their home priest asking for the baptisms to be recorded in their “home” church. They may have used the name Fontana in Italy. The names Buffalini, Fratini, Ballarini, etc., suggest that they were integrating into Italian society.)

October 15, 1694: Anna Maria Theresia Salome Zum Brunnen, child of Lord Johann Heinrich Zum Brunnen and lady Maria Hyacintha, born in Parma and baptized Catholic on October 15, 1694. SponsorsL Lord Bartholomaeo de Ballarini and Lady Angela de Fratini.

September 19, 1697: Franz Heinrich, son of Lord Johann Sebastian Jauch, landschreiber, and Lady Maria Anna Troger. Sponsors: Reverend Lord Franz Troger, abbot of Fischingen, and Lady Maria Magdalena zum Brunnen.

There are also records of a “Bell Baptism” that took place in 1582. This was apparently a ceremony to consecrate beautiful new church bells and to honor their donors. Landammann Johann zum Brunnen and his brother Josue zum Brunnen are identified as the benefactors for one of these bells.

Original Sources: The Oldest Church Death Book in Altdorf

Josh Zumbrun — Tue, 23 Jan 2018 22:24:54 +0000

Nearly all early church records in the Zumbrunnen hometown of Altdorf, Switzerland, were destroyed in a fire in 1799. The oldest book of church death records that has survived is one that begins in 1649. This church book was therefore started after the Zumbrunnen family had branched off to the Bernese Highlands region of Switzerland, and may also have been published after a branch of the Zumbrunnen family ended up in Baden-Wurttemberg.

A copy of this record was published in the “Journal for Swiss Church History” in 1911. As far as I can tell, this record isn’t available on any of the various genealogy websites. The deaths of 16 members of the Zumbrunnen family are recorded in this church book (I think, strictly speaking, most of these are the dates of funeral services rather than death dates), and are listed below:

Note: I’ve preserved the different renderings of the name. It seems the family during this period was inconsistent in the spacing and capitalization of the name (sometimes Zumbrunnen vs zum Brunnen vs Zum brunnen) although I don’t know if there’s any significance to this; it could merely reflect different styles of handwriting. Most of these entries include some additional identifying information which I’ve included below. (My own commentary, which is provided for context, is in parentheses and highlights like this).

April 17, 1648, Lord Johann Heinrich zum Brunnen, knight, old Landammann and captain.

March 2, 1649, Captain Josue Zumbrunnen. (There are several Josue’s and I’m not sure which one this record refers to. The Josue who was Johann Heinrich Zumbrunnen’s brother is said in other sources to have died in 1643.)

May 8, 1655 Carolus Ernestus a Roll. Born 1631 and married to Magdalena zum Brunnen

April 20, 1657, father P Bernhardi Zum brunnen.

September 12, 1667, Joannes Gualtherus Rothuet, married to Anna Barbara Zum Brunnen.

February 18, 1672, Captain Burkardus zum Brunnen. Married 1st to Anna Katharina Behsler and 2nd on October 3, 1651 to the widow Maria Elisabetha Blatler von Unterwalden.

January 7, 1678, Captain Sebastianus zum Brunnen.

December 21, 1684, Josue zum Brunnen.

October 10, 1687. Henrichus Burkardus zum Brunnen. (Because there are three different people named Heinrich Burkhard Zumbrunnen — I, II and III — it’s unclear which one this is.)

June 23, 1689. Anna Maria Margaritha Zumbrunnen, wife of Josue Zumbrunnen (Her maiden name was also Zumbrunnen; Josue was her second cousin once removed.)

March 21, 1690. Maria Magdalena Zum brunnen, wife of Ernst von Roll and married a second time to Johann Karl von Schmidt.

May 8, 1690. Henrichus Burkardus Zumbrunnen. Listed as mentally incompetent. (As above, there are three different Heinrich Burkhards — I, II and III — and it’s unclear which one this is.)

May 9, 1699. Maria Magdalena zum Brunnen. (There was a Maria Magdalena Zum Brunnen married to Johann Martin Straumeyer, although if this is her it’s unclear why her married name isn’t mentioned.)

September 30, 1700. Anna Barbara zum Brunnen.

March 26, 1705. R. D. Franciscus Zum Brunnen, died at age 62. Son of Burkhard and Anna Catherine Behsler.

