Dietrichs of Därligen

Date: [unknown] [unknown]
Location: Därligen, Bern, Switzerland
Surname/tag: Dietrich

A number of Dietrich families appear in the Leissigen Church Records from the first entries beginning in 1570, many of them known to have been living in the adjacent town of Därligen, just east of Leissigen. Both towns are at the east end of Lake Thun, close to the better known (and larger) town of Interlaken, Bern, Switzerland. Dietrich families from this area migrated directly to America (1735) and the U.S. (1851), and descendants of Hans Dietrich (John Teeter) who came to America in 1738 are genetically linked to a Därligen Dietrich family through Y-DNA tests.

The Leissigen Church Records (which include Därligen) have been photocopied, and images are available for viewing online at the Bern web site, or at Family History Libraries. Moreover, Family Search researchers have indexed the Leissigen Church Records, which are included in Switzerland, Catholic and Lutheran Church Records (1418-1996) as part of the Family Search database. So it's not necessary to look at the original images, uniess you're interested in details not included in the index.

Family Search has also constructed partial family trees for some of the Därligen Dietrichs, but these are incomplete and perhaps inaccurate in many respects. Family Search identifies four male Dietrichs born in the mid-16th century, with children born in Därligen, and their decendants for a few generations can be deduced from the Family Search database and trees:

Werner Dietrich (1542 - aft. 1600)

Andreas Dietrich (1553 - 1638)

Sebastian Dietrich (1553 - 1642)

Christian Dietrich (abt. 1556 - aft. 1586)

The tree for Sebastian, who married 1578 Elsbeth Schmocker, is poorly established; eight chilldren have been identified, without further details such as their marriages and children. The other three early males have been (partially) traced for several generations. There is then a second generation of early males, who haven't been satisfactorily integrated with the first group:

Hans Dietrich (1570 - aft. 1619)

Andreas Dietrich (1571 - aft. 1616), son of Andares Dieterich

Hans Dietrich (1575 - aft. 1615)

A major problem with generating family trees from the church records is the limited number of different given names, with repetative use of Hans, Heinrich and Christen in particular, and almost never a middle name. Below is a list of Dietrich men who were married in Leissigen, and/or had children born/baptized in Därligen or Leissigen, from 1578 to about 1737. The list is arranged by given name ignoring variant spellings -- note that "Christian" was invariably spelled "Christen" at this time, and "Hans" was often spelled "Hanß" (with a final eszatt) -- ordered by year of marriage (no mark) or birth of first known child (<) with number of known children in parentheses:

Andres: 1579 (1), 1581 (6), 1597 (7), 1604 (6), <1609 (2), 1626 (7), <1631 (1), 1637 (0)

Batt: 1601 (4)

Caspar: <1683 (1)

Christen: <1581 (4), 1606 (7), 1612 (3), 1619 (4), 1626 (7), 1633 (5), 1635 (4),

<1639 (1), 1650 (0), 1652 (7), 1658 (2), 1666 (5), 1671 (7), 1679 (0), 1683 (0), 1685 (0), <1702 (3), 1705 (7), 1706 (4), 1708 (8), <1711 (1), <1716 (1), <1731 (5), 1736 (1)

George: <1582 (1)

Hans: <1582 (1), 1593 (4), 1595 (8), 1600 (6), 1605 (3), 1625 (4), 1636 (3), 1639 (4),

1643 (0), 1647 (7), 1657 (3), <1658 (1), <1660 (1), 1662 (1), 1665 (7), 1666 (5), 1671 (10), 1673 (8), 1679 (0), 1680 (6), 1683 (0), <1701 (1), 1703 (1), 1705 (5), 1707 (8), 1708 (8), 1712 (8), <1714 (2), 1716 (1), <1720 (1), 1723 (2), 1728 (0), 1728 (0), 1731 (2), <1732 (2), 1733 (1), 1734 (1), <1737 (1)

Heinrich: 1589 (1), 1606 (4), 1613 (2), <1624 (3), 1637 (0), 1638 (0), 1641 (1), 1643 (1),

1644 (4), 1659 (6), 1666 (1), 1670 (4), 1679 (5), 1680 (2), <1689 (1), 1703 (1), 1715 (6),

Jacob: <1579 (2), 1595 (0)

Johannes: 1644 (0)

Peter: <1637 (1), 1638 (5), 1663 (5), 1671 (3), 1688 (0), <1690 (1), 1729 (1), 1732 (0)

Sebastian: 1578 (6)

Ulrich: 1658 (0), 1695 (5)

Werner: <1579 (8)

This list spans 1578-1737, or some 160 years, and includes 105 "marriages" (a few men were married twice) and 318 children. There were about (probably more than) three children per marriage, with a pretty steady birth/baptism rate of two Dietrichs per year, implying a steady-state population of about 70 assuming a life expectancy of 35 years. The seven trees listed above include some 44 marriages, or only about 40% of the total, so a great deal of work needs to be done to assign all these families to their correct genealiogcal trees.

Migrants to Colonial America

One migrant to Colonial America definitely came from the Därligen-Leissigen area, and a second is genetically linked to a Dietrich family still living in the area.

Hans Dietrich (1678 - 1759), possibly GGson of Hans Dietrich (b 1570); arrived 13 July 1735 Orangeburgh, South Carolina, with wife Anna, son Hans and two dau. Family identified itself as Swiss; their names and dates closely match those of a pre-migration family in the Leissigen Church Records.

Johannes Dieterich (abt. 1720 - aft. 1770), genetically related to a descendant of Christian Dietrich (b abt. 1556) but a paper trail is lacking. Probably arrived Sep 1738 Philadelphia, and settled 1752 Conococheague valley about 10 miles west of modern Hagerstown MD.

Other families -- parents and children -- that haven't been connected to the above trees:

Andreas Dietrich (abt 1601 - aft 1653) m 1626 Catharina Schick (abt 1606 - aft 1653), 7 children

Andres Dietrich m abt 1630 Margretha Kammer, 1 dau

Andres Dietrich m 20. Mar. 1637 Madlena Ringgenberg, no children