The State Archives of Bern, Switzerland show a Crest for Balzli of Bolligen. [1]
1643 Niclaus Baltzli, son of Ulrich Baltzli, was baptized on February 19 in Bolligen, Switzerland. [2] [3] [4]
February Sontag den 19. Ulrÿch Baltszli Ein Scherman? und sie ehe frau ein kinder? Sohn tauft Nomine Ni-colaus. Testes Nigli P?hunz der Bur? zu Ostermundigen Martta/Martin Gostelin und Anna Vertikin? ?hust eheliche tochtor.
1664 Nicholas Baltzli and Christina Rohrer were married on December 9, 1664, at Bolligen. [5] [6]
1668-71 Baptism or birth records of several children of Niclaus Balzli and Christina Rohrer were extracted from the Bolligen Church Records and were recorded in a notebook. [7] [8]
1665 Ulli, son of Nichlaus Baltzli and Christina Rohrer. Dated Dec 21, 1665.
1668 Niclaus, son of Nichlaus Baltzli and Christina Rohrer. Dated Feb 14, 1668.
1669 Durs, son of Nichlaus Baltzli and Christina Rohrer. Dated July 30, 1669.
1671 Uli, son of Nichlaus Baltzli and Christina Rohrer. Dated Dec 3, 1671.
1671 Ulrich Baltzli, son of Nicholas Baltzli, was baptized on December 3 in Bolligen. Ulrich was called an Anabaptist. [9] [10] [11]
Decemb. 3
Uli [son of] Niclas Baltzli [(a?apste.] and Christiani Rohrer, Parent. Peter Rohrer, Rudolph Rohrer, and Anna Bixler, Test.
1671 Nicholas Baltzli was age 30 when he was in jail at the city of Bern Aug. 3, 1671. He was apprehended again on the road with Durs Rohrer of Bolligen (who may have been his brother-in-law) on August 16, 1686. [12] He was from Habstetten, Switzerland. [13]
1693 Nicholas Baltzli was a follower of Jakob Amman in 1693. [14]
1694 Nicholas Baltzli signed a letter against Jakob Amman 1694 "A declaration by the servants, elders and deacons from the Palatinate and from Switzerland, who adhered to the Reist faction (Mennonites) and who called themselves, 'such as can not be in accord with Jacob Ammon, and therefore, his opponents,' containing considerable doctrinal controversy." was signed by Ulrich Baltzli Nichlaus Baltzli. [15]
1700 Nicholas Baltzli was back with the Reist group. [16]
1710 Nicholas Baltzli was in jail at Bern and exiled that year being called a minister of Habstetten in Bolligen. [17] [18]
1710 In village records of Bolligen, Niclaus Baltzli of Habstetten was an Anabaptist and went to America. [19]
c 1710 A list of Mennonite prisoners who were sent to North America included the names of 4) Benedict Brechtbuhl, taken Jan 12 1709, a school teacher, 15) Christian Krahenbuhl, 32) Hans Engel von Rothenbach, 33) Durs Rohrer a Diakon (Deacon), 36) Niklaus Baltzer von Bedettig, 38) Mathys Krahenbuhl. [20]
"Documents in the Bernese state archive hear witness to the depth of Bern involvement with Swiss Anabaptism. Several places where Anabaptists of the 16th century gathered are located near the city. Bernese nobles can also be found among the Anabaptists. Prominent 17th-century leaders in the Ammann-Reist schism lived in the area; for example, Niclaus Balzli, Durs Rohrer, and Ulrich Balzli of Bolligen and Habstetten near Bern." [21] Zürcher, Isaac. "Die Täufer um Bern." Informationsblatter: Organ des Schweizerischen Vereins für Täufergeschichte, no. 9 (1986).
Two descriptions of the bible of Nicolas Baltzli report [22] [23]:
[modestly edited google translation]
Not only in Bern, but also in other cantons, the Anapaptists had been hard pressed for centuries, persecuted, imprisoned, killed, expelled from the country and sentenced to French or Venetian galley slaves, which was often the death penalty. However, the Bernese area and the Jura were areas of the Swiss Confederation, where the Anabaptists were able to hold on in places despite the persecution. The Bern StUB museum keeps a Froschauer Foliobibel of 1539/40, which belonged to the Langnauer Anabaptist Christian Gerber, who in 1832 compared to the later founder of the neophyte, the Reformed pastor Samuel Heinrich Froehlich (1803-1857), very open-minded. The museum also keeps a bible from 1531, which was in the possession of Niclaus Baltzly in 1724. The former Bible is a fine example of how long the old Froschauer Bibles have been read among the Anabaptists. The second recalls the difficulties of the persecution because the book probably belonged to Niclaus Baltzly, who was one of the preachers and elders of the Swiss brothers, and was to be deported to Pennsylvania (USA) in the spring of 1710 along with twelve Täuferinnen and 44 Täufern, including the eminent preacher Benedict Brechtbühl, but this failed due to the diplomatic interventions of their friends along the Rhine with the Bernese government. Anyway, Baltzly appreciated his Froschauer Bible, which is evident from his handwritten additions to missing text pages (f 259-264 and f 342), by painting the types of print neatly with ink, so that these pages look at first glance like printed pages.