September 3, 1729. Maria Elisabeth Crivelli, born zum Brunnen. Wife of Heinrich Anton Crivelli.

Vassals of the Fraumünster: the Zumbrunnen Family in the Feudal Period

Josh Zumbrun — Mon, 02 Oct 2017 22:49:30 +0000

The Fraumünster Church in Zürich
Sidonius via Wikimedia Commons/CC-BY-SA-2.5

In the 800s, Louis the German, a king from the Carolingian dynasty and the grandson of Charlemagne, ruled over most of the land that is today Switzerland and Germany. His kingdom stretched from the Alps in the south to the North Sea, and from the Rhine River in the west to the Elbe River in the east.

Louis was a powerful enough king that he could afford to give something to his daughter and so, in the year 853, he created a convent in the already-ancient city of Zürich. The Benedictine Convent, which became known as the Fraumünster, was built on the banks of the Limmat River in the very heart of the city. To preserve the lifestyle his daughter Hildegard was accustomed to he gave her the convent, which was endowed with all the nearby lands, among them the Valley of Uri.

Thus the valley of Uri, the ancient homeland of the Zumbrunnen family, fell under the sphere of influence of Zürich. Though it has been expanded and renovated throughout the centuries, the Fraumünster Church is still there in the heart of Zürich (although it’s a Protestant Church now).

Along with the ancient church necrologies in Uri, the records of the Fraumünster contain some of the oldest records of the Zumbrunnen family, dating back to the 1200s, showing ancient proof of the Zumbrunnen family’s origins in the Middle Ages.

The Zumbrunnen family first shows up in records of the Fraumünster in the 1200s. The reason for these records is pictured below:

Alpine cows
Martin Abegglen via Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 2.0

Yep, cows.

The feudal system, after all, was primarily a system for organizing agriculture production. In the Alpine Valley of Uri, that had long meant cows. In fact, even the name Uri is thought to originate from ûr, a German name for a type of cow (in English, known as Aurochs). Cows so dominated Uri’s economy that the flag of Uri, to this day, is a cow. Uri would eventually become a major trade route as well as known for its mercenary regiments. But in the age of the Fraumünster, this was a cow-based economy.

What did it mean that the Fraumünster of Zürich was endowed with the lands of Uri? It means that a certain percentage of agricultural production (interest) in the form of cows, milk, and cheese belonged to the Fraumünster. Uri did have fields in which other crops were grown and other animals raised, but it was always mostly about cattle.

A drawing of the Fraumünster church from the 1700s
Public domain image via Wikimedia Commons

The Zumbrunnen family first shows up in these records as the holders of farms that owed interest to the Fraumünster. While many people in Europe in the 1200s were serfs, the people owing interest to the church had a unique status in Medieval society. In German they were called Gotteshausleute, which directly translates to something like People of God’s House, and though owed interest to the church they were otherwise considered “free” rather than “in bondage.”

It makes sense that Zumbrunnen men would have this status, as they were descendants of the Barons of Attinghausen, but were not the primary branch that inherited the barony.

Swiss cow
Daniel Schwen via Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 3.0

At least seven Zumbrunnen men are documented under the Fraumünster’s system. There were multiple men in the family with the names Walter, Werner and Burkhard in the very early period, and so there’s no way to know for sure which is being referred to in the records. The first men mentioned are Werner Zumbrunnen and Arnold Zumbrunnen in 1257. In 1280, Werner is also identified as a landholder in the Canton of Schwyz, which included the town of Brunnen.

In 1290, the records for Uri include Walter Zumbrunnen [1]. In 1296 the records include Burkhard Zumbrunnen and Conrad Zumbrunnen. Burkhard shows up again in 1303.

Welti Zumbrunnen shows up in 1300[2] as does Rudolf Zumbrunnen[3]. An Arnold Zumbrunnen shows up again in 1311 in Schwyz (if it’s the same Arnold, he was now quite old!). A summary of the records was published in a book called “The Beginnings of the Swiss Confederation” which is available on Archive.org.

Here’s an excerpt — this seems to say that Ruedi zem Brunnen (Rudolf Zumbrunnen) owed “4 s.” (not sure what S is an abbreviation for) for land known as “ab dem Ringe and “Langenacker” and that Welti zem Brunnen (Walter) owed “3 d.” for his land known as “der Gubreiten.”

