Zürich - family tree - pre 1839 - Fahrner and related families
The research summarized below began with the question https://community.familysearch.org/de/discussion/143951/witikon-zh-marriage-1836-fahrner-schwarz. As several points were a bit tricky, I asked for help on https://www.geneal-forum.com/. As it turned out, four other forum members were interested in the Fahrner and related families - so the question led to a combined effort - with some lines now researched back to the second half of the 16th century.
The list below uses the numbering system by Kekulé. This system is the most common system for ancestors' lists with German speaking genealogists - but doesn't seem to be very popular in English speaking countries. This could be the reason why I haven't found a decent description online in English. Instead I decided to try explain it myself with the help of a graph:
The "youngest" person, the "proband", carries number 1 - the only number where the number does not indicate the sex, like all other numbers. This is caused by the principle of the system: you double the number of any person - and you get the father's number; you add 1 to get the wife's (mother's) number. As a consequence all persons with an even number are male, all persons with an uneven number are female. One nice feature (amongst many others) of the system is, if you are looking for the child in a long list - you just half the father's number, and you know where to look for the child.
In the context of the list below the important feature are the uneven numbers for wifes. If you look at the graph, we have 3 = mother / 5 = paternal grandmother / 7 = maternal grandmother / … The list is supposed to mention all surnames connected to this Fahrner tree by marriage, listed in the order of the most recent marriage of a woman into this tree.
1) Fahrner of Witikon ZH (today part of the city of Zürich) - includes the entire ancestors' list (known to date)
Generation 1:
3) Schwarz of Altstetten ZH (today part of the city of Zürich)
Generation 2:
5) Bertschinger Witikon ZH (today part of the city of Zürich)
7) Rinderknecht of Wallisellen ZH
Generation 3:
9) Ochsner of Witikon ZH (today part of the city of Zürich)
Generation 4:
17) Unholz of Riesbach ZH (today part of the city of Zürich)
19) Weber of Witikon ZH (today part of the city of Zürich)
Generation 5:
33) Sing of Riesbach ZH (today part of the city of Zürich)
35) Unholz of Riesbach ZH (today part of the city of Zürich) - due to a marriage Unholz & Unholz
37) Widmer of Zollikon ZH
39) Bühler of Brüttisellen ZH (parish Wangen)
41) Trüb of Wangen ZH (parish Küssnacht)
43) Bandtli of ???
Generation 6:
65) Oefeli of Nänikon ZH
67) Gossauer of ???
73) Trüb of Zollikon ZH - connection to Trüb of Wangen (#41) is unlikely
75) Müller of ???
81) Schlatter of Oberglatt ZH
Generation 7:
129) Häusli of ???
145) Hämmig of Nossikon ZH (parish Uster)
147) Gossweiler of ???
161) Höfler/Häfler of Volketswil ZH
Generation 8:
289) Zolger (Zolliker?) of Hombrechtikon ZH
291) Bünzli of ??
321) Wohlgemuth of Volketswil ZH
So we have 27 different lines connected more or less directly to Fahrner of Witikon. The further back, the higher the numbers … the larger the gaps: the corresponding lines have not researched that far back - so no new wife's names can be added to the list.
What we see: for the first generations most wifes originate from at the time independent communities near Zürich - which all were merged into the city of Zürich in 1934. Earlier generations all originate in canton Zürich (where the origin is known).
In the geneal-forum all discussions on a given line (defined by surname and place of citizenship) take place in a specific topic (which can be linked to each other in case of marriage). For several of the above mentioned lines such topics already exist - they are linked to. Following an ancestry in this system may be somewhat more complicated than with a gedcom database - but the advantage is that all discussions leading to the final result, with contributions from several authors, can be followed more easily by visitors.
Does any of the names in the list ring a bell for you? If it does, have a look at the topic (reading is free). If you can contribute to a discussion, you are invited to contribute to do so - either directly in the forum (registration is free and without obligation) or here in the community. In the latter case I will quote (or summarize) all relevant new information in the forum. The forum is multilingual - even if the majority of the contribution is in German or French … the ancestors' list will (hopefully) be self-explanatory (once you are familiar with the Kekule system) … and for your comments English is welcome!
Also more general comments / questions, e.g. about the Kekulé numbering system in connection with the above list, are invited: I would appreciate hearing from you.