Hans Meyer (abt. 1621 - aft. 1693)

Born about 1621 in Stallikon, Zurich, Switzerland

Ancestors

Husband of Annali Annatoli (Bauman) Meyer — married 1660 in Bayern Germany

Descendants

Died after 1693 after about age 72 in Rudelsheim, Heiliges Römisches Reich

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Kim Myers [send private message], Edward Nelson [send private message], and Margaret Cook [send private message]

Biography

Hans Meyer is recorded as the son of Baschi and Ottila Meyer in several censuses in Stallikon, Zurich, Switzerland : b. ca. 1621; in 1637 aged 17 in Stallikon; in 1640 aged 19.^[1]

By the mid-1600's, most of the Mennonite families had left Switzerland and settled in Germany, but here also they were often subject to restrictions, and were closely monitored by the state. One source, reporting on records from the 1670's and 1680's, notes that : In a town near Ibersheim named Rudelsheim were found the Mennonites Hans Meyer, Anna Baumann, Hans Jakob Hagmann and Maria Brubacher, whose "lives and behaviour ... were neighbourly to date".^[2] This Hans Meyer may or may not be the son of Baschi and Ottila; he is recorded in 1685 as an Anabaptist at Rudelsheim (now Ludwigshöhe) Germany, with his wife Anna Bauman and nine children, two of whom were married.^[1][3] A transcription of the entry from the 1685 census of Rudelsheim lists "Hans Mayer, Hausfrau Anna Baumannin, 9 kinder, 2 sind in der Ehe, 7 hat er noch bei sich."^[4]

Hans and Anna's children are believed to be :

1. Christian b.c.1662 ^[1][3]
2. unnamed child b.c.1664 and married by 1685 ^[1][3]
3. Hans b.c.1666 (later of the Pequea settlement in Pennsylvania) ^[1][3]
4. daughter b.c.1668 (marr. Hans Brubacher of Ibersheim c.1688) ^[1][3]
5. Rudolph b.c.1680 (later of Tulpehocken, PA) ^[1][3]
6. Henrich b.c.1684 (later of Mill Creek, PA) ^[3]

and three more children (names not known) born in the 1670's.

In 1693, Hanss Meÿer of Rutelsheim was one of several Mennonite elders in the Palatinate who signed letters supporting the two groups of Mennonite refugees travelling to Friedrichstadt, in the Netherlands.^[5]

Hans is presumed to have died after 1693, probably in Rudelsheim. Further evidence is sought to confirm.

In his hypothetical 1709 "census", Davis locates Hans (age 79 or 89) and Anna (age abt. 74) still in Rudelsheim, with sons Rudolph (age 29) and Heinrich (age 25).^[6] However, no such census existed and Davis's construction may be incorrect.

Y-DNA evidence overturns published genealogies

A recent y-DNA study of Swiss Anabaptist Meyer families^[7] found that current published genealogies^[1][8] for the family and descendants of Baschi Meyer cannot possibly be correct. These genealogies include much speculation regarding the period between the last known census records of the family in Stallikon (1640), and positive documentation of Anabaptist immigrants in the New World several generations later. The y-DNA clearly shows that the assumptions about family connections are in error, and that there are at least three completely unrelated Meyer families who have been incorrectly linked together. Since there is currently no evidence to indicate which, if any, of these families was actually descended from Baschi, the generational relationships between Baschi’s children and grandchildren must be considered speculative, and are therefore set to “uncertain” in the Wikitree profiles. Solid primary sources are needed before removing the “uncertain” label. (Note that the profiles for Baschi’s children are not marked uncertain. They are clearly identified as Baschi’s children in the Stallikon censuses, but all information about them as adults is speculation, as is the connection between them and the New World immigrants commonly thought to be their children.)

Please see Baschi Meyer Project YDNA Lines for more details regarding the haplogroup lineages. Additional y-DNA tests are sought for descendants of Henrich Meyer (abt.1684-abt.1769) and Jacob Meyer (abt.1684-abt.1747) whose haplogroups are presently unknown. Also, Big Y tests from Family Tree DNA will help clarify how the immigrants who shared a haplogroup were related: were they brothers, cousins, etc.?

Jane Evans Best ID Chart (Disproved)

Best's 1998 IDs for Baschi and the first 2 generations of his descendants. They are included here because they are a familiar reference, but also included are the y-DNA haplogroups which disprove Best's published structure for this family. The y-DNA haplogroups are I1, R1a, J2, or "unknown" (no known y-DNA test for this lineage, or else mutually exclusive test results which claim the same ancestry). More detail about how how y-DNA testing has spotlighted more accurate family groupings among Swiss Anabaptist Meyer families can be seen at Baschi Meyer Project YDNA Lines.

MC - Baschi Meyer (1592-abt.1640) - Unknown

MC1 - Johannes Meyer (abt.1621-aft.1685) - Unknown

MC11 - Christian Meyer (abt.1662-abt.1730) - I1

MC12 - Unknown (b. ca. 1655) - Unknown

MC13 - Hans Meyer (1665-1722) - R1a

MC14 - Unknown (?dau, b. ca. 1668) - n/a

MC15 - Unknown (b. ca. 1671) - Unknown

MC16 - Unknown (b. ca. 1675) - Unknown

MC17 - Unknown (b. ca. 1677) - Unknown

MC18 - Rudolph Meyer (1680-abt.1767) - I1

MC19 - Henrich Meyer (abt.1684-abt.1769) (For reference here, Best doesn't include him.) - Unknown

MC2 - Anna Meyer (1631-) - n/a

MC3 - Samuel Meyer (1634-1700) - Unknown

MC4 - Jacob Mueller Meyer (1636-aft.1685) - Unknown

MC41 - Ulrich Meyer (abt.1668-bef.1741) - R1a

MC42 - Christian Meyer (abt.1676-abt.1751) - R1a

MC43 - Hans Meyer (abt.1680-abt.1748) - J2

MC44 - Jacob Meyer (abt.1684-abt.1747) - Unknown

MC5 - Casper Meyer (1639-1700) - Unknown

Research Notes

Name : All primary references appear to list his name as Hans, not Johannes. In the 1685 census from Rudelsheim he is also Hans. Are there any primary references to him as Johannes?