The records seem to contain no information beyond noting the amount they owe to the Fraumünster and perhaps the names of their land. There’s no genealogical information other than verification that the people existed.

But it’s still an interesting piece of information about the family. That they are indisputably in records back in the 1200s, that they were “gotteshausleute” and that they would have spent most of their careers, indeed most of their lives, wrangling alpine cows.

[1] I assume that this is a different person than Walter Zumbrunnen who adopted the surname Zumbrunnen in 1209 But the alternate possibility is that this is the same Walter and that he lived, and adopted the Zumbrunnen name, somewhat later than 1209.
[2] I assume this is an alternate spelling for Walter.
[3] Rudolf is otherwise unplaced in the family tree, he could be a younger brother of Burkhard Zumbrunnen, Conrad Zumbrunnen or Arnold Zumbrunnen.

Questions for Further Research

What do these Fraumünster records actually mean? What do “4 s.” and “3 d.” stand for?

Are there any other Fraumünster records about the family? Or other feudal land ownership records?

Who was Rudolf Zumbrunnen and why is he missing from all the other sources?

The Ancient Necrologies of the Zumbrunnen and Attinghausen Families

Josh Zumbrun — Thu, 21 Sep 2017 18:11:54 +0000

One of the ways we know for certain that the Zumbrunnen were an important family even in the 1200s and 1300s is through their appearance in ancient church books, where they were memorialized for their donations to the church.

In the Middle Ages, when a wealthy person died they (or their family) would often make a donation of property or wealth to the Catholic Church. The churches, in return, would record the names of these beneficiaries in large beautiful books, where each donor was assigned a day of the year. These books, which were zealously protected by their churches over the centuries, were known as Jahrzeitbuch (in German) and liber anniversarum or martyrologium (in Latin). In English, they are often called Necrologies or simply Yearbooks.

In exchange for these large donations, the priests of the church would consult the Necrology throughout the year and pray for the benefactors on their designated date. It is in part through this practice of donating land in exchange for a place in the necrology that the Catholic Church came to own the rights to huge swaths of land across the Holy Roman Empire. Below is a scan of one of the pages from the Necrology for the Monastery of the Order of St. Lazarus, to show what they looked like.

Sadly, no Zumbrunnen are on the page I’ve found an image of! A full facsimile of this beautiful book is available at some European libraries. It’s quite difficult to make sense of, isn’t vigilant about spelling, was clearly added to over time, and is written in a sort of German-Latin pidgin (for example, the Zumbrunnen sometimes have their names as “Zum Brunnen” or “Zem Brunnen” or “Ze Dem Brunnen” or even translated literally into Latin as Ad Fontem meaning “to the fountain”). One name you can clearly make out in fairly large letters, on the seventh line from the bottom, is “Frat. Egloff de Atighuse”

The purpose of these books was Ecclesiastical, not Genealogical, and so they generally don’t record all the information we wish they would. For one thing, they don’t even record the year that a person died — the purpose of the book was only to pray for their immortal soul every year in the future on that date. So, to take the first example below, on January 31 of each year, the priest might say to his congregation: “Today we pray for Mechtilda Zum Brunnen and Berchta von Attinghausen. Eternal rest, grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May the souls of the faithful departed through the mercy of God rest in peace. Amen.”

The books are still fascinating for genealogists. They are often the oldest original surviving documents from ancient ancestors. At least two yearbooks, with entries from the 1100s to the 1300s, survive for our family — yearbooks for the Monastery of the Order of St. Lazarus and the ancient church of St. Andreas in Attinghausen.

The books have been transcribed by historians who don’t provide information on what most of the notations mean. The lists below draw on the transcriptions. (My own commentary, provided for context, is in parentheses and highlights like this) Below are all the entries for our ancestors; there are more entries than this but the Zumbrunnen and Attinghausen do make up a fairly large share.

