Bernese-Anabaptist Resettlement in Alsace (the "Wohlust" research question)
Jerry's maternal Becker / Wohlust branch carries family lore that "a few went to France Alsace" out of Switzerland (source: Ulcek final PPT.pdf). This page collects the documented history that makes sense of that lore, and the verification work on the "Wohlust" name itself. See Jerry's Family History (Ulcek / Fiedler) and Jerry's Alsace–Saarland Heritage Research (source summary).
The documented migration
From the late 16th century — and especially during and after the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) — Swiss Anabaptists, heavily from Canton Bern (the Emmental and Simmental) and Zürich, migrated into Alsace to repopulate war-devastated farmland after Alsace passed to France (Peace of Westphalia, 1648) (source: jerry-alsace.md).
- The principal settlement zone was the valley of Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines (German: Markirch), in the Val d'Argent, Haut-Rhin (source: jerry-alsace.md).
- Jakob Ammann — a native of Erlenbach in the Simme Valley, Canton Bern — settled near Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines and triggered the 1693–1697 schism that created the Amish. Per GAMEO, he was resident there by 27 February 1696, signing a petition on behalf of brethren who "had settled there two years previously" (c. 1694) (source: jerry-alsace.md).
- Swiss Brethren families had been arriving in the valley since the 1640s; the heaviest Bernese influx ran roughly 1671–1711 (source: jerry-alsace.md).
- When Louis XIV ordered the expulsion of all Anabaptists from Alsace in 1712, families dispersed: south to Montbéliard (then Württemberg territory), into the Sundgau (southern Haut-Rhin — the Birkenhof and Holee congregations), west through the Vosges into Lorraine, and north into Germany (Palatinate, Baden, Zweibrücken). The expulsion was never fully carried out; toleration was won in 1728 for those who remained around Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines (source: jerry-alsace.md).
Most likely landing zones for a Bernese branch, in order of probability (source: jerry-alsace.md):
1. Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines / Val d'Argent (Haut-Rhin) — the documented first and primary destination. 2. The Sundgau (southern Haut-Rhin — Altkirch, Birkenhof, Holee, Florimont/Normanvillars). 3. Montbéliard (Doubs) and Lorraine — for families caught in the 1712 expulsion. 4. The plains around Colmar, where elders adopted the Dordrecht Confession in 1660.
The "Wohlust" surname — confirmed null result
"Wohlust" is not a documented Swiss or Alsatian family name (source: jerry-alsace.md):
- No entry in the Register of Swiss Surnames / Familiennamenbuch der Schweiz (familiennamenbuch.ch, the authoritative 1962-status register), nor in the expanded portal familiennamen.ch. The genuine "Wohl-" stem name Wohlgemuth does have an entry — confirming the portal indexes such names, so Wohlust's absence is meaningful.
- No meaningful distribution data on forebears.io; the only traceable living bearers are a small US cluster in unverified Ancestry trees and one individual in Germany.
- Caveat: absence from the 1962 register does not absolutely prove non-Swiss origin (a line that died out as Swiss citizens before 1962, or whose spelling changed on emigration, may not appear). But for a name as phonetically conspicuous as "Wohlust," total absence strongly indicates a corrupted/Americanized spelling of a real name (source: jerry-alsace.md).
Most plausible "real" names behind "Wohlust", given the Eggiwil/Emmental origin: Wüthrich (the single most common Eggiwil surname), Wermuth, Wyss, or Wittwer; for the "Wohl-" stem specifically, the only genuine Swiss/German family name is Wohlgemuth (source: jerry-alsace.md). Documented Eggiwil/Emmental Anabaptist families that did resettle toward Alsace/Montbéliard include Bichsel/Bixler, Fankhauser, Gerber, Krähenbühl, Baumgartner, and Oberli — worth cross-checking against family lore. The GAMEO list of Mennonite families recorded around Montbéliard in 1759 contains several Emmental names but no "Wohlust" (source: jerry-alsace.md).
> Contradiction to resolve: Christy's research traces "Wohlust" as a literal line back to the 1500s in Leißling (Saxony-Anhalt) and through Aeschlen/Eggiwil, Bern (source: Ulcek final PPT.pdf, via Freyburg & the Saale-Unstrut (Leißling / Naumburg)). The research report finds "Wohlust" absent from authoritative Swiss registers (source: jerry-alsace.md). These are not fully reconcilable on the Swiss/Bern portion: treat "Wohlust" as a corrupted spelling to be verified, not a literal record key.
How to verify the true name and commune
1. Start in Switzerland, not Alsace. Confirm the true surname and Heimatort via the Staatsarchiv des Kantons Bern; the Eggiwil parish registers (1648–1875) are free online (be.ch/kirchenbuecher; query.sta.be.ch, Eggiwil holding ID 220089). Records are in old German Kurrent script. Bernese parish research is only possible if the family's Heimatort is in Canton Bern (source: jerry-alsace.md). 2. Bridge to Alsace with Anabaptist scholarship: Charles Mathiot, Recherches historiques sur les Anabaptistes... de Montbéliard, d'Alsace (1922); Delbert L. Gratz, Bernese Anabaptists and Their American Descendants (1953); GAMEO (gameo.org) (source: jerry-alsace.md). 3. Then the Alsace records:
- Archives départementales du Haut-Rhin (archives68.alsace.eu; 3 rue Fleischhauer, 68026 Colmar) — covers Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines and the Sundgau.
- Archives départementales du Bas-Rhin (archives67.alsace.eu; 6 rue Philippe Dollinger, 67100 Strasbourg) — northern Alsace, including Protestant registers.
- Val d'Argent local index: volunteers (J.-J. Malaisé, D. Petit) have indexed 170,000+ names from the parish/marriage registers of Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines, Sainte-Croix-aux-Mines, Lièpvre, and Rombach-le-Franc (Pays d'Art et d'Histoire du Val d'Argent, patrimoine.valdargent.com) — a high-value resource for this exact area (source: jerry-alsace.md).
Threshold (from the report): do not book research time in Colmar/Strasbourg until a confirmed surname exists — otherwise you'll be searching for a name that isn't in the records. On the ground, however, Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines (Val d'Argent) is the highest-probability heritage stop even before documentary proof (source: jerry-alsace.md).
Related pages
