Burgener von Visperterminen VS

[jackiepyeatt]

Trying to find my great grandfather, Casper J Burgener's (b. 25th of Feb. 1851 in Switzerland) place of birth. His parents are listed as Maurice Burgener b. 1830 and Mary Tos Larenz b. 1830, both in Switzerland, but I came by this information from Ancestry.com and I don't have any documentation. I do know Casper was Catholic and reports his native language as German (and he married a German in Illinois, Susanna Staab, from Bavaria in 1880--my great grandmother). Casper arrived in the US in 1870/1871 or 1880 and settled in Illinois and stared a farm.

[Peter.D]

If Kaspar Burgener was a Catholic, he probably came from the southern side of the Jungfrau massif, i.e. the catholic Canton of Wallis, rather than from the protestant northern side. There, you find a couple of historic locations of burghership notably around Visp and in the Saas Valley: Mund, Saas Almagell, Saas Balen, Saas Fee, Saas Grund, Termen, Visp and Visperterminen. Furthermore, one of the Lorenz branches also has an origin in this area.

Unfortunately, the church records of this area are not online. It will be therefore very difficult to find the ancestors without knowing his place of birth or his burghership. In any case, you could relocate your inquiry to Wallis - Valais.

Peter

[jackiepyeatt]

Printing out this information and getting a map of the area. Thank you so much Peter for taking the time to reply and this valuable information. I have been out of town but I'll start working on these suggestions. Thanks again, Jackie

[jhuser]

Hello Jackie

Caspar Burginer (Burgener) was born 24th of February 1851 (and baptised Roman Catholic the same day) in Visperterminen, Canton Valais, Switzerland, son of Moritz Burginer and Maria Josepha Lorenz.

Best regards
Jan

Baptism record for Caspar Burginer, 24th of February, Visperterminen, Valais, Switzerland.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visperterminen

[jackiepyeatt]

Oh my goodness--I can't believe you found him. I'm speechless! I can't tell you how much this means to me. Thank you so much Jan. And I'm glad to know the correct spelling of Burginer. The first two children of Casper and Susanna spell it "Bergner" and then it became Burgener. I was so excited to print out the map of the Valais-Wallis area of Switzerland last night as Peter recommended but wondered how I would ever find his church records... Thank you both so much again for your expertise and your time--so generous. I just signed up for the international membership of Ancestry.com so with this information, maybe I can learn more about my Swiss family.

[Peter.D]

There was a replay earlier this week on Swiss Television covering the emigration from Visperterminen to Argentina in the 19th century. However, I didn't notice the name Burgener. The contemporary and official spelling is indeed Burgener.

Peter

[jackiepyeatt]

Why did they leave and why Argentina I wonder--cattle ranchers? Casper left in the 1870's. I believe his wife's Staab family left Germany for economic opportunities. From my initial Wikipedia reading, at least in recent times, it seems like a fairly stable local population. And thanks for the clarification on the Burgener spelling.

[Denight]

I'm not sure how these replies work and who exactly they go to, and I won't intentionally break any of the rules of this website. I want to communicate with Jackie and Jan. I don't know if sending this reply will be successful.

Jackie, Kaspar Burgener was also my great grandfather. I'm traveling right now, thus don't have all my records with me. I will be back home on 25 August. I would like to compare/share records with you on our ancestors. I would also like to use my email ([removed]) and phone (808-779-8941) with you either now or upon return to my home. I have been to Switzerland twice in the past three years. The first time I went was a bust. I then "accidently" received info last year on where Kaspar was born, etc. This past June I returned to Switzerland and was able to visit Visperterminen and Kaspar's mother Maria Josepha's village of Torbel, etc. Please let me know if you receive this reply. You may contact me at my email or by phone if you wish. Thanks.

Jan, Kaspar's birth record you sent to Jackie, where is the original located and how did you obtain it? Can you translate it into English? Please let me know if you receive this reply. You may contact me at my email [removed] if you wish. Thanks.

Best Regards,
Steve

[Wolf]

... and I won't intentionally break any of the rules of this website.

First of all: welcome to the forum, Steve .

There are not many "rules" here (apart from being polite), but a very strong recommendation is, not to quote mail addresses in the forum texts - this is only an invitation for spam. I therefore remove mail addresses, whenever I see them (like in your post).

If a "bilateral" communication is preferred (e.g. when talking about people who just might be still alive), please, use the "personal message" system to contact other forum members. However, you have to have posted two contributions before you can use this option (another spam protection measure - but I won't go on further on this). Via the PM system you then are also welcome to exchange mail addresses: safe, as your personal messages (unlike the forum texts) cannot be read by any person with internet (or address harvesters).

On the other hand: please, consider why a forum like this is interesting ... because readers find genealogical information here. If the forum would only be used to make contact and exchange mail addresses, it would be pretty boring ... consequently only few people would be interested in checking in regularly.

The only "rule" (for the Swiss forums) is described on viewtopic.php?f=125&t=15287.

I hope you enjoy the forum and find it useful - Wolf