The Necrology of the Monastery of St. Lazarus in Seedorf

January 31 – Mechtilda ad Fontem (Zum Brunnen)
January 31 – Berchta de Attingenhusen
March 2. – Ob. Conradus de Attigenhusen
March 29 – Frat. Eglof de Attigenhusen (I think this is the entry you can easily read in the above image)
April 13 – Fr. Diethelm de Schneberg ob
April 15 – Heinrich zem Brunnen
April 17 – Elizabeta de Attingenhusen
April 20 – Berta de Atigenhusen ob
April 23 – Ob Egolfus de Atingenhusen dictus de Sweinsperc
April 23 – Magister Burchardus (I believe this is Landammann Burkhard Zumbrunnen who was the chief magistrate (magister) of Uri.)
April 28 – Dominus Heinricus Nobilis de Atingenhusen ob (This is one piece of proof that their were local lords of Attinghausen before Werner.)
April 29 – Buckard de Geschonde (I believe this is pidgin German-Latin for Burkhard “Schüpfer”); Conradus Zum Brunnen de Lewenstein. (This seems to be the oldest example of a ZumBrunnen also using Von Löwenstein as their name.)
May 18 – Heinrich Zum Brunnen (Because Heinrich Zumbrunnen was a war hero, it’s not surprising multiple donations were made in his honor; this also explains why his name would have remained so familiar in the family throughout their time in Switzerland.)
May 26 – Domina Bercta de Atitigenhusen (It’s likely there were multiple Berctas, but this one is clearly identified as the Lady (Domina) of Attinghausen.)
July 15 – Bercta de Attenhusen.
August 27 – Soror Otilia de Atingenhusen ob.
September 2 – Dominus Uolricus nobilis de Swenzperch ob
October 16 – Fr. Cuonradus pater eglolfi de Attingenhusen ob
November 8 – Johannes filius Egelolf de Atingenhusen

This is likely the older of the two yearbooks, possibly dating to the church’s founding in the early 1100s. I don’t know if a facsimile of it is readily available somewhere.

The Necrology of the St. Andreas Church in Attinghausen

January 5 – Voli von Schweinsberg
January 15 – Cuonrads des sigriften von Attighusen
January 18 – Walther Zem Brunnen was hie Landammann, und Ita fin Huffrow et omnium puerorum
February 20 – Cuonrad ze dem brunnen (This could be Conrad Zumbrunnen the knight, or Conrad the Abbot.)
Cuonrad ze dem brunnen
March 1 – Her Diethelms von Attighusen
March 23 – Frow Hemmon Her Wernhers ana von Attighusen (Another entry for a Werner Von Attinghausen and his ancestor (or perhaps grandmother) who was named Hemmon or Hemma.)
April 23 – Her Eglofs von Schweinsberg
April 27 – Her Heinricus von Attighusen
May 9 – Dorade Beroldinger, was ammen zum brunnen feligen Huffrow (One interpretation of this note might be that Dorothea Beroldinger was the second wife of Walter Zumbrunnen. But I think the Ammann Zumbrunnen may well refer to Landammann Burkhard Zumbrunnen, who was so closely identified with his office.)
June 7 – Her Vuolrichs von Attighusen, was der Herren vatter
July 15 – Frow Berchton von Attighusen
August 13 – Her Wernhers von Attighusen, unnd Landamman ze Vre (as all four men named Werner Von Attinghausen are all thought to have been Landammann, it’s hard to know which one this is meant to refer to)
August 15. Herrn Rudolfs von Attighusen
September 3 – Rudolf ze dem Brunnen. (I do not know where Rudolf Zumbrunnen fits in the family tree.) Herrn Uolrichs der Herren Bruder von Attighusen
September 21 – Her Uolrich von Attighusen
October 3 – Agnesen von Wallis, Eglofs von Attighusen wirtin.
October 31 -Her Wenhers von Attinghusen Ritter (it’s hard to know which Werner this refers to, but as this is an old styling of his title, it suggests it could be the first Werner.)
November 7 Johanns Her Eglofs sun von Attighusen
November 11. Her Albrechts von Attighusen
November 14. Frow Elsbeth von Kempten, was her Diethelmds frow von Attighusen.
November 17. Frow Betchen von Attighusen, Her Eglofs tochter. (This note seems to suggest that this Bertha Von Attinghausen was the daughter of Egloff and likely named after her ancestor, the Lady Bertha. That she is identified as a Frow and not a Domina (lady) further suggests the distinction.)
November 26. Herr Lamprechts eins ritters von Attighusen

William Tell and the Zumbrunnen Family

Josh Zumbrun — Fri, 15 Sep 2017 01:53:02 +0000

The market place of Altdorf features this famous sculpture of William Tell.
H. Grob via Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 3.0

The Zumbrunnen family originates from the Swiss towns of Attinghausen and Altdorf, in the Canton of Uri, and if you’d ever heard of these towns before it’s very likely because of William Tell, whose famous story takes place in Altdorf.