[blended text from the two descriptions]
Nicht nur in Bern, sondern auch in anderen Kantonen wurden die Täufer über jahrhunderte hart bedrängt, verfolgt, eingesperrt, getötet, des landes verwiesen und zu französischen oder venezianischen Galeerensklaven abgeurteilt, was häufig der todesstrafe gleichkam. Die Berner Landschaft und der Jura gehörten aber zu den Gebieten der Eidgenossenschaft, wo sie sich trotz harter obrigkeitlicher Verfolgung stellenweise bis heute halten konnten. In der StUB Bern wird nicht nur eine Froschauer-Foliobibel von 1539/40 aufbewahrt, die dem Langnauer Täuferlehrer Christian Gerber gehörte, der sich 1832 gegenüber dem späteren Gründer der Neutäufer, dem reformierten Pfarrer Samuel Heinrich Fröhlich (1803-1857), sehr aufgeschlossen zeigte, sondern auch eine von 1531, die über einen Besitzeintrag von Niclaus Baltzly von 1724 verfügt. Die erstgenannte Bibel ist ein schönes Beispiel dafür, wie lange die alten Froschauer-Bibeln unter den Täufern gelesen worden sind. Die zweite erinnert an die die Schrecken der Verfolgung. weil das Buch vermutlich dem Niclaus Baltzly, gehörte, der zu den Predigern und ältesten der Schweizer Brüder gehörte, und im Frühling 1710 zusammen mit zwölf Täuferinnen und 44 Täufern, darunter der bedeutende Prediger Benedikt Brechtbühl, nach Pennsylvania (USA) hätte deportiert werden sollen, was aber dank diplomatischer Interventionen ihrer Freunde entlang des Rheins bei der Berner Regierung scheiterte. Baltzly schätzte seine Froschauer-Bibel jedenfalls hoch, was daran deutlich wird, dass er fehlende Textseiten (f. 259-264 und f. 342) handschriftlich ergänzte, indem er die Drucktypen fein säuberlich mit Tinte nachmalte,so dass diese Seiten auf den ersten Blick wie gedruckt aussehen.
Research Notes:
There was also an older Niclaus Balzli from Oberwil:
1657 "Niclaus Balzli from Oberwil has gone to Wurtemberg Germany with his wife 3 years ago. He returns to get some money which is owed to him and, allowed by the government, again goes to Germany." [24]
[1] Crest for Balzli of Bolligen, [URL].
[2] Staatsarchivs des Kantons Bern, K Bolligen 3, Bolligen, Taufrodel, 1615-1683, fol. 172, page 88 of pdf, [BernStateArchivesImage], [BernStateArchivesCatalog].
[3] Joseph Peter Staker, Amish Mennonites in Tazewell County, Illinois, Vol. 1 (2020), 193.
[4] Richard Warren Davis, Mennosearch.com Family Notes, Baltzli B7 reports date January 29, 1643, [Website].
[5] Staatsarchivs des Kantons Bern, K Bolligen 22, Bolligen, Eherodel 1605-1761, fol. 85, page 45 of pdf, [BernStateArchivesImage], [BernStateArchivesCatalog].
[6] Richard Warren Davis, Mennosearch.com Family Notes, Baltzli B7, [Website].
[7] Familysearch.org. Switzerland, Church Book Extracts, 1550-1875. Heft Gaschen 515, image 5-6, [FamilySearchImage].
[8] Joseph Peter Staker, Amish Mennonites in Tazewell County, Illinois, Vol. 1 (2020), 194.
[9] Staatsarchivs des Kantons Bern, K Bolligen 3, Bolligen, Taufrodel, 1615-1683, fol. 315, page 159 of pdf, [BernStateArchivesImage], [BernStateArchivesCatalog].
[10] Joseph Peter Staker, Amish Mennonites in Tazewell County, Illinois, Vol. 1 (2020), 194.
[11] Richard Warren Davis, Mennosearch.com Family Notes, Baltzli B7, [Website].
[12] Joseph Peter Staker, Amish Mennonites in Tazewell County, Illinois, Vol. 1 (2020), 194.
[13] Richard Warren Davis, Mennosearch.com Family Notes, Baltzli B7, [Website].
[14] Richard Warren Davis, Mennosearch.com Family Notes, Baltzli B7, [Website].
[15] Henry Frank Eshleman, Historic Background and Annals of the Swiss and German pioneer Settlers of Southeastern Pennsylvania (Lancaster, PA: 1917), 129, [GoogleBooks], [HathiTrust].
[16] Richard Warren Davis, Mennosearch.com Family Notes, Baltzli B7, [Website].
[17] Richard Warren Davis, Mennosearch.com Family Notes, Baltzli B7, citing Isaac Zürcher, Die Täufer um Bern, 9, [Website].
[18] Isaac Zürcher, Die Täufer um Bern in den ersten Jahrhunderten nach der Reformation und die Toleranz. In: Informationsblätter - SchweizerischerVerein für Täufergeschichte 1986, H. 9, S. 43.
[19] Richard Warren Davis, Mennosearch.com Family Notes, Baltzli B7, citing Isaac Zürcher, Die Täufer um Bern, 3, [Website].
[20] Katherine Alice (Polsley) Bryan, Genealogy of the Baltzly-Polsley family (F. J. Heer, 1939), xi, [Ancestry], [GoogleBooks], [FHLCatalog].
[21] Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online Bern%20%28Switzerland%29, content subject to change, [GlobalAnabaptistEncyclopedia].
[22] Barbara Becker-Cantarino, ed., Daphnis, [URL].
[23] Christoph Sigrist, ed., Die Zürcher Bibel von 1531: Entstehung, Verbreitung und Wirkung, [URL].
[24] Katherine Alice (Polsley) Bryan, Genealogy of the Baltzly-Polsley family (F. J. Heer, 1939), xx, [Ancestry], [GoogleBooks], [FHLCatalog].