Date: Fri 31-Jul-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: SUZANN

Quick Words:

Rudisill-geneaology

Full Text:

30 Years On The Trail Of One Family's Story

(with cuts)

BY SUZANNA NYBERG

Edward L. Rudisill's family genealogy tells the whole story. From the family's

beginnings in a medieval Swiss village to cities and towns across the United

States, the twists and turns and fortunes of the Rudisill family are all laid

out in the 1,014 page work.

Mr Rudisill sets most of the work in America; one chapter, however, he devotes

to his Swiss ancestors and two to the German. Hans Rudisuhli, the family's

progenitor, is the beginning and the center of the story. The 16th Century

church in Sax, a village in Switzerland, where he was baptized still stands as

does the church in Au where his mother, Anna, was baptized. "Hans' church was

a watchtower in the 13th Century and was only used for worship a couple of

centuries later," Mr Rudisill said, having made numerous visits to this

German-speaking canton of Switzerland.

The hunger in Sax was fierce, making it difficult to feed a good-sized family.

In 1651, when Hans was only eight, he left his native land for Wurttenberg in

Germany with four of his siblings. Two or three siblings, Mr Rudisill is

unsure exactly how many, eventually returned to Sax, while Hans shrewdly

remained in Germany, moving to Michelfeld, a village near Heidelberg. There he

courted Anna Liebald, the daughter of a judge, married her, farmed the land,

and raised seven children. War decimated his adopted country, but Hans never

returned to home. "He must have decided that life was not so bad, that fortune

had been good to him," Mr Rudisill said.

The resolution in Hans's character he passed to his grandsons. Five of them,

men of action, said farewell to Europe, took an oath of renunciation, and

answered William Penn's call to farm Pennsylvania. "This was a time of another

severe food shortage in Europe," Mr Rudisill said. "Thousands left Germany

during the Palatine migration."

The grandson Weyrich sailed on the Samuel in 1737; Filib sailed on the William

and Sarah and settled in Lancaster, Penn.; and John Jacob was on the York's

manifest. It is Tobias Rudisill, the great grandchild of Hans and the

great-great-great grandfather of Edward, who settled on a farm in Tannytown,

Md., with whom we are most concerned.

Although Tobias worked the land during the American Revolution, his four

brothers were active in the war. Their military activity has had an impact on

the tenth American generation.

Mr Rudisill is president of the local chapter of Sons of the American

Revolution, an organization whose members' ancestors had ties to the American

Revolution. Founded in the late 19th Century, it is an outgrowth of earlier

associations whose membership requirements were deemed less inclusive. The

Sons of Cincinnati limited membership to officers of the Continental Army or

their descendants while the Sons of the Revolution restricted membership to

those who were actively involved in the war.

Although Tobias remained in Tannytown the rest of his life, his descendants

headed South and West; it was then that genealogical work got ticklish, like

tracking grains of sand in the desert. With a stubbornness for which the Swiss

and Germans are renowned, Mr Rudisill pursued the more enigmatic members of

his family. His great-great grandfather, Daniel Haar, posed a particular

problem. Daniel managed to walk from Ohio to Illinois where he brought a farm

in Morgan Country. Married five times, it must have been anguish to have each

wife, except for the last, die from illnesses. "I would think that it would be

terribly traumatic to marry and have one's spouse continually die," Mr

Rudisill said.

Mr Rudisill's grandfather and great-grandfather remained in Morgan County, and

Mr Rudisill himself was born and raised in California. "My father was my

favorite ancestor," he said. "He was a man of great integrity, never untrue to

his word." With the twelfth generation are Mr Rudisill's grandchildren, James,

Max, and Alexandria.

So Hans Rudisuhli has more than 11,500 American descendants and Edward

Rudisill has managed to organize them into 3,500 family groups. It took nearly

30 years and inexhaustible zeal to go back generation by generation. While

other genealogies are convoluted and not easily followed, Mr Rudisill has

found a right way to do things, one that is organized, concise, and clear. The

work was begun in the early 1960s, but it was not until the late 1970s, after

a four year stint in Paris for IBM, that he undertook the research in earnest.

The writing took but a year and the volume was ready for publication in 1995.

"I was always curious regarding my origins," he said. "Growing up in San

Diego, I knew no one with this surname." Mr Rudisill believed that he was of

French extraction and was surprised to learn of his Swiss origins. "I used to

tell the girls that my name was pronounced 'rue de ciel,'" he said, joking.

The spelling of the Rudisill name varies. Attempts to Germanize the Swiss

Rudisuhli include Rudisile, Riedisiele and Rudisuhle, yet the similarity of

one to the other is unmistakable. There are 42 American variations of the

name.

Mr Rudisill's interest in his lineage extends to his maternal line where he is

descended from another family distinguished by accomplishments. The Houghton

name has been in the American eye for generations, linked with a publishing

company, a library at Harvard, and the Corning Glass firm. They emigrated to

Milton, Mass., in 1645, but were landed gentry in Lancaster, England where Sir

Richard entertained King James I in the most expensive way and nearly

bankrupted the family. For whatever reason, Sir Richard's sons, Ralph and

James, decided to abandon the manor and seek their fortune in the New World.

They began, like the Rudisills, like most American colonists, as yeomen and

went into the trades and professions. Their descendants were men of means and

one of their homes is still standing in Milton.

There are no Houghtons in Newtown and there is but one Rudisill. Edward

Rudisill is the founder of the Rudisill Family Organization, which had their

first national reunion last May. He is seeking to discover more cousins,

aunties, and Americans with ties to the Revolution. Anyone who boasts such a

heritage may contact him in writing at P.O. Box 202, Hawleyville, Conn. 06440.