The Story

The most famous version of the story is a play by Friedrich von Schiller, written in 1804. A summary follows (with spoilers):

In the year 1307, the Austrian tyrants, the Hapsburgs, were seeking to conquer Uri because it lay along an important trade route known as the Gotthard Pass. The Hapsburgs appointed a cruel and brutal man named Hermann Gessler to be their reeve and subjugate the unruly mountain men.

With the promise of sharing the Habsburg wealth, Gessler wins the support of Ulrich von Rudenz, an heir to the Attinghausen Castle that controls the region. Gessler becomes increasingly vicious, erecting a large prison in Altdorf to imprison the increasingly rebellious peasantry. Gessler even savagely blinds an old man who does not reveal the location of his own son, who is among the rebels.

But Ulrich is not the leading noble yet. His uncle Werner, the Baron of Attinghausen, though frail and over 80-years-old, is uncooperative with Gessler. He is a friend of the peasants, and enemy of the Habsburg tyrants, but is too weak to command a force against Gessler. He tries to persuade his nephew and heir Ulrich to support the rebellion.

Walter Fürst is a farmer and peasant leader of the rebels. His daughter Hedwig is married to William Tell, the most renowned crossbowman in all the land whom Fürst hopes to recruit to the cause. En route to meet with his father-in-law, Tell and his son pass the new prison of Gessler and refuse to salute.

As punishment, Gessler orders William Tell to demonstrate his skill with a crossbow by shooting an apple off his own son’s head from one hundred yards away. The town is horrified by the cruelty of this punishment, but Tell successfully hits the apple from 100 yards. Gessler orders Tell sent to prison, but Tell escapes.

Ulrich realizes from this cruelty that Werner of Attinghausen was right all along, and decides to join with the peasant Walter Fürst to support the cause of the people. Before dying Werner foresees the end of the nobles and the rise of the people, and outlines a strategy to Fürst about how to defeat Gessler and predicts that “freedom will wave her conquering banner high.”

Now united, Ulrich, Fürst and Tell launch a plan to free Uri. From a remote distance Tell again demonstrates his marksmanship shooting Gessler through the heart, and leaderless, the Habsburg forces are crushed.

Ulrich joins the peasants, treating them as comrades, and joins in a chant “Long live brave Tell.” The play concludes with Ulrich, recognizing Werner’s wisdom and seeing the dignity of all men, setting free all his serfs.

Fact or Legend?

The museum of William Tell in Uri, Switzerland
Roland Zumbuehl via Wikimedia Commons/CC-BY-3.0

The earliest versions of the story date to the 1400s, a full century later (although many old records from the 1300s were destroyed in a fire in Altdorf). Historians are not even 100% sure that Tell existed, and the story about the apple is nearly identical to an older folk legend from Denmark.

Although no records survive for Tell, records survive for at least 7 different members of our family living near Altdorf at the time: Burkhard Zumbrunnen, Conrad Zumbrunnen, Heinrich Zumbrunnen, Johan Zumbrunnen, Mechtilda Zumbrunnen and Walter Zumbrunnen who all lived in the late 1200s or early 1300s. They would have been his contemporaries.

Real Ties to the Zumbrunnen

While there is scholarly debate over whether Tell existed, many aspects of the story are indisputably true, and have proven connections to the Zumbrunnen.

The people of Uri ferociously resisted the Hapsburgs, and the Zumbrunnen family are known to have participated in this resistance.

Werner of Attinghausen is a historical figure, who was a cousin of the Zumbrunnen. His father (also named Werner) appears in historical records alongside Burkhard Zumbrunnen. In 1251, the elder Werner and Burkhard helped forge an alliance with the city of Zürich.

Werner really does appear to have lived quite a long time. He was born before 1255 and died as late as 1329. He didn’t actually die in 1307, nor does he appear to have lost control of Uri to the Hapsburgs, as portrayed in Schiller’s play.

Werner of Attinghausen, although a baron, really does appear to have (surprisingly) joined a democratic movement among the peasantry in Uri. Between six and eight Zumbrunnen men were elected leaders in this movement over the coming centuries.

It’s not clear if there was a spontaneous liberation of serfs as depicted in the play, but the central Swiss cantons really did eliminate serfdom in the 1300s and 1400s.