Birth : There is conflicting data around Hans's birthdate :

• He had two children who were old enough to be married by 1685. These children may have been aged about 20-25, i.e. b.c.1660-1665. Hans and his wife might thus have been born c.1640.
• Best cites the 1637 and 1640 Stallikon censuses which put Hans's birth at 1621.
• Davis uses the 1634 Stallikon census which gives a birthdate in 1630.
• Both Best and Davis do significant smoothing of dates to make sense of the census entries, which are inconsistent.
  • If the 1621 date is correct then there is an odd gap of 11-14 years between Hans and the next child. If the 1630 date is correct, then the next two censuses give the wrong age for him (by 10 years). These censuses are inconsistent for ages of the other children as well, but this difference would be rather extreme. Possibly there were children born after Hans who did not survive, or alternatively Hans could have been a foster child.
  • His wife Anna was likely born about 1635-1645, based on typical age ranges for having children, and assuming she was the mother of children born between 1662 and 1684. At the birth of his hypothesised first child (c.1662), Hans would have been aged either about 40 (if he were born in 1621) or about 30 (if he were born in 1630); both possibilities are plausible. However, at the birth of his hypothesised last child (c.1684), Hans would have been aged either 63 (if he were born in 1621) or 53 (if he were born in 1630). The later birthdate aligns better with the ages of his children and wife, but less well with the Stallikon censuses. This is grounds for further questioning of whether Hans of Rudelsheim was the same person as Hans the son of Baschi and Ottila.
  • A death date of after 1709 (per Davis's hypothetical census) would make an earlier born Hans about 88 years old, and a later born Hans about 79. Both are plausible.
• Baptism : Several uncited sources (family trees) state he was baptized on Jan 19, 1658.

Baschi Meyer Project

If Hans is in your family tree, please consider joining the The Baschi Meyer Project: Descendants, Documentation, and DNA.

Research Goals

• More details connecting Hans of Baschi and Ottila to the Hans in the 1685 Rudelsheim census.
• More details concerning the 5 unknown children listed by Best. Best's 1998 designations for them are MC12, MC14 (?dau), MC15, MC16, MC17.
• Sources for baptism date
• Y-DNA tests (see below).

DNA

• Given the challenging state of documentation from earlier generations, the The Baschi Meyer Project is looking for male-line descendants willing to participate in Y-DNA testing to help figure out who is descended from whom.
• A Y-DNA test from a descendant of one of Hans's sons will help determine his connection to other descendants.

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7} Best, Jane Evans (1998). Meyer Families Update. Pennsylvania Mennonite Heritage, April 1998.
2. ↑ Baughman, J. Ross (1997). Apart from the world : an account of the origins and destinies of various Swiss Mennonites ... p.70. Edinburg, VA : Shenandoah History. Viewed at https://www.familysearch.org/library/books/viewer/148167/?offset=&return=1#page=78&viewer=picture&o=search&n=0&q=meyer
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6} Davis, Richard Warren (1995) Emigrants, Refugees and Prisoners Vol. 2 p. 291
4. ↑ Adams, Dorothy. Myers History: Some Descendants of Hans Meier of Pequea, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, D.M.K. Adams, 1987.
5. ↑ Sutter, Sem C. (1979). Palatine Mennonites in Schleswig-Holstein, 1693-1698. Pennsylvania Mennonite Heritage vol.2 no.2, p.19, April 1979 viewed at http://www.danielhaston.com/resources/Friedrichstadt-group-PA-Mennonite-Heritage.pdf
6. ↑ Davis, Richard Warren (1995) Emigrants, Refugees and Prisoners Vol. 2 p. 25
7. ↑ Meyers, G. & Myers, E. (2022). A y-DNA Study of Anabaptist Meyer Families in Eighteenth Century Pennsylvania. Mennonite Family History 41(3) 128-135.
8. ↑ Davis, Richard Warren (1995) Emigrants, Refugees and Prisoners Vol. 2

See also :

• Best, Jane Evans. Author states in later works that they "supersede all my previous accounts of this family."
  • "Swiss Emigrants from Albis, Part I: Stallikon", Mennonite Family History 8, Jan. 1989.
  • "Anabaptist Families from Canton Zurich to Lancaster County, 1633 to 1729: A Tour", Pennsylvania Mennonite Heritage, Oct. 1994.
  • "The Groff Book, Vol. 2, A Continuing Saga", Groff History Associates, 1997.

Acknowledgments

• WikiTree profile Meyer-2249 created through the import of Ancestry Oliver Myers.ged on Nov 14, 2012 by Kim Myers. See the Changes page for the details of edits by Kim and others.
• Thanks to Edward Nelson for starting this profile. Click the Changes tab for the details of contributions by Edward and others.
• Thank you to Margaret Moyer for creating WikiTree profile Meyer-2817 through the import of mmcook3.ged on May 24, 2013. Click to the Changes page for the details of edits by Margaret and others.