Descendants of
Rev. Johannes Conrad Wirz
and Anna Goetschy
Mostly fromA GENEALOGICAL RECORD OF THE WURTS FAMILY,
DESCENDANTS OF REV. JOHANNES CONRAD WIRZ,
WHO CAME TO AMERICA FROM ZURICH, SWITZERLAND, IN 1734,
by Charles Pemberton Wurts, Sr., 1889,
with additional individuals and data,
compiled by Reed Molthan Williams Wurts
A separate account of the journey from Switzerland
(as published by the Pensylvania German Society)
The information in this database is mostly the product of the research of Charles
Pemberton Wurts, Sr., who way back in 1889 published his book, cited above.
Much of this information pertains to family members who were living at that time;
7 generations of descent from the immigrant ancestors.
While I have not made an effort to verify this information with "primary documents",
it seems to me that information gathered when most of the family was living, is
stronger evidence than if it were merely conjectured together today from surviving
public records (which, as we all know, are indeed valuable).
With that said, I present my Wurts Family Database:
Index of Surnames
747 individuals, 206 families
from file CPWURTS.GED (16 NOV 1998)
WIRTS,
WIRZ,
WURTS,
WURTS-DUNDAS
(more Wirts, Werts, and my 1st cousins, to be added to the next update)
Spouses and descendants surnamed other than Wurts:
???,
ANDERSON,
ANSBOROUGH,
ARNOLD,
ATWATER,
AUSTIE,
AVAILABLE,
BARBOUR,
BARNS,
BATES,
BIGGS,
BLACKMORE,
BLANSHAN,
BLOOMER,
BOWEN,
BOWIE,
BROWN,
BRUNNER,
BURGESS,
BURROWS,
CADY,
CANFIELD,
CARTWRIGHT,
CHINN,
CLARK,
COST,
COUSINERY,
CRAIG,
CROSMAN,
DANIEL,
DEYO,
DIETS,
DUBOIS,
EICHER,
ELLERTON,
ELMORE,
ELTING,
EVANS,
FISCHER,
FREEGUARD,
GALE,
GOETSCHI,
GOODWIN,
GRAHAM,
GRANDIN,
GRIMM,
HALSEY,
HARDENBURGH,
HARDING,
HARMAR,
HARRACH,
HASBROUCK,
HASKINS,
HEPP,
HOGENCAMP,
HOLLYER,
HOOPER,
HOORNBECK,
HUBBARD,
HURLBURT,
HURN,
HYDE,
HYER,
INGHAM,
JANSEN,
JAY,
JENKINS,
JENNINGS,
JOHNSON,
JONES,
KENNEDY,
KIMBLE,
KIMBLE_(BOND),
KING,
KINKEAD,
KNOWLES,
LARGE,
LATHROP,
LATOURETTE,
LATSCH,
LEFEVRE,
LEGOS,
LENTZ,
LIPPINCOTT,
LITTERAL,
LONGSTRETH,
LONGWORTH,
LOPEZ,
LOWTHER,
MCLAGAN,
MILLER,
MOLTHAN,
MOORE,
MUIR,
MYERS,
NARE,
NICHOLLS,
NORRIS,
OAKLEY,
OWEN,
PAGE,
PENNINGTON,
PETERS,
PETTIT,
PRICE,
PRITCHARD,
RAMEY,
READ,
REDDING,
REED,
RELYEA,
RICHARDS,
RINGER,
ROBERTS,
ROBINS,
ROELOFFSON,
ROGERS,
ROSS,
RUSSELL,
SAVAGE,
SAWTELL,
SIBENMAN,
SMITH,
SNYDER,
STEELE,
STEWART,
SWOP,
SYKES,
TALLMAN,
TATE,
THORPE,
TULLAR,
TUNIS,
UPSON,
VANUXEM,
WADE,
WAIT,
WALDORF,
WALKER,
WALLACE,
WALLINGFORD,
WARD,
WARDER,
WARDWELL,
WARRENER,
WASHBURN,
WEBER,
WEST,
WESTIN,
WETHERILL,
WHITE,
WHITNEY,
WILLIAMS,
WILLIAMSON,
WIRTS,
WIRZ,
WISTER,
WOOD,
WRIGHT,
WURTS,
WURTS-DUNDAS,
WURTZ,
YOUNG
Please contribute names/data/sources that connect/pertain to these lines.
Thank you to those that have contacted me. I have been able to add quite a bit
of material to the database, to be updated here in the not-to-distant future.
Some Heraldry from the C.P. Wurts book and also coat of arms info from
GENEALOGICAL PEDIGREES OF ANCIENT FAMILIES OF WIRTZEN, Weiland, 1848
(one of the old Ancient Families of Wirtzen books is more than 900 pages;
haven't reviewed the other book yet)
An image of the original Grant of Arms can be found on the web site of
Ulrich Wirz, of Erlenbach, Switzerland.