There really was a family of reeves named Gessler who served the Habsburgs. There’s no records of a Gessler in Uri, although this could be explained by him being quickly killed. Several Gesslers were especially unpopular in the late 1300s, so the reeve in the story may have been named Gessler to fit that later political context. If the Hapsburgs really sent a reeve to Altdorf, it’s certainly true he didn’t last.

Walter Fürst is a historical figure. His granddaughter or great-granddaughter Hemma Fürst married Walter Zumbrunnen in the mid- to late-1300s.

Johann Von Rudenz (rather than Ulrich) was a son-in-law of Werner Von Attinghausen, who eventually did inherit some of his property, including the Rudenz Castle. (In the 1600s, this castle was acquired by Johann Heinrich Zumbrunnen.) He is left out of the play, but in fact Werner’s son Johann Von Attinghausen inherited the castle first, until his death in the 1350s.

The people of Uri fought, and won, several great military victories over the Habsburgs, and the alliance between the alpine mountain valleys really did develop into the modern independent nation of Switzerland. The men of Uri won a major battle over Hapsburg forces in the Battle of Morgarten in 1315 (it’s likely Zumbrunnen men of age fought in this conflict). Heinrich Zumbrunnen fought and died in the 1339 Battle of Laupen against the Habsburgs. In 1386, Walter Zumbrunnen (the husband of Hemma Fürst) fought in the Battle of Sempach against the Hapsburgs.

Tell’s story certainly inspired generations of Swiss men, many who preserved the tradition when they moved to America. Early Swiss immigrants in Ohio (not far from where Henry Zumbrun lived) decided to move west and found Tell City, IN in honor of Tell in the year 1856. This was about the same time that Henry Sylvester Zumbrun moved from Ohio to Indiana.

The play is much more fun to read knowing that one’s ancestors lived through the events surrounding it!

William Tell painting, possibly by Paul Bril

Sources

William Tell by Friedrich Von Schiller, translated into English by Theodore Martin.

“In Search of William Tell” by Robert Wernick in Smithsonian Magazine (August 2004).

“Tell, Wilhelm” (in German) by François de Capitani in The Historical Dictionary of Switzerland.

“When Switzerland Needs a Hero, It Calls William Tell” by John Letzing in The Wall Street Journal (November 25, 2013). An amusing story about how William Tell has been reimagined as a comic book hero.

The Oldest Genealogy of the Zumbrunnen by Gabriel Bucelin

Josh Zumbrun — Tue, 05 Sep 2017 22:16:01 +0000

The Benedictine monk Gabriel Bucelin, who published a genealogy of the Zumbrunnen family in 1678
via Wikimedia Commons

In the mid-1600s, a Benedictine monk named Gabriel Bucelin compiled numerous genealogies of prominent German-speaking families. I had seen references that Bucelin wrote a genealogy of the Zumbrunnen family, but it took me quite awhile to find it (Bucelin wrote in Latin and I can’t read Latin).

One of Bucelin’s works is called “Germania topo-chrono-stemmato-graphica sacra et prophana” published in 1678, containing thousands of genealogical entries. Each volume of the sprawling work runs for hundreds of pages. I finally located the Zumbrunnen entry in Volume 4, page 48. There’s no copyright for works this old so I’ll just post the page in its entirety, as there’s actually a sort of beauty in manuscripts this old.

I have no idea how Bucelin could have compiled this work in the 1600s. A later historian named Theodor Von Liebenau described Bucelin as an “uncritical genealogist.” I assume this means that Bucelin wrote to archivists and historians (or the families themselves) for the information and passed along whatever he received, even though some of it was inaccurate.

But, for the Zumbrunnen at least, his genealogy largely matches the family tree that I’ve compiled with the help of the modern internet, digital archives and years of research on just one family. (Even without knowing any Latin, it’s easy to pick out the Zumbrunnen names.) Perhaps the Zumbrunnen family had kept track of this information in the 1500s and 1600s, written down in family bibles, and shared it with Bucelin? It seems inconceivable that he could have combed through the local church records or ancient feudal records that largely verify his 400-year genealogy of the Zumbrunnen family, and it’s unclear who else would have maintained such records.

If anyone knows anything about Bucelin’s methods, or knows enough Latin to completely translate this document, I would be most interested.

Bucelin’s genealogy of the Zumbrunnen family, published in 1678