Not long ago, I embarked on a journey to trace my ancestry and shared my belief that Duncan Campbell of Beckwith Township, Lanark County, was indeed my 4x great-grandfather and the grandfather of Peter Campbell.
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This quest then led me to investigate Annie Campbell's lineage further. A significant number of solid DNA matches pointed to a connection with the descendants of Nicholas Neil and Annie Campbell. Given Nicholas's origins from County Wexford, Ireland, and these DNA matches' shared DNA with several close Davis cousins, my initial theory was a connection through Joseph Davis, also of County Wexford.

However, these close Davis cousins were also descendants of Duncan Campbell and Catherine McNaughton. Further, we, along with the Neils, shared DNA matches with more distant Campbell cousins. It became clear then that our shared ancestry was undoubtedly through the Campbell lineage.

A deep dive into the loose land records of Beckwith Township, available on FamilySearch, revealed Duncan Campbell's will and several land indentures. I also discovered a will that conclusively resolved the matter. Not only do these documents solidify Annie Campbell's connection to Duncan, but they also strongly substantiate my belief that John was indeed the son of Duncan Campbell and Catherine McNaughton.

This exploration into my ancestry has been an enriching experience, and I look forward to uncovering more familial links and historical tales in the future.

Here is the proof.

FamilySearch recently added indexes to their "Schweiz, Katholische und Reformiert Kirchenbücher, 1418-1996" records. These records allowed me to add many more names, dates, and places to the Bernegger family tree. Other sources, such as St. Gallen Canton Online Catalogue of the State Archives and the Leuener Genealogy site, allowed me to add a little extra context.

​​My son's namesake is his great-grandfather, Joseph Harold Bernegger, the grandson of Swiss immigrants Johann Rudolf Bernegger and Anna Ursula Ackermann.​

The earliest mention of the Bernegger family of Sax was in a 1442 land indenture. Ulrich VII von Sax-Hohensax and his wife, Agnes von Windegg, sold the Roslenalp for 125 Rhenish Guilders to the residents of Sax, among whom numbered the children of the late old Bernegger and the children of the late Jörgen Bernegger. This document established the Berneggers in Sax almost 600 years ago, and the family may have lived there far longer. 

The Berneggers and their neighbours were the direct subjects of the Holy Roman Emperor, who only sporadically exerted control over the territory. To protect vital trade routes and manage their self-defence, Sax-Forstegg formed a pact with the Swiss Confederacy in 1458, joined St. Gallen in 1453, and Zurich in 1486, as the military might and influence of these cities waxed and waned. Unfortunately, throughout the 15th century, civil wars within the Confederacy and rebellions against the Holy Roman Emperor repeatedly ravaged the barony. ​

In 1472, the community appointed Amman Hans Bernegger and six other men to inspect the paths, footbridges, and commons and separate the commons from private property. The community conferred the title of Amman on Hans when they elected him by public vote to lead the local assembly and serve as a judge. After Zurich annexed the free barony, their council chose a landammann from among three men nominated by the Bailiff of Forstegg. The landammann served as a regional administrator and right-hand of the bailiff. Berneggers often held the title of landammann or bailiff over the next century. 

During the 16th century, the Berneggers endured the religious turmoil of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, which sometimes became very personal. The Baron of Sax-Forstegg, Ulrich Phillip von Hohensax, converted to Lutheranism, divorced his Catholic wife, and disinherited her children, leaving his title to Phillip Johann von Hohensax, his Lutheran son by his second wife. In 1596, Phillip Johann's Catholic nephews stabbed him to death in a local tavern. We do not know how the Catholic Berneggers felt about this event. 

Our family's earliest known Bernegger ancestor was Niklaus, a blacksmith born in Sax in about 1567. Local legend tells that at the time of the plague in 1629, the inhabitants of Sax heard a strange howl, then a heavenly voice called to them, "Eat garlic and pimpernels, and you won't die so quickly!" ​

Since the Bernegger family did not have any pimpernels, "the family and relatives of the blacksmith Niklaus Bernegger holed up in the basement of his house with a goat and ate a lot of garlic. They thought that the stench would drive away death." In 1631, Hans Bernegger, farmer and judge. built the family a new house, which integrated the existing medieval basement, into the southern half of the house, which still stands today, ​

​Han's son, Johannes, expanded the house into a dye works between 1667 and 1669. Han’s grandson, Adrian (1734-1792) also lived in the house. 

