Sunday, May 8, 2016

Luthi Tanner/Danner connection - Bolligen

We have two families, the Lüthi and Tanner families with connections to Bolligen who hadn’t lived in there heimats for many years. In the case of the Lüthi there is no evidence that they lived in Lauperswil since about 1710, until Niclaus and his brother Bendicht returned in about 1780 at the death of their father Anthoni who died in 1779. Lauperswil is about 15 miles east of Bolligen. What we do know is that there was a Lüthi family in Bolligen starting about 1750, and it’s not the Niklaus Lüthi born in 1744. When Niclaus Lüthi married Anna Habbeger in 1775, its says he was living in Bolligen, and there first two children were born there. The marriage record states, “Niclaus Lüti von heir wohnhaft in Bolligen mit Anna Hapeger von Signau“
Maria Lüthi was born on 13 June 1790 in Bolligen daughter of Niclaus Lüthi (1753) from Lauperswil and Verena Danner (about 1770) (Tanner) from Rüderswil or as the birth record of Maria says, Maria Tanner from Signau. This is quite unusual to see such a contradiction in the records.
Billeters research pre 1950 has Niklaus Lüthi (1744) as Maria’s father. There is little doubt that this connection is wrong since there is a Niclaus Lüthi (KHDF-GK6) born in 1753 in Bolligen and was from Lauperswil. Anthoni Lüthi was the father of Niclaus Lüthi who was born in 1753. Anthoni Lüthi died 1779; there after we see that both Niklaus and Bendicht his brother are back in Lauperswil. Bendicht’s death record is found in Bolligen in 1814, but there is no sign of Niklaus.
After Maria’s birth in 1790 both parents seem to have disappeared, so I unable to reach a conclusion from there death records. To add more confusion to the matter, Niklaus Lüthi married Verena Tanner in 1789 in Lauperswil and 7 months later Maria was born. The only clue we have is when Niklaus Lüthi married in 1789 he was a widower, perhaps Verena Danner (Tanner) was a widow as well; since, when Maria is born in 1790, the record says her mother is Maria Tanner from Signau.
There is no marriage record for a Niklaus Tanner and Maria Tanner, so it is assumed that a mistake was made in recording the birth/baptism record in Bolligen in 1790. As there is doubt in the Danner/Tanner connection there is little doubt in the Niklaus Luthi connection. No one has pursued the Maria Tanner from Signau connection, so further research may provide a different conclusion. Where is the birth record for Verena Tanner from Rüderswil? It is assumed that she would have been born 1750 to 1770. A Map of Bolligen, Signau, Rüderswil, Lauperswil in relation to each other.
More research is required to sort out the Danner/Tanner connection from Rüderswil. The last time the Danners lived in Rüderswil was in the 1720’s. There is a rather large family of Tanners who were stone masons that lived in Bremgarten, Bolligen , and ultimately in Bern, so I would reach the conclusion that that this family is the most likely connection for Verena Tanner who married in 1789 to Niklaus Lüthi. I have just completed research of this Tanner/Danner family from Rüderswil it is only found on the familytree, if you have any Tanner/Danner connections you may want to check it out.