(the only Wirz family still(!) residing in Erlenbach)
His web site is at http://www.wirz-mgm.ch/index.html,
his Wirz family page at http://www.wirz-mgm.ch/wirz.htm,
(it's in German, so try the Altavista translator or
the multi-language Translator: http://translation.langenberg.com/)
and the arms grant image is at http://www.wirz-mgm.ch/images/wirz_urikon.jpg
I have received a number of queries pertaining to various Wurts families.
Please send me any info you may have on any Wurtses,
to help connect them to their proper families.
John Blythe Dobson has been performing detailed and thorough research on the Canadian branch Wurts families, circa 1800 settlers, John Wurts and Charity Wurts (wife of John Kennedy, Jr.) of Markham Township., Ontario, Canada, originally of Morris County, NJ. It appears that this John, and sister Charity, are indeed children of Conrad Wurts, son of the immigrant Johannes Conrad Wirz and Anna Goetschy. Any additional data pertaining to Conrad Wurts and his family in Morris County, New Jersey would be of great use to him. His web site can be found at http://cybrary.uwinnipeg.ca/people/Dobson/genealogy/ff/Wurts-intro.cfm.Also, Colorado, Texas and Ohio Wurts families of Ohioan and Canadian descent (not listed in my database above) are encouraged to contact Judy Crook, of Rifle, CO. These include Ohioans, Archibald Wurts (b. 20 Feb 1823, Canada or Ohio) and his wife Mary McGuire, and also Elias George Wurts (b. 1832, Canada) and his wife Rosella Doolittle. John Blythe Dobson and Judy are trying to gather further documentation of the Canado-to-Ohio connection from the line of John Wurts of Markham Twp., Ontario, and the family-tradition, now apparent, connection to the above immigrant, Johannes Conrad Wirz.
Attention Wurts family members of Kentucky - If your family is not listed in this database, please contact me and also James Chambers of Ashland. His web site lists some Descendants of George W. Wurts (b. 23 Jan 1839, Fayette Co., PA) and Sarah L. Henry, residents of Greenup Co., KY (and I am aware of some others). We are pretty sure these KY Wurtses are connected somehow, but have not yet identified the connection, and therefore are not yet included above.
NEWS FLASH! - Some of the children of Sarah Henry that are surnamed Wurts are allegedly children of George McKnight, Sarah's husband prior to marrying George Wurts in 1875. (I am awaiting a reply from the person who submitted that info to the WFT. Two letters sent did not get returned by the post office, but no reply yet.)
Has anyone had any correspondence with Kathleen A. Martin, of Granbury, Texas?
(I do have some descendant Wurts individuals of Wurtland, Greenup and Ashland, KY, indexed above, and have added quite a few of Kentucky descent to my database since the last update.)
There is a Wurts family listed on the web site of James Darrell Anderson at
http://www.familytreemaker.com/users/a/n/d/James-D-Anderson/ODT8-0026.html
with a Johannes Caspar Wuerz, b. Abt 1697, d. Bef 10 Aug 1791 Tulpehocken, Berks Co., PA, md. on 15 Oct 1739 to Maria Eva Bickel, as her 2nd husband. Johannes had two sons born in Massenbach, Wuerttemberg, Germany, who later died in Union Co. and Berks Co., PA. Johannes' grandchildren have their surname spelled WURTS.
If you are descended from or connect to a Swiss Wirz family, I would like to hear from you.
I have received a number of family group sheets from the Wirz (von Rudenz) family of Sarnen, Switzerland, listing about 14 Wirz individuals that emigrated to "Amerika". I hope to have some of that info available here sometime soon.
(My Wirz family of Zurich is connected to the Wirz von Rudenz branch way, way back)
Has anyone identified the Swiss lineage of the Confederate Hero-Martyr,
Henry Wirz of Andersonville, Georgia (Civil War era)?
Homepage of Niels G. Nielsen, http://home6.inet.tele.dk/nelsn, where he lists the ancestry of his grandmother, Cathrine Würtz, back to Germany, where the family was for a number of generations, and then back to Switzerland. His Würtz family arrived in Denmark in 1759, and there are very many with that name there today. The first person indentified in Switzerland is Jacob Wirtz, from Erlenbach, around the year 1500, but the name is known there going back to the 1300s.
His web site is partly English language and part Danish!
Try this multi-language Translator: http://translation.langenberg.com/
Some more ancestry of the Swiss lineage can be found in
my Ancestors of RMWW database
and also on
the web site of Buckner Ashby Wallingford II,
whose lineage is through a Kentucky line, at
http://www.hicom.net/~econstud/gene/fam00129.htm
Please visit my Reed's Genealogy Page
and other databases through the links there.
Contact me at
Reed_Wurts@prodigy.net
(note the underline, "_", between my first and last name)
or reed@wurts.net
Reed M. W. Wurts
(Aston, PA)
(610) 872-6676