Adrian would become a Landammann in later life, he had fallen into scandal when he was younger. He had a romantic relationship with Anna Göldi, the fatherless daughter of a impoverished, local family. Despite a rumored promise, Adrian and Anna never married, but in 1759 Anna gave birth to a son. Ursula Bernegger, Adrian's older sister and the the wife of Landammann Ulrich Rhymer, served as the child's godmother. Sadly, the boy would die when he was only three. 

About 1765, Anna became pregnant with the child of Jakob Rhoduner, a 2nd cousin of Adrian. However, Jakob departed Switzerland to serve as a mercenary in the Netherlands, leaving Anna behind, Destitute, Anna allegedly smothered her child the night he was born. Sentenced to the pillory and six years of house arrest, Anna fled the canton after only three years.

After many eventful years, Anna found work with the family of Johann Jakob Tschudi in Glarus about the age of 46. After a strange series of events, where two daughters of the family were poisoned with pins, Tschudi accused Anna of witchcraft. Although the daughters recovered, and the exact charge was that of non-lethal poisoning, not witchcraft, the Glarus Evangelical Court arrested, tortured, and beheaded her on June 13, 1782.

Anna was the last person in Switzerland executed for the offence of witchcraft, which was a continental scandal in that enlightened age. Glarus exonerated her in 2008, erected a memorial to her in 2014, and established a museum in her name in 2018. 

Napoleon Bonaparte conquered the territory today known as Switzerland in 1798, unifying the various states into the Helvetic Republic. Following his defeat, the European governments convened the Congress of Vienna in 1814 to reorganize much of Europe. During this Congress, they recognized the official neutrality of the Swiss region. Over the next 35 years, the cities and rural cantons negotiated and sometimes fought over a new federal framework, resulting in the new nation-state of Switzerland in 1848. In this process, Sax was returned to the canton of St. Gallen. Rudolf Bernegger would be born in this new Republic in 1856 to Adrian's grandson, Jakob, and his wife, Margaretha Kauf. 

The family of Jakob and Margaretha suffered many tragedies. Rudolf was their only child to survive his childhood. Catherina and Eduard died shortly after birth, and Bertha and Elizabeth died at only 2 and 3 years old, possibly due to one of the many cholera outbreaks that plagued cities at this time. Jakob died at age 40 when Rudolf was 14, leaving him and his mother alone. Fortunately, they had a large extended family in the region, which may have assisted them.

In 1878, 22-year-old Rudolf married 23-year-old Anna Ackermann, and almost sixteen months later, they had their first child, Johann Rudolf. A few months later, the family emigrated to New York City, where they started a new life. Sadly, tragedy would also find them there when they lost their second son, Geörg.  Margaretha died five years later, in 1885, at 50. 

Rudolf and Anna had their last son, Edward, in 1890, and the fortune of the family began to turn around. A furrier, Rudolf was the treasurer of his local union chapter and helped win significant labour rights, such as shorter working hours. Edward would work as an accountant, and his son, Joe, would graduate from New York University with a Accounts and Finance Bachelor of Science in 1939. Joe would work as an FBI Accountant and later as Vice President of Lipton Tea. ​

A Teschner family historian, Bob Hanscom, contacted me recently. He had done tremendous work on the family and had researched and transcribed the notes of Rosebud Teschner Solis-Cohen (1903-1990), who had written this about Isidor Teschner. 

"His [Wolf Teschner's] ​son Isidor was successful in his business ventures, but he had help from his rich father-in-law Levy. After Isidor had been married for quite a few years, he caused a scandal by leaving his wife and moving out of the state. He was gone for quite some time but then later returned. By then, he had lost all his money and asked her to take him back. She did, but he did not live very long after that -- only in his 40s when he died."

This lined up very nicely the paper record of Isidor being in Mexico, Cuba, Georgia, and Louisiana. Also, in my proof, I had surmised that "falling income and unpaid debts may have forced Isidor to choose between his
two families."  Although, I also thought Esther may have also experienced money problems. 

However, it appears that Isidor had left Esther for a time. He may not have carried on with both families at the same time, but left Esther for Sadie and then left Sadie for Esther. 

I look very much forward to reading through the rest of the treasure trove that Bob shared with me. 

Alice Jones was my 3x great-grandmother. Born in North Carolina in about 1805, she married Mark Heathcock on October 24, 1826 in Wayne County, Indiana. After over eight years of family history research, I never knew where Alice came from or who her people were. In 1820, there were over 20 Jones family in Wayne County, nine of which had daughters old enough to be Alice. However, Alice didn't come from any of them. 

It turns out, Alice's people were Quakers, who likely left North Carolina because they were abolitionists who could no longer live in a slave state. 

Parents for Alice Jones Proof